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Monsters, gore and guns. Gold Coast film The Dark Lurking doesn't leave anything to the imagination.

It took two-years and $180,000, but now one of the most promising local horror productions is complete. Made by Bond University graduates Greg Connors and Stuart Wall, and stuntman Bret Kennedy, The Dark Lurking is set in 2017 when something goes wrong at a secret underground research facility. With communications out and a horde of deadly creatures on the loose, the eight survivors have to navigate their way through 13 levels of terror to get to the surface.

If the plot sounds like a fanboy's sci-fi-horror dream come true, that's because it is. Writer/director Greg Connors says he and the fellow filmmakers are `big fans' of iconic eighties sci-fi and horror, and tried to take the best elements from each.
``We spent a lot of time watching Aliens and Blade Runner, how they did the effects and trying to replicate those,'' he says.
``The movies we were trying to emulate had budgets of $10 million dollars which in Hollywood is considered low-budget filmmaking.
``So we were trying to do that for $180,000.
``There are a lot of genre films on a small budget that look rubbish and just because we had a low budget, we still wanted to make it look good."

Connors (above on set) says they used a storyboard artist to help them map out the larger action scenes before they started shooting. But for the monsters in the film, Connors and co-producer and star Kennedy took a hands-on approach.
``For the model work that was myself, Bret and a few others building monsters in peoples backyard,'' says Connors.
``If you don't have the budget to make something look Jurassic Park-good with CG, it will look cheap.
``But you can do really convincing model work for a good price if you have a lot of nerds around.
``We had fanboys that just wanted to work on the film and brought friends who had worked in the industry.
``There was really good word of mouth.''

The majority of the creature effects were done by Sharp FX, known for their work on films such as Ghost Rider, Troy, House Of Wax, The Lost World and The Matrix Revolutions. Shot inside a warehouse at Burleigh Heads and on location in Tallebudgera, The Dark Lurking is the first feature film from Gold Coast-based Production Company FILMWERX 77, which is run by Connors, Kennedy and Wall. The company also made Connors' 15-minute action fantasy film Netherworld, which won the award for Best Action Short at the 2005 New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.

With the completion of The Dark Lurking, their trio’s next project is set a `horror-comedy' that could star David Hasselhoff, Chuck Norris and Mr T.

“It's about a possessed creepy-crawly that finds a pool party and goes postal,” he says.“It would have about a $1.5 million budget and we're trying to get an interesting cast of iconic '80s actors who haven't been seen for a while.”

In the meantime, The Dark Lurking has been receiving international attention through websites Beyond Hollywood and SciFiCool.com and is screening at the Night of Horror International Film Festival in Sydney later this month. After a sell-out preview screening at the Gold Coast Film Fantastic, it is touring Australia with a theatrical release in Melbourne, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sydney and Perth. It will also feature at the Supanova Pop Culture Expo at the RNA Showgrounds, Brisbane from April 9.

The Dark Lurking screens at Birch Carroll & Coyle Pacific Fair cinemas from Thursday, April 8 to Wednesday, April 14.

For more information on the film and screening locations near you visit the website here.