As the fourth and final year of my undergraduate degree ends, I joined the University of Aberdeen’s Filmmaking Society on our annual trip to the Glasgow Film Festival.
Top of our itinerary was attending The Doom Busters (2025) world premiere. Set in 1940, we follow the plucky home guard members Arthur, Harold, William and their friend Edith as an alien presence disrupts their routine. With a tiny budget of £8000, Doom Busters is a film that’s fun to watch, fully embracing the spirit of filmmaking and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Its monster design also shows its spirit. After a while, the viewer can gather that they’ve only got so much of a monster to work with. The formidable front jaws that make most of its appearance are fairly impressive for what they are. Made primarily by ‘spraying a bunch of expanding foam and carving it down’, the ‘void-raptor’ that terrorises the home guard manages to portray an otherworldly horror quite well.
The beautiful colour was one of the most notable aspects of the film. The majority of the film features a warm, almost sunny outlook on the English countryside. It helps to solidify Doom Busters as a feel-good film; something to be watched over the spring break with some mates. But aside from simply looking good, colour becomes a vital story telling tool in this film. The ‘void raptors’ vision resembles an infrared camera, a tribute to the vision of iconic cinema aliens like the Predator. When looming over victims, the red aura bears down. Colour makes things clear for the entirety of the film, but it’s never clearer than when Arthur makes his final stand. Transporting the audience further down its absurd rabbit hole, reality and imagination merge as Doom Busters resembles something more akin to an Evil Dead film in its last act.
One of the most memorable scenes, even for disgusting reasons, had to be the vomiting scene. Using ‘chicken and vegetable soup’ made for a very effective, if perhaps a little obvious. The chunk that remains stuck to Harold’s lip is nauseating, but not as much as filming this scene was.
Of course, thanks must be given to those who donated to create this film. ‘All the funds came from the Kickstarter’ said director Jack Henry during the Q&A.
Another highlight was Stationed at Home (2025). This black and white film follows Frank, a taxi driver, as he works his late-night shift on Xmas Eve.
We were lucky enough to get to meet the cast and crew after our screening, and director Daniel V. Masciari, cinematographer Jackson Jarvis and actress Eliza VanCort were kind to answer our many questions.
One of his tips for budding screenwriters is the importance of colour-coding your scripts. Assigning each storyline within your work not only makes it much easier to remember who you’re writing about in the process but also allows for a much better method of pacing.
Stationed from Home maintains a steady, easy going pacing, creating a film which feels gentle to watch. The colour coded script method makes creating this pacing much simpler.
‘You can look at the script at a glance, and immediately see which areas need to be cut down’ Masciari told our Filmmaking Society.
Colours in writing weren’t the only tip. ‘Lighting is so much easier in black and white’ according to Jarvis ‘By taking away a layer of reality, it opens up a whole bunch of new directions for your film.’
As a taxicab driver, Ralph spends most of the film behind the wheel. But how did they go about filming it? The secret is airport hangers. With a lack of soundstages available to them, the team behind Stationed at Home came up with the solution to use a local aircraft hangar as a makeshift studio. But watching the film, you’d have no idea, it’s so seamless.
The tasteful simplicity of this film really made it stand out on our trip, but getting to meet the real filmmakers behind it made it truly magical. Eliza VanCort was so kind as to take our society’s picture outside the theatre, making our yearly tradition that extra bit special this time.
Glasgow Film Festival is such a vital part of filmmaking in Scotland. It gives people the opportunity to see films like these and meet the people who made them. I hope that next year’s festival is just as spectacular.