Author releases crime-fighting novel set in Dorchester

The Film Freaks follows the story of five cinema workers who have been pushed into fighting crime in what the author, Johnny Sawyer describes as ‘the complete antithesis of a traditional superhero movie.’

Something has gone terribly wrong in the film business. A 300-hundred-year-old judge is back and sending locals to the gallows.

A Roman legion is about to attack shoppers in Dorchester high street, and a highwayman is riding through the night, trying to murder tourists on his headless horse.

Johnny Sawyer (Image: Johnny Sawyer)

Now, as Johnny who grew up in Dorchester, attending Thomas Hardye School, explains, "Obviously superheroes aren’t available to save the town. They don’t exist. So, it falls to a group of disabled cinema workers – with mind blowing disabilities.’

The story follows Allison the cinema cleaner, Toby the new girl, Dylan the cinema caretaker, Gadge and Max the hotdog guy.

The Film Freaks is his debut novel, with the idea for this book stemming from a 'boredom of traditional superhero stories.'

A Dorset author has released a ‘genre breaking fantasy novel’ set in Dorchester (Image: Johnny Sawyer)

Johnny said: "I work full time in a secondary school in Hertfordshire with a blind student. I modify teachers lessons into braille and support the student in class.

"I actually got the inspiration from a lot of the main characters in the book from students with additional needs that I have worked with over the last 17 years in schools."

Having worked within schools for so many years with people with additional needs, the author explained that he ‘wanted to write something with disabled characters in it, who were not stereotypical wimps.’

Johnny, who has also worked in TV entertainment development and performed as a comedian, said: “Allison is incredibly OCD and tends to import illegal cleaning products from Africa that the group use to get rid of dead bodies after battles because in real life as we know, people tend to go to prison if dead bodies are found everywhere.

“Toby is completely paraplegic but has incredibly tough metal legs, then there’s also Dylan, he’s severely autistic, he collects power tools and isn’t afraid to use them.

“There’s Gadge, he’s in a wheelchair, nobody knows why, and everyone is too polite to ask and finally, there’s Max, he’s also the groups getaway driver and he’s completely blind.”

Johnny is already working on the sequel to the book.

The Film Freaks is available to purchase here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CPX9Q4JJ.