Young Harrogate director races to make last film following terminal diagnosis

A young Harrogate director who has been given just five more years to live is racing against time to make his final film. 

Joe Cash, 30, has enjoyed a successful career working as a stuntman and prop artist on big-budget Hollywood movies including the Mad Max, Jurassic Park and Fast & Furious franchises. And when the Covid pandemic shut the film industry down, he started to make his own independent horror films. 

But in October 2022 he was diagnosed with bone cancer, and in December he received worse news still: he has a brain tumour and his life expectancy has fallen to five years. He is expected to lose his memory within the next 12 months. 

Joe said:

“There’s stuff I’ve forgotten already.

“We’ll be filming my last film, Carnal Redemption, in Harrogate and Driffield in August this year. I’ve already storyboarded the whole thing, so that if I’ve lost my memory by the time we begin filming, I can use it as a cheatsheet. 

“After I was diagnosed, I decided to use my life savings to make this film happen, so it now has a £130,000 budget. Most of that is going on stunts with helicopters and cars – which we’re going to smash up!” 

Joe’s Hollywood work started in 2005, and since then he’s been shot by Han Solo when playing a stormtrooper in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and even broke three vertebrae when a stunt when wrong while standing in for Johnny Depp during the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Director Joe Cash gives instructions to two young female actors in a car.

Joe Cash will be directing on the set of his last film, Carnal Redemption, this summer.

His more recent work has involved a radical change of genre, and an inevitable drop in budget. His made his first independent film, Jezebel, for just £30.

He said:

“The shoestring budget was the whole point.

“I thought I could make a film for less than the price of a night out. It was a terrible film, but it ended up being shown at 150 film festivals, winning 30 awards, and gaining lots of recognition from the film industry. It taught me a lot.” 

His next film, Carnal Monsters, was made for just £500, and his last film, Calling Nurse Meow, was banned in 40 countries, reportedly becoming the most banned film in for 42 years – a record Joe is proud of.

The cast of Joe Cash's independent film, Carnal Monsters, in costume and posing with weapons.

Joe Cash made Carnal Monsters on a budget of just £500.

Joe added:

“For me, that’s a badge of pride. For a horror film to get banned gets people talking about it. We’re trying to set a new Guinness World Record.”

Carnal Redemption will start filming in the summer and Joe hopes it will be ready in time for a premiere in January and release next spring. 

Joe said: 

“I’ve put most of my life savings into this – I’m going all out. If there’s one film to remember me by, this is it.” 

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Harrogate actor to make debut in independent horror film

An actor from Harrogate is to make his debut in a horror film produced by a local independent filmmaker.

Damien S Fear starred in Joe Cash’s horror-comedy Calling Nurse Meow, a follow-up to his 2021 film Carnal Monsters.

The film will premiere at the Dead Northern horror film festival in York on September 24.

The film is an anthology based around one of the main characters from the first film, who Mr Cash said proved popular with the film’s audience.

One of the film’s shorts was filmed in Harrogate. Initially intended as a test run, it was included after the filmmakers thought that the filming process had gone well.

In total, filming took over four months – longer than normal for an independent film. Scenes were also shot in Nottinghamshire and Milton Keynes.

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Mr Cash, who is also from Harrogate, previously made props for Fantastic Beasts and played a stormtrooper in Star Wars: Episode VII.

He believed making the film as an anthology had been a different experience to a regular film. He said:

“There’s so many more cogs and people involved with an anthology. There’s a lot more creativity in there… It’s been a lot of fun but it’s been a lot of work.”

A TV series based around the film’s characters in also set to be produced and released in 2024.

Damien S Fear made his acting debut in Joe Cash's independent horror film, partially filmed in Harrogate

Damien S Fear made his acting debut in Joe Cash’s anthology film (photo: Joe Cash)

Yorkshire horror

The Dead Northern festival started out as the Harrogate Horror Film Festival in 2019.

This year, it is showing a mix of classic horror films as well as independent films made by local and international producers.

A live séance will also feature as part of the event, which is running between September 23 and 25 at York’s City Screen Picturehouse.

Harrogate man’s journey from Hollywood stunt performer to horror film director

A Harrogate man who has worked on some of Hollywood’s biggest movies has just finished directing a film shot in Yorkshire.

Stuntman, actor and prop creator Joe Cash has appeared in films such as Jurassic World and Star Wars: Episode VII. He said his career highlight was being killed by Harrison’s Ford’s character Hans Solo whilst playing a Stormtrooper.

Mr Cash has now written, produced and directed Carnal Monsters, which was filmed at the former RAF Driffield base. The horror movie is due to go out in selected cinemas in January.

He told the Stray Ferret he began his film career in 2005 and soon realised “never to say no to an opportunity”. Since then he has made dinosaur heads for Jurassic World, worked on various Fast and Furious films and made a car for Dumbledore to drive in Fantastic Beasts.

He said he’d always been interested in directing his own films but it was only during lockdown that he had the time to explore it. Talking of his time in the director’s chair, Mr Cash said:

“I started experimenting with short films and then with covid a lot of jobs dried up so I made my first feature film, Jezebel. It did well and we got a lot of love for it so I decided to keep going.

“I’ll always keep going back to stunt and prop work but this is a new challenge which is a lot of fun too. We already have plans for a sequel too.”

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Carnal Monsters follows a group of prisoners as they discover a deserted lab in which scientists were trying to create a potion to cheat death.

The film also includes footage of Stan Lee, Marvel Comics creator, before he died.

Mr Cash said filming with a small cast and crew, due to covid, meant he could be more hands-on and really take it in his own direction. But he added he would only be able to assess the success of the film when it was released.