Overview
Seeing the filming of many music promos and mixing with actresses and people working in the film industry whetted her appetite for acting even more and strengthened her resolve to get into the film industry proper. Eileen always loved horror films and had wanted to star in them so when she started getting parts in a few independent horror films, it changed her focus on what she wanted to do. It was around this time that she met Nigel Wingrove and together they started up a company called Redemption Films. The recognition she got from the Redemption work became the turning point of her career.Redemption Films used an image of Eileen as its company logo and this became part of its marketing strategy with Eileen featuring as Redemption's Dark Angel in specially filmed intros to the many foreign and cult films released on the label.
Many of the films released featured Eileen acting out scenes from the film on their covers and this together with the consistent design of their packaging gave the company a strong identity and made the films collectable. She also featured on a range of Redemption merchandise as diverse as mugs, T-shirts, posters, prints and even pin badges.
Redemption re-published the novelisation of the Hammer film ''Countess Dracula'' and a photo shoot featuring Eileen was set up to add a series of images to the book and to provide its cover image; the images were later sold as a limited edition photo set and Eileen was interviewed for Video World magazine at the time and a video of the interview was given away as a cover mount. Eileen was hoping at that time to work with French Director Jean Rollin, many of whose films were marketed by Redemption Films, after meeting with him in Paris but it was sadly not to be. a similar fate befell a possible Betty Page film to be directed by Richard Driscoll originally scheduled for 2003.
She has appeared in films such as ''All About Anna'' for Innocent Pictures, ''Cradle of Fear'', ''Messages'', ''Kannibal'', ''Sentinels of Darkness'', ''N(eon)'', ''Machines of Love & Hate'', ''Razor Blade Smile'', ''Witchcraft X'', ''Evil Calls: The Raven'' reuniting her with ''Kannibal'' director Richard Driscoll, ''Sacred Flesh'' and most recently a series of films with the American actor Joe Zaso culminating in several films with German director and musician Timo Rose. These later films include ''Darkness Surrounds Roberta'', ''Timo Rose's Beast'', ''Braincell'', ''Unrated'' and ''Karl The Butcher Vs Axe''. She has acted as associate producer on several of her latter films.
Eileen has undoubtedly portrayed a vampire onscreen more times than any other British actress with at least four different vampire characters. She has also provided voices for animated characters notably in ''Monsters Of The ID''.
She has worked with Dave McKean the artist behind The Sandman and the film ''MirrorMask'' on his short film ''N(eon)'' which is available on a DVD collection of short films entitled ''Keanoshow''.
Some reviewers have dismissed some of Eileen's acting but they have tended to overlook the fact than many of her film roles are low, or micro, budget where rehearsal and re-takes of scenes are not always possible. In many of her roles she has shown an instinctive gift for comedy.
"But she has something more than great acting skill, she’s got charm and an undeniable chemistry with the camera." M. J. Simpson writing about Eileen in ''Razor Blade Smile''.
Demonsoul
A young girl is troubled by bad dreams and visits a seedy hypnotherapist, who is a bit more "hypno the rapist" than therapist, and unwittingly releases the spirit of a vampire trapped within her. This is a case of Past life regression. The vampire's spirit then attempts to take over the young girl's body. Eileen plays the vampire's human servant/familiar who is attempting to bring her mistress back to life and who haunts the young girl's dreams. The film directed by Elisar Cabrera has effective imagery and Eileen looks wonderful. Unavailable in any other form than an American VHS cassette for several years this film was released on DVD in 2009.Pervirella
''Pervirella'' was a low budget movie directed by Alex Chandon and which featured Eileen as the queen of a tribe of Amazon women living in harmony with nature who aid the heroine Pervirella in her steampunk quest to obtain a longevity formula for a horrific alternative version of Queen Victoria. The film had an eclectic cast list including Jonathan Ross, Mark Lamar, David Warbeck and Emily Booth as the title character. The film commenced with a series of faux trailers that were actually introductions to the film proper and its characters.Witchcraft X: Mistress of The Craft
Tenth film in the variable Witchcraft series (the series currently runs to 13 films) directed by Elisar Cabrera in which Eileen plays the leader of a coven of vampires. The coven falls in with a serial killer in an attempt to control the power of a demon. Eileen has some great humorous dialogue and plays the vampire in a broad comic book style that is one of the better elements of the film. A white witch and an American detective attempt to stop the evil pair in their plot.Razor Blade Smile
This film was probably the last great independent British horror film of the 1990s and certainly one of the last to be filmed on celuloid before the changeover to video for most low budget independent films. Eileen was given the principal role of Lilith Silver, the protagonist of the film, a frequently fetish clad hitwoman and adventurer who also happens to be a vampire. The role required a range of disciplines and included sword fights, gun battles, stunts and extensive fight scenes. Eileen is not only on-screen for, almost, the film's entire running time but provides narration for the film. The film, whilst being at the time, the cheapest ever film to receive a cinema distribution in the United Kingdom (with an initial budget of £12,000) marked a turning point in vampire cinema which had become something of a joke, with the exceptions being the Hollywood blockbusters of the mid-1990s Bram Stoker's Dracula and Interview With the Vampire, and created a number of much more action oriented and serious vampire films. The role of Lilith Silver, a catsuited vampire hitwoman, would influence Kate Beckinsale in the ''Underworld'' and the look of vampires in the ''Blade'' series among others.Her performance garnered much praise in the press at the time and Eileen was awarded several awards for her performance in the film.
Eileen and the director Jake West provided a commentary track for the "Special Edition" of the film.
Awards for Razor Blade Smile include Grand Prize at the Gérardmer Film Festival (2000), Honorable Mention at the Sweden Fantastic Film Festival (1998), a "Vampire Oscar" for Eileen at Vampyria II in London and the film won most of the top awards in the first B-Movie Film Festival (1999), including Best B-Movie, Director (Jake West), Actress (Eileen Daly), Cinematography, and Special Effects.
