 Norman J. Warren created some of the most unusual and ambitious independent British horror films. Despite his short filmography, he is well-known among genre fans for titles like Satan's Slave (1976) and Terror (1978). Born in West London on 25 June 1942, Warren was determined to enter the film business and got his break as a teaboy for producers Anatole and Dimitri de Grunwald. He soon graduated to the cutting room of their cinema advertisement arm, ScreenSpace. Having mastered editing, Warren decided to make his own short film, which got him the chance to direct his first feature. Her Private Hell (1967) was promoted as 'Britain's first sex film' and was hugely successful, running for over 14 months in one London cinema. The next year he made another 'sexploitation' film, Loving Feeling, and received offers to direct more adult titles. However, Warren had grown bored with the limitations of the genre and returned to editing while waiting for more fulfilling projects. After several prospects fell though, Warren decided to make an independent film, giving him the chance to work in a different genre. Satan's Slave (1976) was an attempt to bring more realism to horror films, moving away from Hammer's stylised, Gothic productions. This was a period when horror films were in great demand and Satan's Slave made a good return on the investment, encouraging Warren to remain with the genre for his next production, Prey (1977). This was another independent film, in which an alien comes down to earth in search of new food sources. The schedule was so tight that filming began before the script was finished and the cast were given their dialogue at the start of each day. Meanwhile, Satan's Slave was still making money and, with the profits, Warren embarked on his next project. Terror (1978) was heavily influenced by Dario Argento's Suspiria (Italy, 1977) in terms of the sound and lighting effects; again, it was a huge financial success. About a man whose friends are killed one by one by an unseen force, Terror is essentially a collection of horror 'set pieces'. The most bizarre and effective of these takes place in a deserted film studio where a character is suffocated by thousands of feet of celluloid. Warren's next film, the science fiction horror film Inseminoid (1980), about a female astronaut impregnated by an extra-terrestrial, invited unfavourable comparisons to Alien (d. Ridley Scott, 1979). By the 1980s, it had become very difficult to get independent films distributed in Britain and Warren returned to editing.
Home video had become the chief medium for low-budget genre films and neither of Warren's last productions, Gunpowder and Bloody New Year (both 1987), got a UK cinema release. His career had flourished during a period when it was still possible for independent cinema to compete but, with fewer screens willing or able to take a chance on such films, the more graphic horror coming out of America and Italy squeezed out the domestic titles. Jo Botting
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FILM & TV CREDITS
