Reviews and Publicity
Watch Me - Scopofile Productions (2006)
Posted 13 November 2007
"The quality of acting is generally above par for an independent production. Frances Marrington, a Sporty Spice look-alike, makes for an engaging and likeable lead..."
Interview with Melanie Ansley (director)
Posted 1 October 2007
"... I think for the lead, Frances, no doubt the torture scene was the hardest. She really did have her eyes taped open and her mouth gagged, so that her eyes were tearing and her mouth was numb. She was a tough cookie."
Interview with Sam Voutas (producer)
Posted 17 September 2007
"Frances was just this really spunky, confident actress who we both knew immediately was right. She's got the maturity and the shoulders to carry a film. She really analyses the character, looking for motivations, backstory, asking loads of questions..."
Posted 8 September 2007
"A perfect recipe of a successful horror movie. A good blend of horror, tension, and gore."
Watch Me in Swedish
Posted 30 August 2007
"Melanie Ansley sets the bar very high... Rating: 8/10."
Watch Me goes French.
Posted 30 July 2007
"The acting is good and the production values throughout are highly commendable.... I really enjoyed Watch Me and I was genuinely scared by parts of it - and you can't ask for too much more than that... Watch Me is a decent, well-crafted, scary slice of Down Under indie horror."
Posted 23 May 2007
"The Tess character was a strong lead... I can confirm the hype was accurate. This film stands above the crowd."
Posted 18 May 2007
" Frances Marrington and Sam Voutas as Tess and Taku deliver a fine, realistic performances that add more to the overall feel... This film is scary piece of microcinema with believable characters, tension, shocks and blood."
Posted 24 April 2007
" Lead Frances Marrington is sympathetic and convincing as Tess Hooper (echoes of Tobe Hooper in the name perhaps?), a cinema-studies student whose friends view a spam email attachment headed "Watch Me" and subsequently die, their eyes sewn shut."
Posted 2 April 2007
"Watch Me is an impressive independent Australian feature in the vein of the recent wave of J-horror films... the story kicks into gear with Tess (Marrington) surviving a viewing of the film and deciding it is up to her to stop the killings..."
Interview with Melanie Ansley
"... some segments took over twenty takes to perfect, because I didn't want to do cuts, I didn't want to have the usual jump scares etc. I was aiming to keep audiences on the edge of their seats to the point of discomfort..."
Posted 7 March 2007
" ...WATCH ME is such a story that is so carefully crafted, using simple but effective make-up, slick camera angles and a sometimes chilling score to create an atmosphere that proves in the end to be priceless..."
Posted 7 March 2007
"... horror fans will find a lot to enjoy here..."
Posted 6 Mar 2007
"... The film works wonderfully on screen, with sure-fire directing, superb acting, a straight-forward storyline and plenty of creepy, tense scenes... Watch Me manages to stand on its own and deliver a great film...
"...As for the acting, it is top-notch, especially leads Marrington (playing Tess) and Voutas (playing Taku). Voutas' Taku oozes creepiness and delivers a layered performance and Marrington manages to look and act natural while her character goes through many different emotions. Both actors manage to pull off their characters realistically, a real feat for most independent productions."
Interview with Melanie Ansley
"... Asian horror has really shown the west that Hollywood is not king..."
Posted 27 Feb 2007
" Watch Me features a young and talented cast of actors who should get a lot of attention after this feature. The standout performance comes from Frances Marrington, who plays Tess, the female heroine. Her presence is strong as is her ability to carry the load of an entire film. I'm sure that we will be seeing more of her in very near future because she has some real talent..."
Posted 1 Feb 2007
" A big plus is Ansley's nice visual sense, that adds significantly to the tension as things progress...
" By the end, we... were simply enjoying the well-written, creepy tale."
Posted 9 Dec 2006
Tess Hooper (Frances Marrington) relaxes, with an undetected and deadly companion.
... “Watch Me,” though, is one different from the group of Asian cinema homages; mainly because in spite of its low budget, it manages to be an utterly spine-tingling horror dose that many of the remakes with million dollar budgets can't really accomplish. Everything in “Watch Me” is surprisingly tight. The acting, most of all, is very good, and Ansley pulls us in all sorts of directions taking brutally creepy twists in the plot with our heroine coming in very close contact with the demonic entity and never being touched. "...
... “Watch Me” is often times very focused and draws out tension with genuinely surprising plot twists, and a frantic finale. Frances Marrington is strong as heroine Tess attempting to explore the origins behind the online video file that results in gruesome deaths, and Ansley finishes the film on a morbid whisper instead of an over-the-top demonstration, and that's why it works."
Posted 8 Dec 2006
"The performances are also impressive with the two leads (Voutas and Frances Marrington) sharing an excellent chemistry as their characters relationship shifts between some quite strong extremes from wary caution to outright murderous hostility to begrudging trust. Marrington stands out particularly in her role as Tess, the film studies student who must unravel the story behind the cursed email. She is required to show a pretty large range of emotions throughout the film all of which she does completely convincingly."
Posted 7 Dec 2006
"... the more I watched it, the more intrigued I became...
"... their acting abilities were so strong in this movie that I found myself becoming emotionally involved in their quest to stop the email. Frances Marrington, who plays Tess, gives a strong performance as the heroine with a haunted past...
"... For a short-length movie this movie packs a lot of punch."
Posted 1 Dec 2006
"... It's an excellently self-sufficient film, shot with a human touch when necessary and a distorted sense during the murders...
