1980s heart throb Martin Kemp, best known as the bassist in pop group Spandau Ballet or for his performance in Peter Medak’s brilliant gangster biopic The Krays has just wrapped on his first lead role in a movie in a decade: in Shogun Film’s serial killer horror Doctor Plague.
Kemp plays jaded London detective John Verney, on the trail of a serial killer cutting a swathe through London’s underworld in the guise of a 17th century Plague Doctor. As the bodies pile up, Verney comes under pressure from his superiors to pass off the crimes as gang on gang killings, but finds himself drawn into a terrifying web of secret societies and pagan rituals echoing the Jack The Ripper killings of 1888. When his son is kidnapped by the killer, Verney must face a final confrontation with an ancient evil lurking in the tunnels beneath the City.
Kemp leads a stellar British cast including David Yip (The Chinese Detective), Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott (Helloween), Wendy Glenn (You’re Next), Michael McKell (Allied), Johnny Palmiero (Colide), Daisy Beaumont (The World is Not Enough) and, in a nod to Doctor Plague’s folk horror inspirations, Peter Woodward (Babylon 5) whose father Edward Woodward starred in genre classic The Wicker Man.
Written by Robert Dunn from an idea by Robert Geoffrey Hughes and directed by Ben Fortune, Doctor Plague is produced by veteran British filmmaker Jonathan Sothcott (Renegades, We Still Kill The Old Way), who told us “it has been a joy working with Martin Kemp again, he’s absolutely brilliant in the film, the role of the world weary detective is perfect for him and his performance is off the scale – I’d say his best since The Krays and I don’t say that lightly. The Plague Doctor design is so brilliantly simple but awesome and I can’t believe we’re the first to make it the basis of a major film. We’re already looking at action figures. Part folk horror, part serial killer thriller, Doctor Plague has been described as 7even meets The Wicker Man and I think it is unlike any other British film in the market and I can’t wait for audiences to see it next year.”
Shogun Films, is rapidly becoming a conveyor belt operation for quality genre films – they are soon to unleash killer clown thriller Helloween and spy actioner Knightfall, and are prepping lycanthropic action horror movie Werewolf Hunt, with 7 foot practical creature suits for an eagerly anticipated action/horror thriller in the vein of Dog Soldiers. Also on the slate is vampire chiller Midnight Kiss, action-packed fighting thriller Killer Instinct and historical horror The Secret of Guy Fawkes.
Doctor Plague will be released by Trinity Creative Partnership in April 2025.