The saying goes that there are no new stories left to tell. Well, after seeing Snapshot, the Victorian, London-set, buttonhole camera found-footage horror film, you might find it hard to agree. The debut feature from production company Silicon Gothic had its world premiere at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, before heading to FrightFest 2026.
Following its premiere, FILMHOUNDS sat down for a roundtable interview with writer Cathy Wippell, director Joseph Archer, and the ladies of the ghost-hunting society: Hazel Rogers, Rosie-Bella Johnson, Lydia Helen and Nadia Lamin to talk all things Snapshot and Silicon Gothic.
Firstly, the world premiere was a few days ago. How did it feel to finally get to see the film on the big screen with an audience?
Lydia Helen: It was the most fun ever. It’s weird saying that because it is quite a disturbing film. I deliberately didn’t see it. I just wanted to see it on the big screen for the first time. Honestly, it was unlike anything I’d ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of horror. It was just genuinely so unique, and I was so immersed in the film, even though I was in it.
Nadia Lamin: Just on that as well, I think I was so proud of everything that these two [Joseph Archer and Cathy Whippell] have achieved. I completely agree with Lydia; I was so enamoured by the edit. I couldn’t stop watching it as well, which is a good sign (laughs). It’s very hard, as an actor, when you’re watching yourself, not to judge yourself, but I completely forgot. I’ve never really had that experience. So that’s a testament to what you guys have produced, because it’s sensational.
Cathy Wippell: Something you need to understand about Snapshot is that the story and the characters were collaborative efforts. So we actually knew the ladies who were going to be the ladies of the ghost-hunting society. We actually sat down in the pub with them, and we were already talking about this project, and we went, “Look, guys, if you were in Victorian London, who would you be?” And there were all these amazing answers they came up with, like Nadia was like, “I would be a badass brothel owner,” Lydia goes, “I’d command an Irish gang,” and then these two [Hazel Rogers and Rosie-Bella Johnson] were just like, “Aw, I’ll just be a prostitute” (laughs).
Hazel Rogers: I want to say, it was just magic. I love the cinema; cinemas are one of the only places where magic still exists. So being there with this big family, we came out, and it was all smiles.
JA: I’m so happy because all the jokes landed and all the jump scares landed, and it made me realise, actually, this film is sort of a dark comedy.
NL: I think that’s why the horror bits land because you’ve got some really wonderfully bright moments and fun moments, and yeah, comedic. And then, when the darkness comes in, it really is quite disturbing.
JA: It was wonderful; I think we’ve had such a lovely response. You know, it’s at the point where we’ve had people coming up to us in the street in the middle of Edinburgh saying how much they loved the film. It’s been really, really nice to get it on the big screen. A bit rewarding because a lot of the risks we took, which a lot of people would have said, “Don’t take them,” audiences really respected and enjoyed.
You’ve spoken a fair bit about the way the film came together, but it’s also the first film of your production company, Silicon Gothic. Could you tell us a bit more about the founding of the company?
CW: Yeah, so both me and Joe come from quite sort of activist/political backgrounds. And we also had a sort of link to this particular film in that my Victorian ancestor was actually an illustrator for ‘The Illustrated London News’. In terms of the actual planning of the company, we met and discovered we wanted to make the same stuff, and came up with this manifesto that meant that we could monsterfy modern-day issues into impact horror narratives. And we do a lot of work with third sector organisations. So on this film, we’re working with an anti-disinformation enterprise, Shout Out UK, so people have been getting these anti-disinformation toolkits after the screenings. So yeah, the thing about making things about modern-day issues is you never run out of inspiration (laughs).
JA: It does link in with people’s lives, so I think it’s something that just pervades everything. Also, the way we get information is very confusing. You’ll scroll through your phone, you’ll get a cat meme, and then you’ll get an earthquake disaster, then you’ll get a far-right fascist saying something mental, and then you’ll get your friends’ holiday pics. It’s just so disjointed and chaotic that it is destroying our attention as well as the way we deal with the hot and the cold. That was something we wanted to show in Snapshot.
Tonally, Snapshot jumps between the horrific and the comedic, and that’s intentional because that is how our lives are. You know, our lives are really disjointed. Like, we did not used to know what was going on in other countries unless you read the newspapers. So you could live in your bubble. Everyone says, “Oh, people are stuck in bubbles these days.” They’re not. The actual problem is they’re getting noise from everywhere, and it means that people can’t direct their attention to helping each other, which is what people used to do. They used to help each other, not focus on the madness, and it kind of meant that people aren’t looking after their local communities, and it’s meant that every community is bad. You might think that’s small thinking, but that’s actually big thinking when you spread it across the world.
