A BOLTON postman delivers the mail…but he’s also hoping to deliver a cinematic shocker.

Dave Green, aged 46, is putting the final touches to Surprise, a horror anthology film which he plans to release this Halloween.

“I grew up watching Hammer Horror and films by John Carpenter and David Lynch so that’s obviously influenced me,” he explained.

His fascination with film began seven years ago when he entered a music video competition.

“It was for the band Marillion. I bought myself a little camera and filmed me and my wife, Jane, running around Rivington wearing Marillion masks. My video didn’t win but it generated a lot of interest on YouTube.”

This inspired him to enrol on a two -year television and film diploma course at Futureworks college in Salford.

“It was two evenings a week, which meant I could carry on with my daytime job,” he explained.

Dave, who lives on Lord Stile Lane, Bromley Cross, has been a postman for 26 years. His current route covers Hunger Hill and he often thinks of ideas for film projects while pounding the pavements. “I take a notebook out with me so I can jot down any thoughts that occur,” he said.

Dave’s talents with a camera are not limited to filming and his photographs have often featured on our Bolton News Camera Club page.

One of his student efforts, Occupied, a short film about two people who get trapped in a toilet during a terrorist attack, was chosen to be included in Manchester’s Kino Festival.

It was at college that he teamed-up with fellow student, Dan McGee, who is the co-creator of Surprise.

Bolton itself plays a part in the film as it provided many of the locations.

The King’s Head pub on Junction Road was used for the first story, Mr Chuckles, in which a child’s drawing of a clown comes alive and terrorises a barmaid.

Entwistle reservoir and Bromley Cross provided the backdrops for Sweethearts, where a detective has a strange connection to the murders of young women.

And the third story of the film, The Last Rites of Byron Vanderbilt, features Edgworth. “It’s taken 18 months to make the film on my days off and during my holidays,” said Dave. “It’s got a cast of three playing the different roles in the different stories but the film also guest stars George Newton, who appeared in the film Dead Man’s Shoes.

He added: “At the moment it’s a hobby but I’d like to make it a career. I’m planning to take some time off to make a zombie film and me and Dan have always seen Surprise as a trilogy, so we hope to make two more films in the series.”

So, if you live in Hunger Hill and see a postie looking pensive, you never know, you could be witnessing the dawn of Dave’s next project...