A LOW budget horror movie filmed in Leigh, Atherton and Tyldesley at a cost of just £200 is wowing American audiences.

Homebrew cost less to make than the price of a Hollywood star's hotel room for the night.

But the over-the-top collaboration between three school pal producers, Tom J Moose, Adrian Ottiwell and Robert Taylor, has been granted a nationwide distribution in the States.

Its tongue-in-cheek, blood-spattered plot is packed with zombies, toxic waste and plenty of camp acting and cheap special effects.

One scene required a bazooka, but that was well out of the film makers' financial league, so they improvised - with a cardboard tube and some silver paint.

Despite the budget constraints, the film caught the eye of an American-based distributor who thought it would be a big hit over there.

In America, it has been retitled Zombie Town and is being distributed by EI Cinema, whose president Mike L Raso says: "Homebrew breaks every cinema taboo you could imagine and revels in its gleeful recklessnes - international underground cinema at its best!"

Homebrew was filmed throughout the Leigh, Atherton and Tyldesley areas between 1994-96 as an experiment to give the three friends some idea of the potential pitfalls that face film makers.

As interest in the film grew, producer Tom Moose, 22, pushed the film and managed to pull off two amazing distribution deals, one for the UK and one in the US.

Tom, Adrian, also 22, and Robert, 23, have formed their own film production company, the appropriately named Viscera International Pictures.

The trio are former pupils of Fred Longworth High School and students from Wigan and Leigh College.

They self-funded the 18-rated Homebrew , with technical support from a local video company.

And now they have begun collaboration on a new project, written by Tom and ex-university friend Andy Sawyer, called Vampire High.

Tom said: "We began production on this latest project after Mike from EI said they would love to release more of our work for distribution across America.

"The original Homebrew cast are together again, but we have also enlisted the skills of actors and actresses who have worked in both theatre and low budget movies."

HOMEBREW is available for £12.99 direct from Viscera Pictures (PO Box 14, Manchester, M28 1EE). Make cheques payable to Viscera Pictures or from your local video retailer for £14.99. Please state and sign: I am over 18.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.