SFX magazine voted the character of Lilith Silver the 37th sexiest vampire of all time.
Box Office 09/01/1999 "...Striking cinematography....Intense editing....Sometimes style is everything..."
Kannibal
Directed and written by Richard Driscoll this film united Eileen with American Scream Queen Linnea Quigley in a tale of the "Russian Mafia", cannibalism and revenge. Eileen portrayed a Russian dealer in drugs and pornography and the lesbian lover of the character played by Quigley. The entire role called for Eileen to adopt a "Russian" accent. This is the second film in which Eileen's character would be crucified onscreen (the first being ''Sentinels Of Darkness'').Cradle of Fear
Alex Chandon, wanted to create a horror anthology film in the style of the old Amicus Productions of the 1960s and 1970s the gory, violent and entertaining anthology ''Cradle of Fear'' is the result. Dani Filth, the voice of Dominator and lead singer of goth metal band Cradle of Filth (for whom Chandon directed two very dark and disturbing promo videos), is The Man, an enigmatic figure working for an imprisoned child killer who provides the link between four stories in which not terribly pleasant people are each killed in a gruesome manner and, in a break from traditional anthology films, a lot of innocent people also meet terrible ends for no particular reason.The third segment features Eileen as the girlfriend of a man who has lost a leg and has lost his sex drive. The boyfriend then kills another man so that his missing limb (and libido) can be replaced. A large Cradle of Filth poster is onscreen during the murder as are some other, probably quite rare, movie posters. Essentially a spin on the old transplant-from-a-murderer scenario. The role is essentially a straight one with Eileen playing well a girlfriend trying to console her partner and being rebuffed due to his own obsession with his missing limb. She delivers without doubt the best line of dialogue in the feature and injects just the right amount of gravitas into her role to make that line all the more hilarious. There is a wonderful montage of scenes showing the couple in a park as the man works on getting used to his new limb. A version of Eileen's song "Plastic Surgery" is included in one scene during Eileen's segment.
Machines Of Love And Hate
A young woman accidentally runs down a hitchhiker who has a fragmented memory of his past and takes him to her isolated family home to recover. There he meets her disabled father and her mother played by Eileen and a cycle of horror and nightmare scenes begins where dreams and reality intertwine. This film features David Runco, Devon Mikolas and Tina Krause and features remarkably good cinematography. Eileen showed her versatility again by playing different variations on her character almost from scene to scene due to fragmented nature of the story. This film also features a wonderful argument scene where she rants against her on screen husband. The film also includes an amazing knife sharpening scene that is truly inspired. Eileen plays the mother of the character played by Tina Krause despite only actually being seven years her senior.All About Anna
''All About Anna'', directed by Jessica Nilsson, is a film from a company associated with the director Lars Von Trier and is one of several films made to appeal to a female audience featuring hardcore sex scenes and scenes of a very adult nature. The film complies with a "Puzzy Power Manifesto" which lays down strict guidelines of what should and should not be included in the film in order that it be tailored for female rather than male sensibilities. As Camilla, the flatmate of the Anna of the title played by Gry Bay, Eileen plays her role for laughs (and was directed to do so) however there is an emotional arc to her character who starts the film treating sex "as men do" as disposable fun and then finds that she has fallen in love with one of her boyfriends. Notable scenes are her failed seduction of Johan (unknown to her Anna's true love) and scenes where she drunkenly tries to initiate sex with her equally drunken boyfriend whilst covered in cotton buds.Both Eileen and actor Adrian Bouchet (aka Mark Stevens) provided an entertaining commentary to the film when it was released on DVD. The film is available in a "soft" version from Germany.
The film had a limited theatrical run in 2009 as a double bill with Lars Von Trier's ''Antichrist''.
Darkness Surrounds Roberta
Starring Eileen, Timo Rose, Joe Zaso, Yasmin Pucci and Raine Brown filmed in the style of an Italian Giallo and with location filming in Florence and Naples the film is a stylish thriller. Zaso plays a blind American policeman relocated to Italy and Eileen plays the manager of an escort/model agency three girls from which have been murdered. In a counterpoint to the blind character played by Zaso Eileen plays a game, at one point in the film, where she is touched by different people whilst her eyes are closed and has to guess their identity. At the time of the production Eileen was treated in hospital but her dedication meant that she still reported to work and completed her role in the film.Timo Rose's Beast
Alex (Joe Zaso) returns home after he and his girlfriend are attacked and she is murdered. Reuniting with his sister Raine Brown and stepmother, played by Eileen, he is plagued by guilt and also deeply affected by his experience. Meanwhile a pair of monster hunters are tracking a werewolf which is heading in the direction of Alex's home. The film features surprisingly good effects using suggestion rather than extensive make-up and an excellent music score by Marco Werba. The film was filmed mostly on location in Germany with some inserts shot in other countries. As well as featuring in this film Eileen acted as an associate producer.Darkness Calls: the Raven
Originally titled "Alone in the Dark" the title of this film was altered in order not to clash with the film of the popular videogame. Directed by Richard Driscoll the film features an amazing cast including the late Norman Wisdom, Jason Donovan, Rick Mayall and Robin Askwith. A voiceover of actor Christopher Walken reading Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven also features in the film. The film borrows heavily elements from The Shining, Blair Witch and Evil Dead and is currently unavailable in any format. It has confusingly been announced that the film is both the first film in a trilogy and the first film in a trilogy of two. Eileen plays a psychic who accompanies a group of people into woods that have been cursed and may herself be a serial killer.Adapted from the Wikipedia article Eileen Daly, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
