A MONSTER movie is taking some of the horror out of the recession for one small Donegal community.
Hotels, bars and restaurants on the Inishowen peninsula have been enjoying a boost in January trade since the 100-strong cast and crew of comedy-horror Grabbersrolled into town.
The film stars Richard Coyle ( Coupling), Ruth Bradley ( The Clinic), Russell Tovey ( Being Human) and Bronagh Gallagher ( The Commitments).
It tells the story of giant, squid-like creatures that attack the inhabitants of an Irish seaside village until someone discovers the monsters don’t like the flavour of drunk people.
Dominic McDermott, who runs mobile coffee outlet Caffe Banba, has seen sales soar since shooting of the Irish Film Board-supported movie began more than three weeks ago.
The father of four from Malin Head follows the film crew around in his coffee-bar on wheels and has seen daily sales of his lattes, cappuccinos, mochas and espressos jump 10-fold.
“I would normally sell around €20 to €30 worth of coffee a day but my sales have jumped to between €150 and €250 a day thanks to the film crew. It’s a brilliant boost at this time of year and during the recession,” said Mr McDermott.
Other local businesses have also seen a much-needed boost to start-of-year sales.
The Carlton Redcastle Hotel is the movie’s production base and management there have enjoyed block-booking of rooms for the past month.
General manager Ian Wynne said most of the cast and crew stayed at the hotel, with many rooms also booked out for editing suites and accounts offices.
"Over 75 per cent of the hotel was taken with the Grabbersfilm crew for the majority of January. It is excellent to have that business in, especially after the snow in December which hit the area hugely and tourism especially," said Mr Wynne.
“It means that for January we can recoup what we lost in December and also secure staff moving forward as the business continues to grow.”
Coastal Inishowen is fast becoming a film location hotspot and Manchester-born Mr McDermott knows the benefits that a sprinkling of movie dust can bring. He started Caffe Banba with his wife, Andrea, nearly three years ago. They got lucky in the first month when Hollywood stars Aidan Quinn and Connie Nielson arrived in the locality to shoot the heart-warming feature A Shine of Rainbows in May 2008.
He and other local businesses are hoping for future movie magic when the latest crew move on to Belfast at the end of this week.