Film Name: Transylvania Tapes
Director: Brad Sykes
Writers: Brad Sykes, Josephina Sykes
Starring: Valeria Badiuc, Terence Matthew Sullivan, Ion Haiduc, Gabriel Spahiu
In 1997, Romanian actress Silvia Enescu mysteriously disappeared while searching for family property in Transylvania. All she left behind were a collection of home movies: the TRANSYLVANIA TAPES. Now, Silvia’s daughter Mara travels from Los Angeles to Romania to discover what happened to her mother. With the help of her cameraman friend Dylan, Mara documents her journey, which takes her from the streets of Bucharest to the medieval town of Sighisoara, deep in the heart of Transylvania.
Unearthing the truth about her mother comes at a terrible price, as Mara must escape an ancient family curse.
In a new interview on Blazing Minds ahead of the Horror-On-Sea Takeover at the Southend Film Festival, I got a chance to ask Director / Co-Writer Brad Sykes a few questions about his film ‘Transylvania Tapes‘
You can watch Transylvania Tapes at the Horror-On-Sea Takeover on Saturday 6th June at 18:30hrs.
Q. Your film Transylvania Tapes has been selected to play at the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival. Can you tell us what we can expect?
A. TRANSYLVANIA TAPES is a blend of the found footage and Euro Horror genres, which has never been done before. Expect to be taken on an eerie and disturbing journey through modern day Romania as the main character, Mara, travels from Bucharest to Transylvania in search of her missing mother.
Q. You co-wrote the script with Josephina Sykes. What were some of your inspirations when writing the script and what was your process for writing together?
A. Josephina, who is my wife and producer, wrote the first draft of TRANSYLVANIA TAPES in 2005. Back then, the project had a different title and was written for a bigger budget. She downsized it in 2011, and then we wrote an entirely new “found footage” script together in 2024, after getting tired of waiting for financing to materialize. For the final version of TRANSYLVANIA TAPES, we wrote the treatment together – literally side by side at the computer – and then I went off and wrote the script. Then, Josephina polished certain sections, especially the parts with culturally specific things, or Romanian dialogue.
All three “versions” of the script kept the same basic concept of a young woman of Romanian birth coming from LA to solve a supernatural family mystery in Romania. Because Josephina is Romanian by birth and lived there till her early twenties, the story is based largely on places, people, political situations, and even local superstitions, that she experienced since she was a child.
I also wanted to add certain cultural details that I had noticed over the years, since my first visit in 1997. So, our inspirations were experiences we had and people we had met over the year.
Q. Did you have any of the cast in mind for the characters when writing the script?
A. There were a couple of Romanian actors that I was very fixated on getting for the film. The first was Ion Haiduc, a stage and screen veteran who is most familiar to horror fans as “Lt. Marin” from the SUBSPECIES films. I’ve always been a fan of his and met him in 1997, on PHANTOM TOWN, a Full Moon movie where I also met Josephina. We both thought Ion would be perfect as a stage actor who Mara interviews about her mother. He was performing in a show while we were there, but made time for us and our movie.
Another actor we both wanted was Gabi Spahiu, who we also met on PHANTOM TOWN. That was his first movie and since then, he’s been in over 100 movies including HIGH TENSION (2003) and Radu Jude’s DRACULA (2025). He’s a very busy guy but once again, Josephina was persistent and we were able to get him to play a historian in our film. It was wonderful to reunite with these two actors and their performances add a lot of weight to the film.
Q. What were some of your influences for the look and style of the film?
A. I tried to find ways to open the movie up beyond the found footage genre as much as possible and give it a more cinematic, atmospheric look, in both the locations, the pacing of the action and even the time of day we would film. I wanted TRANSYLVANIA TAPES to feel more like a Euro Horror movie from the 70s or 80s than a “found footage” movie. Some of my influences were DON’T LOOK NOW (1973), VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS (1970), HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (1981), THE CHURCH (1989) and Jean
Rollin’s films. The first three SUBSPECIES movies and VAMPIRE JOURNALS (1997), beautifully shot Gothic
horror films that Ted Nicolaou directed in Romania in the 90s, were also reference points. We even filmed at some of the same locations that Ted used in those films.
To give the movie an extra visual layer, occasionally you see the “Transylvania Tapes” themselves, which is Hi-8 video footage from 1997. We shot that material in 2025, but treated it with filters and vintage sounds and ambiences, to make it feel much older. These sequences are purely visual, and when combined with Mara’s voice over, give the movie a dreamlike quality like Euro Horror of the past.
Q. Did you make any changes from the original script during filming?
A. For the most part, we stuck to the script, but we did make some changes once we arrived in Romania. In the Bucharest section, we had to rewrite some parts for different locations, because of changes in the city, and we also added a few scenes when we got inspired by new things we found while scouting. But we knew that would happen and welcomed it.
The Sighisoara (Transylvania) part stayed closer to the script, but that also had some adjustments, especially in the last section, when Mara finally finds her ancestral home. We knew what we wanted but had no idea exactly what we would use for that location. Thankfully, once we got to Sighisoara, Josephina found a really cool abandoned property a short walk from our hotel, that actually worked better for the scripted action and dialogue than the imaginary house we had written. In situations like this, the found footage format works for you, because it offers more narrative flexibility.