CW: It’s also that element that actually feeds into why we founded the company in the first place, which is that we’re not just seeking to tell these stories; we’re also actually trying to rebel a bit about how people believe films should be made, because, to be honest, it’s so flawed. You know, there’s this big idea that your debut needs to be your best work ever, and like you have to premiere at Cannes and all this stuff, and actually, as an artist, you have to play. That’s where we were so lucky with Snapshot: we were able to play and experiment on set, and now it’s premiering at Edinburgh International Film Festival. And I just think that if we tried to fund it in a traditional way, it just wouldn’t be made in the way it was made. Every step of the process, we had people going, “Have you ever considered doing it in a rectangle?” (laughs).
JA: That’s it, the industry wants you to think inside the box. It says that it wants cool, creative things, but it does not.
LH: It can be really overwhelming, I think, as an Indie filmmaker just thinking “Oh, I’m never gonna make a feature film, I’m never going to do it” and you know, there’s a lot to be said for just doing it anyway and just essentially saying, “Well, I’m doing this thing, the trains leaving the station, are you in or are you out?” and that’s sort of what Joe & Cathy did. They had this idea, and we made it happen. It was all kind of a team effort, and that’s why it’s so special. It just feels like it’s this thing that’s been created with so much care and love from everyone. You know, we had Nadia driving everyone around, people doing their own make-up, me and Cathy sourced all the costumes second-hand on Vinted. Me and Cathy also did hair and make-up for everyone. Everything was thought of and intentional and…
NL: And economical, you know, which I think is just so brilliant. We weren’t just buying stuff fast fashion, and it just shows that you can be economical too while making a film.
Rosie-Bella Johnson: Also, just following on from what Joe and Cathy were saying about the messages behind Silicon Gothic, it’s just like the conscientiousness of environmental factors, and I feel that always makes everything feel a little bit more sentimental as well. It’s just really fun to know that, like, this piece of clothing that you’re wearing to tell this story has its own history.
Before making Snapshot, a lot of you had predominantly worked in short filmmaking. How much of a challenge was it making the jump up to making a feature?
CW: To be honest, we made Snapshot because we’d been pitching another feature film, and we were always met with “You guys have never made a feature film before, so how can you make a feature film?” So we were like, “Oh well, we’re just going to have to make our own because no one’s gonna help us.” But I do see why people say that because it was like another level of stamina, and I just think it was a really wonderful project for us all to learn how to do that.
NL: This is a testament to not listening to people saying you can’t and just being like “I’m gonna do it.” It just shows that, actually, as a creative, you do have some power in being able to go do it.
JA: The last thing we have, really, as filmmakers and creatives is to do something new and break the mould. Because now the AI companies and the producers have the tools to make sloppy films. So it’s actually more important than ever that we do something new.
LH: All of this stuff with AI, I think, is really scary and very dystopian, but I genuinely feel like indie film is going to have this really enormous renaissance. Because people don’t want to watch AI. They don’t, you know. Hollywood, I think, is lagging behind a bit in terms of churning out sequels and prequels and remakes, and people are sick of it. So I think we’re in this really exciting time to be in the indie film genre, creating new, fresh things, without all of these restrictions and just being able to be creative. I really genuinely believe that’s what people want to see.
So, Silicon Gothic is a manifesto-led company. How did you come to the decision to deliver that manifesto through filmmaking, and why did you feel that Snapshot was the perfect film to introduce both your company and its manifesto to the world?
JA: One of the biggest ways you can get a large international audience through storytelling is filmmaking. This is sort of a bigger point, but a lot of the people who are in charge right now, they’re very funny, and they’re very entertaining, and they use visuals to convince us to go along with their lies. You know, we’ve got Trump in America, we’ve got Farage in the UK. So we’re trying to use entertainment as well. You know, there’s this psychological phenomenon where, if people are being entertained, they’re more likely to learn something.
CW: I think for me there were two things. One is that, for us, it was unexpected in many ways. You know, we had this period of time we could shoot and we chose to go for it. The ethos of that is something that is just inherently part of the company, and the company’s identity is to just sort of go, “No, we’re actually just going to do it this way.” The fact that it looks at storytelling as well is the second thing. Because we are aware of ourselves as storytellers. We are aware of everybody here, every functioning member of society, being a storyteller in their own right as well, and we just kind of wanted to bring a bit of awareness to that as well.
JA: And arguments aren’t won through numbers; they’re won through stories. That’s how you bring people on board. We just believe that not only can we make an entertaining film but also make interesting points that make people think “Actually, I can be politically engaged, I can make a difference.” That’s the other unfortunate thing at this time–everyone has been made to think they can’t do anything. That’s the other thing, unfortunately, that the scroll does: it takes the agency away, and the algorithm decides for you, when actually, people used to decide for themselves. You used to go to the shop and pick the newspaper, but now you don’t. You go on to the algorithm, and then it gives it to you. We need to get that agency back and do something new and be disruptive, and that’s sort of why we’re trying to make these films: to be disruptive and make sure the art means something.
Snapshot had its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2026.
