BY DAN WALSH

The red carpet is laid at the Presentation Arts Centre, Enniscorthy, turn on the style with a Prosecco and some chocolate, take a comfortable seat and experience the world premiere of SLAB, a short thriller produced locally.
It happens on Monday night and what is about to unfold on the screen is not for the faint-hearted, but an epic thriller of how far you would go for a loved one. Kidnapping, butchery and blood all in the name of love as Alex tries to undo mistakes from his past. Torn between what is right and wrong Alex tries to follow his heart and deal with the consequences later. Although his heart might be in the right place, his mind goes beyond reason.
Alex and Laura live in a small shack away from society, Laura becomes gravely ill from poor living conditions, which leaves Alex no choice but to doctor her himself in desperate hopes to save her life.
Enniscorthy-born Michael J. Cloke told WexfordToday.com that he wrote SLAB in early April of this year, it started out to be a horror, while shooting it became more of a thriller.

Aoibhinn Hyland plays the role of Jessica in the new short movie SLAB.

“The idea is from a thought that came into my mind one day – how far would you go for the ones you love – and what are you willing to do to show them that!
“So at that I told my wife Donna Marie my idea and in a way I don’t proceed with anything without her approval as we work great as a team, so she related to it straight away and we decided we would pursue this adventure. One of the main features in this movie was a leg being severed from a body and we found this to be a huge challenge, so before we could go into pre-production we had to figure out how we would accomplish that scene.
“From there our production went into full swing, taking two and a half months to get the set ready we finally started shooting at the end of July. It took four days to shoot with Michael Benson as our Director of Photography.
“Being an actor myself, I took the role of Alex our protagonist, Ella Marie Carmen from Dublin plays the female lead role of Grace, Sinead Farrell also from Dublin plays the role of Alex’s daughter Laura, Katie Cloke plays the younger version of Laura and Aoibhinn Hyland from Youghal in Cork plays the role of Jessica.”
The music for SLAB comes from a very talent lady, Ana Ortiz Wienken, who has scored music on such films as How To Train Your Dragon and Hugo while working for Warner Brothers. She is currently working on a project for Disney.
Cameron Allan Cloke is the first Assistant Director and his brother Jack excellently fits the role of script supervisor. All the crew gave up their time for free and are amazing.
SLAB is presented by Little Angels Productions in association with BenPix Productions and the creation of Donna Marie Sludds (Director), Michael Benson (Director of Photography), Michael J. Cloke (Writer and Producer) and Ana Ortiz Wienken (Musical Director and Original Score).
On set photography is by Michael Duggan and Lisa McLoughlin.
The film could not have been made without financial support from the local community and the sponsors for the premiere includes Treacy’s Hotel, Robs Ranch House, Hynes Jewellers, Golden Discs, The River Restaurant, The Holy Grail, General Office Supplies, Impresso Café, Malacca’s fine foods, The Beauty Booth, The Orchard Recording Studios, M&M Meats and Corrigan Carpets.
SLAB the movie was made by Little Angel Productions in association with BenPix Productions.