It may not be how he would have wanted it to happen, but rookie producer Mark Kenna has finally seen his debut feature Sacrilege released in the UK. 

Sacrilege was the first film released by the newly formed Swindon-based production company Bad Blood Studios but after a glitzy red carpet premiere at London’s Leicester Square Cineworld, its cinema run and subsequent UK release were cut short by lockdown. 

But last month it was finally given the UK release that Bad Blood Films co-founder Mark and sidekick David Creed were hoping for when it had a digital rollout on Sky Store, Amazon Prime, iTunes, Google and Microsoft. 

“It’s a massive relief to finally release Sacrilege in the UK, especially once we got Sky and Prime,” the 47-year-old said. 

“I was disappointed that the cinema release went down the pan with the rest of the industry, but afterwards I met with three sale agents who wanted to represent Sacrilege, so the industry kept working behind the scenes even though it appeared t have stopped. 

“Netflix has 200 million subscribers so streaming is massive so I saw it as a positive thing, especially as people were more open to discuss with small indie companies about streaming their films.”

“Now anyone in the UK can watch it. If people like the film they’ll watch it and if they don’t they won’t.”

Sacrilege was a real community effort, pulling in help from students at UWE who created effects using locations around the South West, including a bike route from North Swindon to Purton to Minety. 

“It gives me goosebumps to see it all come together, to build my film family," said Mark.

“I’m proud of the fact we worked with UWE, and worked with people in the south west, if it weren’t for the students we wouldn’t have had foley (sound effects) in our movie, we didn’t have the time and couldn’t afford it.

“Local companies supporting everything – one of our extras said 'I’ve got a utility company we could use'. It was that kind of environment with everyone chipping in.”
Sacrilege has been released in the US and Canada with DVDs in Walmart in Sweden, Germany and other countries.

Mark said: “People tell me it’s not every day someone makes a film from this area but I’m so submerged in it that I don’t look at it that way, but we did it, we made a movie!”

Bad Blood Studios is now looking to the future with its next films Ripper’s Ghost and Knock Knock.