Blurred Lines is a feminist, queer-led short film, starring Emmerdale’s Matthew Wolfenden, that explores the impact of county lines through a feminist horror lens. Written by a Grimsby-born creative who has witnessed the effects of exploitation first-hand, the social issue film follows a queer teenage girl groomed into a drug gang, blending social realism with psychological horror to reveal the blurred boundaries between protection and control.
Blurred Lines is about to start it’s festival run, updates can be found:
- Via this website
- On Evulves Instagram: @evulveproductions
- On Blurred Lines Instagram: @blurredlinesshortfilm_
County lines stories have been told before, but rarely through a queer, female lens — why do you think the industry has consistently missed this angle?
Becki: Within the media, particularly in TV, there is an extremity of creating generic stories around the themes of County Lines. There is an oversensationalism of working-class people on our screens and a stereotypical portrayal of queer experiences. Therefore, I think that’s why the industry misses their narratives, as it relies on creating stories for dramatic effect rather than the need for representation or consideration for those involved. With the Television industry still lacking in diversity these types of stories aren’t getting told as there is still a lack of understanding regarding why these stories are important or how they can be used as educational tools. Therefore, I hope Blurred Lines can be used to steer the industry in a more truthful narrative.
Esme: In my early twenties I was a support worker for female care leavers, in a county lines area, and many were at risk of being groomed into gangs. And I kept thinking: how do you truly teach someone that the person who’s been nice to them is actually dangerous? The conversation in the media is still centred too narrowly – focussing on young men from London – and the queer dimension is almost entirely absent. Blurred Lines doesn’t just centre women – it centres queer young women, who are an underrepresented group both in society and especially in how these stories get told.
Esme, how did Evulve’s mission shape the way this film was actually made, both in front of and behind the camera?
It shaped almost every decision: behind the camera, we ask everyone’s accessibility needs before we shoot – making sure there are chairs for people who need them, food throughout the whole day, that everyone actually feels taken care of. That might sound small but it changes the energy on set entirely, and it’s non-negotiable for us. In front of the camera, we made a conscious choice to cast people with a genuine connection to the story. Becki is from Grimsby and wrote from lived experience of witnessing county lines in the north of England. We cast Matthew Wolfenden —-who people will know from Emmerdale – partly because he’s northern, and he speaks in the making-of documentary about his own knowledge of county lines issues coming from up north. That mattered to us because so much of the media conversation about gang crime is London-centric, but county lines activity happens all over the country. Gangs relocate, they find quieter bases, they move into areas that don’t make the news. We wanted to tell this story honestly, and that meant the people telling it needed a real relationship to it.
The film blends social realism with psychological horror, how do you make sure that framing serves the story rather than sensationalising it?
Esme: It comes from truth rather than fabrication. This isn’t a story that was constructed from an idea – it comes from research, lived experience, and people who know this world. I think when the material is rooted that way, the tone tends to follow. There’s a closing shot in the film that I think captures exactly what we were going for – the camera looks right down Ellie’s eyes, and it just pulls you completely into her world. That’s not horror for the sake of horror, but an invitation to understand her. Every visual choice was made in service of staying with Ellie, keeping the audience inside her experience rather than watching it from a distance.
Becki: When writing the first draft of Blurred Lines, I wasn’t paying attention to what genre the film was going to be. I was focused on how to tell the story with authenticity and truth. With Blurred Lines being a character driven piece that avoids being another generic psychological horror film. In addition, the script isn’t in chronological order and it was on purpose as I find when people tell traumatic stories to other people they don’t tell it chronologically as the person remembers other details or something distracts. So when following Ellie, I wanted the film to feel like it’s from her, truly, and following how she would remember events.
The cost-of-living crisis runs underneath this as a real driver of vulnerability — who do you most want to see this film, and what do you want them to do with it?
Esme: Policymakers, would be amazing- we’re already working with Stevenage Borough Council and Friends of SADA – a domestic abuse charity doing significant work for people with experiences of domestic violence – and those relationships came directly from making this film! Those conversations need to happen at every level.
Becki: Like Esme said, we want Policymakers to see this film. With everything becoming more unaffordable the rise in crime and gangs is exceptional. However, nobody really seems to care; therefore, we want this film, on every level, to start conversations about what can be done to help people who need it.
What do you both hope Blurred Lines changes?
Esme: The cost-of-living crisis is making more young people vulnerable and more susceptible to being drawn into situations like this, because they don’t feel like they have other options. I want them to watch this and know that they do. I want everyone who watches it to walk away with more compassion – for the person they read about in a headline, for the young woman they might see on the street and not understand. That’s the thing that changes behaviour more than any campaign- compassion.
Becki: There’s a lot of things I want Blurred Lines to change. Blurred Lines highlights how hard it has been and currently is for single parents. Ellie’s mum is a Nurse, a job which is highly respected yet the pay for decades has been disproportionate to how hard the job is. Ellie’s mum should be able to afford having a family by herself but she can’t. I want the government to provide more help for working single parents with more than 25% off council tax (why it’s not 50% i’ll never understand!). Furthermore, I want victims of County Lines to know there is a way out. Too often people involved feel trapped with no way out, but this isn’t the case as there’s amazing organisations that do help like St Giles charity. Blurred Lines also creates more truthful representation for queer women and I want them to feel less alone and confused.