Zombie Diaries filmmakers switch gears with Paranormal Diaries trailer (NSFW)

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

I missed Michael Bartlett and Kevin Gates’ 2006 mock-doc THE ZOMBIE DIARIES and its 2011 follow-up. In fact, I think many U.S. horror fans did so– the first film’s timing came just before the found footage wave really got popular, which I believe also hurt the series chance for North American success outside of the DVD circuit.

Now I am especially motivated to explore the team’s oeuvre after taking a peak at the (NSFW!) trailer for their next film, THE PARANORMAL DIARIES: CLOPHILL.

Despite a title and cult-related plot that recalls a certain other popular found footage series, CLOPHILL seems to be going a more reality-based route. Gates describes his approach to the film as “Something that contained a Zombie Diaries flavour, but which mixed it with a real legend and true accounts of Aleister Crowley-esque goings on up at an isolated ruined church. Clophill is a sleepy Bedfordshire village and was a famous occult landmark in the 1960s and 1970s. Even today you get scores of teenagers going up there to scare themselves every night. And I was surprised that no one had done a serious film on the place before. So I assembled a small crew and several real witnesses to events up there of both witchcraft and ghostly sightings.”

Based on the (again, NSFW) trailer below, I’d say his approach largely worked. Check it out to decide whether PARANORMAL DIARIES: CLOPHILL is worthy of the found footage bandwagon currently riding across theaters and streaming services.