Anything Mark has produced or published will be here. Well, almost anything. The embarrassing incident with the penguin and the sprouts will never see the light of day.
Short Films
The Dollmaker
The Dollmaker from Al Lougher on Vimeo. A grieving mother latches on to a magical surrogate for her lost child. But small miracles come with big consequences! The is a short film Mark helped to produce. It is a winner of numerous film festival awards, including best short horror at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con and currently has over 17 MILLION VIEWS on YouTube! The Dollmaker was directed by Al Lougher and written by top Hollywood scribe, Martias Caruso.
The Survivor: A Tale From The Nearscape
In a post-apocalyptic world where the air is toxic to breathe and oxygen is a precious resource, a young boy embarks on a perilous supply run to obtain water and medicine for his ailing mother. With just his toy robot as a companion on his journey, he faces many obstacles, but the real danger is waiting for him back home. The Survivor has won Best Sci-Fi awards at the Top Shorts and Festigious Film Festivals. The Survivor also serves as a proof of concept for a TV series Mark is developing called The Nearscape.
Surrender
A Functioning alcoholic struggles to get through the day in a surreal and frightening world where his inner demons appear real. Haunted by his worst fears, his sanity starts to slip, as does what little control he has left over his addiction. It is currently available for free on Amazon Prime in the UK and USA.
No More Tomorrows
A short film written and produced by Mark to showcase his work. A self-centred young woman on a family road trip encounters two strangers who are far more dangerous than they appear. As fate intervenes, she has to find the courage to learn to live for today if her family have any chance to see another tomorrow.
Winner of an Honourable Mention Award – Top Shorts Film Festival
Winner of Best Male Actor Award – Depth of Field International Film Festival
No More Tomorrows is now available to rent or for free on Amazon Prime in both the UK and USA.
So Dark
An avid Twilight fan takes the late train home and encounters a real Vampire. So Dark is a Web TV series which Mark helped to produce and is now available on Amazon. Directed by Mark’s friend Al Lougher and written by the annoyingly talented James Williams.
The first two episodes, So Pretty and So Dark are complete. Mark has written several more episodes in collaboration with Al that are ready to go if someone is interested in producing them. The completed episodes are available on Amazon Prime.
Covid-19 Science Experiments
Shot at home, on a mobile phone just for fun. This is a film I made with my wife and daughter during the 2020 lockdown and is a comedy about all the misleading medical advice which was spreading via social media at the time.
I Am Peter Cushing
A ‘Day in the Life’ story of a man who believes Vampires are real and he is the legendary Vampire-Hunter, Peter Cushing! This is what started it all. Back in 1656, Al Lougher and Mark Renshaw joined forces for the first time. Their mission, to make a short out of anything they could get their hands on. Mark wrote the script and played the lead role. He also forced his family to be the extras. Al did everything else, including dropping and breaking the only (borrowed) camera we had. The result was basic, amateurish but in a shock twist, it actually won Best Amateur Short Film in the 2002 Festival of Fantastic Films in Manchester, England.
PODCASTS
Slayfest
A bizarre festival of murderers. Two inept killers find themselves in over their heads, battling various other murderers in a grotesque and chaotic competition to achieve the highest kill count. You can listen to it for free via Spotify here.
STORIES
Battleborg
The SNAFU books mix horror with sci-fi and fantasy, but the emphasis is on military-style action. Each SNAFU book follows a different theme and several stories have been adapted into episodes of the Netflix TV show, Love, Death and Robots. The theme for this edition is Cyberpunk and included my short story, Battelborg.
Battleborg is a mix of Cyberpunk and fantasy. It tells the tale of a military-grade cyborg who takes a final stand against mythical beings who have taken over Earth. It is available in all regions on Kindle and Paperback on Amazon.
Ragnarok
An Edgar Allen Poe, Cthulhu Mythos inspired tale called Ragnarok. Set in modern times, it tells the tale of a special forces unit who are sent into a massive, creepy abandoned mansion after several police officers go missing. What they find is the beginning of a supernatural extinction level threat.
Can they make it out and warn the rest of the world before it is too late?
This story features in SNAFU: Resurrection published by Cohesion Press. It can be ordered via Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon AU Amazon Canada
Automatic Drive
A family is enjoying a road trip on a fully automatic corporate highway where nothing can possibly go wrong. So of course, it does. The impossible occurs, yet in the way it is handled, not only does it become apparent that such accidents happen more frequently then everyone is lead to believe, but special contingencies are in place to deal with them.
This has been published in The Singularity 50, by Create50. – A bold concept. 50 stories set over the next 50 years chronicling of the rise of Artificial Intelligence until it reaches a point known as The Singularity – when A.I. gains sentience. The book can be ordered on Amazon.
No Title & Fear
Two of Mark’s short stories have won an international competition and been published as part of an anthology called An Eclectic Mix Volume 7. Each story is from an international competition winner and can be ordered from Amazon or direct from the publisher Lulu.
The two stories are:
No Title – The story has no title because it is not a story, it is a battle for the reader’s soul. Two opposing higher powers attempt to persuade the reader to follow their path. Which side will you choose?
Fear – A university student is conducting a thesis on a theory she has about the origins of fear. She invites a fellow student to take part in an experiment, but her theories reveal far more than she ever imagined.
TABLE READS
My Doctor
My Doctor is a special episode of Doctor Who starring almost every incarnation of the famous Time Lord; up to and including Matt Smith. It also features some of his most notorious adversaries, such as the Daleks, Cybermen and The Master.
The Attack
Following on from My Doctor, the Wildsound Film Festival requested a one-page short story from Mark they could use in an upcoming table read session. He delved deep into his archives (stories folder on his PC) and found a short story which fitted the bill called The Attack. This was a tale of a man suffering from a panic attack and how he dealt with these situations. The Wildsound Festival accepted the submission and above is the resulting table read.