DelaQuinn Productions have announced their first short film, Family Night, written and directed by Alan Dunne, which they hope to release this autumn on the Irish and international festival circuit.
Family Night is an offbeat short horror film set in the winter of 1996 in Dublin, Ireland. It tells the story of a family forced to take part in a family night by their extremely strict father. Throughout the night, tensions build as they are forced to have dinner together, sing songs, play charades and watch a movie, all while trying to keep their father (Eoin Quinn) pleased. However, not all is as it seems in the household.
The film is written and directed by Dublin-based filmmaker Alan Dunne, whose previous short film Earthly Bonds was the winner of the Inaugural Film In Cork Short Script Award. That film had great success at festivals in Ireland and abroad. It was also shown on RTE2 as part of the Shortscreen Programme in 2021.
Having worked with Eoin (Fair City, Limp.) as an actor on many projects in the past, it was great to hear from him about creating a new film together under his new company DelaQuinn Productions. We talked about several ideas that would be great to make first and settled on a script I had written called Family Night.
When creating this film we wanted to make something that would stand out and create a unique viewing experience. The story itself is one that works best from not knowing too much about it going in. It was very hard to pinpoint a similar film to it in style which was great for us creatively. This film is very character driven and features an incredible lead performance by Denise McCormack (Red Rock, Love/Hate) as Joanne, in a role where she is on the verge of a breakdown, stuck in a relationship she wants out of. The father, played by Eoin Quinn, is one we hope will be etched into people’s minds long after the film is over, as a very strict and overbearing parent. We also have great performances by newcomers Molly McLoughlin and Flynn Gray who play the children.
Overall, Family Night is a very unusual horror film we hope will grab the audience’s attention from the start and gradually transform their bemusement into full blown shock and terror before Family Night is over.
Alan Dunn, Writer/Director
Having set up DelaQuinn Productions with my wife Jayne Delahunt we sat down with Alan, who has directed me on numerous occasions, to see what scripts he had in the hope of getting one of them made. After reading a few of the scripts he had written, we really liked the originality and craziness of Family Night. As it was a one location shoot and a small cast we thought it would be a good one to make as our first production. As for me, producing and acting in it was tough enough but Jayne was there to help out when I was learning lines, crack the whip, keep an eye on budget etc and this was a great help and was great to have her and Alan backing me up. We will be submitting it to the major festivals worldwide including Oscar Qualifying Festivals, so fingers crossed.
Eoin Quinn, Actor/Producer