Q. What were some of your favourite moments during filming?
A. I can think of a few. Some of them were the kind of “happy accidents” that I was just talking about. For example, in Bucharest, we were filming a scene with our actress Valeria outside a 300 year-old church, in a very touristy area. A street vendor approached us with a bunch of parakeets, which will “pick your fortune” for a dollar or two. I knew the game and had even fallen victim to it in the past, and normally we would have told him no thanks, but I realized this would be perfect for the movie. So, we got Valeria on camera interacting with him, he put the bird on her head, etc. It adds a sense of spontaneity to the movie, and it’s also funny – which is nice because the film gets much darker later. This little unscripted bit ended up in the movie and also the trailer.
At the same church, on a different day, Josephina and I were shooting second unit on Good Friday when a major religious procession started coming out the door and into the street, with dozens of monks and nuns chanting, bearing flags with images of Christ on the cross, holding candles, etc. And of course I got it all on camera, and ended up putting it in the movie.
Filming with Ion Haiduc was a very memorable experience. We filmed at his apartment, which is like a museum of art and theatre. His scene only took about an hour to shoot but afterward, he served us dinner and we just sat around trading stories for hours. Before we left, he gifted us some handmade artwork. So, that was one of the highlights of the shoot.
In Transylvania, we had a funny experience while shooting outside the abandoned house I mentioned earlier. We filmed a lot of scenes there, and at some point, we got the attention of a neighbour, who owned a nearby B&B and made his own plum brandy. At first, we thought he would want us to leave, but instead it was the opposite: he invited us for a tour of his inn, and served us some brandy…at 10 a.m.! This was a very Romanian experience. It reminded me of the kind of warmth, hospitality and humour which made me fall in love with the country back in ‘97.
Q. Did you experience any issues during filming?
A. So many things could have gone wrong on this film, but thankfully we never had any serious problems during the shoot. Our actress Valeria Badiuc, who we cast online and had never met before the first day of rehearsal, was so prepared and enthusiastic. We were very lucky with her.
It was colder than we expected, and we even had unseasonable snow at times (which of course I featured in the film), but almost no rain. Which for Bucharest in April is pretty amazing! The fact that we were able to shoot in so many public places, without permits, and not get shut down, was a miracle. There were a few shots that took 15 takes or so to get right, because they were sometimes long unbroken takes, moving through public spaces, and with a fair amount of dialogue from Valeria. Getting those shots boiled down more to patience than anything. No one seemed particularly interested in what we were doing. People are more used to small cameras thanks to bloggers, etc – in fact, if anyone asked, we were making a travel vlog. But nobody ever really asked. So, we were very blessed on this shoot.
Q. What makes Transylvania Tapes stand out as something different in the horror genre?
A. Each movie you make is a chance to contribute something new to the genre, and I think we’ve done that with TRANSYLVANIA TAPES. On a story level, there is material in this movie that has never been explored before, a lot of which is very personal to Josephina and I. And on a visual level, there is no other found footage movie that will truly take you on a journey through Romania like this film does. I think found footage fans will enjoy its unique spin on the genre, and Euro Horror fans will enjoy the atmosphere and call-backs to another era. Also, I’m proud that the “horror” in TRANSYLVANIA TAPES is not your typical vampire, zombie, etc. but a new type of supernatural horror that is unique to our film.
Q. What do you hope people take away after watching the film?
A. More than anything, I want TRANSYLVANIA TAPES to be an immersive experience, so by the end, the viewer will feel like they’ve really spent time with Mara and travelled with her throughout Romania. Through our movie, they will see different sides to the country, as I have seen over the years, and see that there is a lot more to it than the usual “Dracula” or Communist cliches.
Aside from that, I hope the audience really cares about Mara by the end of the film. One of the positive aspects of found footage is that it allows the viewer to have a more direct (and deeper) connection with the characters, and hopefully that will be the case with TRANSYLVANIA TAPES.
Q. Do you have any other projects which you are currently working on?
A. We’re always working on several projects at once. Aside from finishing TRANSYLVANIA TAPES, we have been working on Blu Ray restorations and special features for some of the first films that Josephina and I made through Nightfall Pictures, WITHIN THE WOODS (2005) and MUTATION (2006). I also have other restoration projects that I’m supervising for my earlier movies like VIOLENT STREETS (2025). But TRANSYLVANIA TAPES is our top priority right now.
Q. If someone was looking to write and direct their own film what advice would you give them?
A. First of all, make some shorts before you direct a feature. You can discover your strengths and weaknesses that way and find some collaborators that will help you on your feature. When you sit down to write a feature, write a movie you’d like to see, that hasn’t ever been made before, and then go make it. And make sure this is a project you care deeply about, because you’ll work very hard to make it, and promote it, and get it released, and you’ll be living with it for the rest of your life. Film is forever.
You can watch Transylvania Tapes at the Horror-On-Sea Takeover on Saturday 6th June at 18:30hrs.
You can find out more about Nightfall Pictures on the Website
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You can find out more about the festival and purchase tickets here.
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!