Ghost Street

Page content

Welcome to Ghost Street

A spooky new film is about to give teenagers in Newcastle a supernatural lesson on road safety.

The film aimed at 12 – 16 year olds, will be shown around schools in Newcastle to raise awareness of road safety and influence teenagers behaviour to use safety advice as part of their everyday life. 

The film follows Tabby, your average and seriously distracted teenager. Living in a world of mp3 players, gossip and mobile phones until her distraction costs her dearly. Tabby finds herself trapped in an other-worldly place, a deathly-silent street until the ghosts come out to play.

Each gory character has met their end on the same street throughout the decades and each has a lesson to learn from the road.

• Skater-boy – should have looked before he skated onto the road.
• Olivia – an 80s throwback who wished she wore a helmet the first time she rode her new bike.
• and Rebecca – a pregnant teenager who should have worn a seatbelt.

Commissioned by Safe Newcastle and the City Council’s Road Safety Department, Ghost Street is to be used in schools across Newcastle as part of a lesson plans.

Cheryl Ford, Newcastle City Council’s road safety services officer, said: “Teenagers naturally expect independence. They travel on their own or with friends more than they used to and are confident that they know what to do around roads and traffic. In fact, they over-estimate their road skills.”

“We targeted teenagers for our film as research shows that around 14 years-of-age is the best chance to influence young people’s future behaviour.”

Teenagers love a good scary film and Ghost Street has plenty of creepy characters and plenty of gore to keep them hooked.”

Safe Newcastle asked the Youth Parliament to be involved in the commissioning of the film.

Cllr Anita Lower, Chair of Safe Newcastle, said “Who better to decide on what type of film we produce than the target audience themselves.

The Youth Parliament discussed the issues that affect them as pedestrians and this formed the basis of the messages in the film. They were very excited by the idea of Ghost Street and felt that a thrilling fictional story would engage them more.

Previous road safety films have raised the bar in what’s expected from this type of educational film and I think Ghost Street meets this level.”

Chris Chapman, of Dene Films, wrote and produced Ghost Street, said: “We had tremendous fun making the film but always had a focus on the serious nature behind the film. The young cast worked tirelessly in some testing conditions and the make-up team brought each character to life in wonderful grisly detail. We wanted to create a fictional drama that young people would enjoy watching and were going to remember for a long time.”

A sneek peek of Ghost Street can be seen at www.ghoststreet.co.uk