"... Marrington is an ace on-camera, powerfully frightened, venomously angered or downright beat as the role demands. Voutas plays off of her well, milking every ounce of sleeze out of his role as Taku. Budget may be a factor in the overall film, but talent is certainly abundant throughout."
Interview with Melanie Ansley
...Catwalk: "Frances Marrington (Tess) was a marvel on screen. She steered through emotions like a fighter pilot. What was the casting procedure for her, and for the other actors as well?"
Melanie: "...Frances was a friend of a friend, and I knew she'd done a lot of theatre and training. The key factors were really being gung-ho and willing, because the shoot always took place late into the night, and Frances really was put through a tough time. We taped up her eyes, we tied her up, we had her gagged and bound to a chair, we had her naked and freezing in a bathtub in winter. If she works with me again it'll be a miracle. She did it all with grace, patience, and she is a great actress in my eyes, I was very lucky to have her."
Posted 26 Nov 2006
"... For an indie project, “Watch Me” has some decent production value. The sound was good, the video quality was above par, and the effects were downright creepy...
"... A fun journey into the techno-spirit world."
Posted 14 Nov 2006
"... a nice surprise to find a film that was made with some real talent...
"... The acting was also pretty good... here, they found some decent actors that really came across as real people."
Movies Made Me
Posted 8 Nov 2006
"Fans of intelligent horror that don't require a dozen "jump" scares or a double-digit body count would be well advised to keep an eye on the official site for future festival screenings and the eventual DVD release. It may have taken some obvious inspirations from other films, but let me assure you that it easily stands its own against Ringu when it comes to delivering some genuine scares. 8/10."
Rogue Cinema
Posted 3 Nov 2006
Tess (Frances Marrington), watched by Redhead (Tanya McHenry)
"...The acting is of a reassuringly high standard, especially our two heroic figures.... The chemistry between the pair is also noteworthy as a cat-and-mouse style relationship of fear and persuasion crashes its way onto the screen, grabbing your attention and refusing to let go.
"...This is a gripping piece of cinema which shows real promise and direction, and can do nothing but springboard the two excellent central characters into a limelight they honestly deserve. Keep an eye out for Frances Marrington (who plays Tess Hooper) and Sam Voutas (Taku) in future – if given the right push, a bright future lies ahead for them both."
Pretty Scary
Posted 22 Sept 2006
"Watch Me is a truly creepy Asian-inspired modern ghost story about vengeful spirits and illegal pornography...
"[The director has] created a really compelling and interesting story that keeps the terror pure and simple...
"Watch Me is also a testament to the growing talent coming out of Australia recently, blowing away most of the mediocre American horror movies saturating the industry."
Picasso's Women - The Butterfly Club (2006)
Melbourne Observer
"Frances Marrington makes a striking entrance as Dora Maar, who becomes Picasso's famous 'Weeping Woman' (1935-1945). Frances' strong performance is powerfully expressive as she stylishly portrays this highly regarded artist in her own right, who tried unsuccessfully to be Picasso's equal."
Aussie Theatre
Fernande (Annabel Pemberton) and Dora (Frances Marrington)
"...Perhaps Picasso's most formidable match was Dora Maar, played by Frances Marrington, whom he was with from 1935-1945. She was 29 and he was 56 – already a god in his art world but Dora was an artistic force in her own right during the Surrealist movement. Travelling as an equal in Man Ray's circle, this young photographer set her sights on Picasso and was determined to make him beg for her. Marrington is ideally cast, giving the audience a powerful view of what a man-eater must have looked and moved like during that time and her similarly large, almond-shaped eyes are starkly portrayed in Picasso's Weeping Woman series.
"It's very difficult to escape subtleties in the intimate Butterfly Club, and both Pemberton and Marrington use this small ‘black box' atmosphere with great talent. Body and facial movements are paramount in these monologues to keep the audience engrossed and are not lost as we travel through their oral memoirs and ultimate pain..."
Port Phillip / Caulfield Leader promotional article
Published Sept 5, 2006
Hamlet - Eagle's Nest Theatre (2006)
Aussie Theatre
Ophelia (Frances Marrington) and Hamlet (James Adler)
"...This is an ambitious production of Hamlet for the newly founded Eagle's Nest Theatre company, playing in three venues and launching the 2006 debut season of ‘Great Tragedies' which also includes Oedipus directed by Robert Reid.
"Billed as a ‘text based' production aimed at creating greater access for schools and communities, its heart is in the right place and real passion and commitment is felt in each of the performances...
"There seemed to be a lot of humour in this production... In the knowing asides of Old Polonious and the bawdy humour surrounding Ophelia's virtue this works well and really got the audience on side, even after many must have been stealing themselves for tragedy and despair..."
"... Frances Marrington's Ophelia sings her entire mad scene to ghastly effect...
"...Director Jasper Bagg has created a solid Hamlet on a shoestring."
And Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep - Defector Arts (2006)
"... The strength of this female character, Leanne (Frances Marrington) lies more in the actor's presence and physical grounding than the character herself...
"...The group of actors were all fully committed to their roles; comfortably playing the extremes of serious reality and dreamlike surrealism... The confidence with which the writer has undertaken this story has to be commended, along with his talent at drawing a narrative structure around the concept of abuse..."
Play It Again Sam - Brisbane Arts Theatre (2002)
"... Fantasy elements aside, the rest of the play is no less engaging. Frances Marrington is extremely watchable as the fun but emotionally fragile Linda...
"... In sum, director John Boyce has brought us a fast-paced, entertaining comedy that appeals to the Bogart in us all. Here's looking at you, kid."
The Sunday Mail promotional article
Published Jan 20, 2002
The Independent promotional article
Published 27 June 2002