The very essence of Cult Faction is the word “Cult”, very many films, animation, characters, and, of course, real life people, have a Cult Faction. None so more than Norman J Warren, a name that conjures up the image of a librarian or an accountant, but Norman J Warren was none of these, he was a cult English film director of 70’s horror films such as Satan’s Slave, Prey and Terror. All aptly titled to give the impression of horror from the offset.
Born Norman John Warren in Hammersmith, London on June 25th in 1942, he was an avid film fanatic from an early age and became a runner on the film The Millionairess in 1960 and by 1962 he was assistant director on The Dock Brief and a full director in 1965 on the shirt film Fragment. This attracted the attention of a sex industry film maker and he was hired to direct two feature-length sex films and not wanting to be typecast, Norman turned down a third film offer.
In 1976, after spending time raising money for a film endeavour, he managed to make his first horror film, Satan’s Slave, and then Prey in 1977 and terror in 1978. The 1980’s saw him direct two more horror films, Inseminoid, and Gunpowder.
Although it was not until 2016 before he directed another feature film, he managed to embark on directing music videos and educational short films. He was honoured in 1999 with a documentary on his work called Evil Heritage and there was a DVD boxset of his work released in 2004. His last work was a feature film thriller based on London’s Chinatown in 2017 called Susu.
Norman J. Warren died on 11th March 2021 aged 78 and his manager had said he was in poor health for over a year prior to his death.
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