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**** Winner - Best Feature Film - Videoscream Film Festival, USA 2018
**** Winner Best In Show - IndieFest Film Awards, USA 2017
**** Winner Best Feature - Independent Horror Awards, USA 2017
**** Winner Best Actor Steven Berkoff - Independent Horror Awards, USA 2017
**** Distribution Rewired - Edinburgh International Film Festival 2017
**** Winner Best Horror Feature - Underground Indie Festival, USA 2017
**** Winner Best Film - Genre Celebration Festival, China 2017
**** Winner Best Actor Steven Berkoff - Tabloid Witch Awards, USA 2017
**** Winner Best Actor Steven Berkoff - Diabolical Horror Film Festival, 2017
**** Winner Best Actor Steven Berkoff - Halloween International Film Festival, Canada
**** Winner Best Actor - Steven Berkoff - Bloodstained Indie Film Festival, China 2017
**** Winner Best Actor - Steven Berkoff - UK Film Festival, London 2017
**** Winner Best Costume Design Hannah Campbell - FEARnyc, 2017
**** Winner Best Production Design Felix Coles - FEARnyc, USA 2017
**** Winner Best In Genre - Erie International Film Festival, USA 2017
**** Winner Best Horror Film - The Calcutta International Cult Film Festival, India 2018
In Competition - Shanghai Film Festival, China 2018
Honorable Mention - Hollywood Horrorfest, LA 2018
Semi Finalist - DarkVeins Horror Film Festival, Italy 2017
In Competition - LUSCA Caribbean Int Fantastic Film Festival 2017
Nominated for Best Film, Steven Berkoff Best Actor, Henry Goodman Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography - British Horror Film Festival, UK 2017
Nominated for Best Film - Bloodstained Indie Film Festival, China 2017
Official Selection - Desmond District Demons Film Festival, Michigan 2017
Nominted for Best Feature, Best Sound Design - Diabolical Horror Film Festival, USA
Official Selection - UK Film Festival 2017
“The Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe first published in 1843. It is told by the Master who endeavors to convince the viewer of his sanity, while describing a murder he committed. The victim was an old man with a “vulture- eye” as the Master calls it. The murder is carefully calculated and the murderer hides the body by dismembering it and hiding it under the floorboards. Ultimately the Master’s guilt manifests itself in the form of the sound— possibly hallucinatory—of the old man’s heart still beating under the floorboards.
Steven Berkoff has been an undisputed theatrical legend since the 1970s. Throughout his extraordinary career as a theatrical rebrand, performer, writer and director he has railed against safe, mediocre and superficial theatre. His theatrical craftsmanship, his physicality and tremendous voice work has been honed to razor sharpness over a career spanning five decades and it is breathtaking to watch.
Film Festival Review - Tabloid Witch Awards, Santa Monica - 2017
Edgar Allan Poe's Tell Tale Hearthas been adapted too many times to track -- on stage, TV, radio, short films -- both as student and professional projects. But no one has ever tried to stretch Poe's brief tale into a feature length film. Until now.
Remarkably, the adaptation stays faithful to the source material. The final scene with the arrival of the police introduces some new dialog into the story, but Poe's first person narrative tale is stretched to feature length mostly by Berkoff's pregnant pauses and onscreen busywork.
Berkoff avoids the temptation to chew scenery. His lunatic's psychosis simmers beneath the surface, then bubbles over as his speech quickens, tone intensifying, and then simmers down again. About to strike, but pulling back as he struggles to appear sane. Until the opportune moment.
More than any other film this year, Steven Berkoff's Tell Tale Heart's success or failure depended on its lead actor. In a sense, the film is Berkoff and Poe. And in Berkoff, Poe has received a memorable performance for his unforgettable work.
Steven Berkoff's
Tell Tale Heart
Steven Berkoff's
Tell Tale Heart
Starring: Steven Berkoff, Henry Goodman, Hugh Skinner, Dudley Sutton
Director: Stephen Cookson
Writer: Steven Berkoff
Adaptation: Stephen Cookson
Co-Producer: Peter Keegan
Log-Line: A live-in caretaker becomes obsessed with getting rid of the Old Man he cares for because of his "evil eye."
Genre: Gothic Thriller
