Nigel Wingrove founded Redemption Films in 1992 following the banning of his film 'Visions of Ecstasy' in 1989/90. Redemption was set to distribute and market European horror films and Redemption was largely responsible for introducing the work of Jean Rollin, Jess Franco and Dario Argento to a mainstream horror audience. Wingrove followed up the success of the Redemption label with Jezebel, a sister label, which specialized in European and British sex comedies and erotica from the 1960s and 1970s. Sacrament which specialized in contemporary Japanese 'Pink' cinema and 'Purgatory' which championed cutting-edge adult material, including initially the films of Michael Ninn and the Dark Brothers followed.

In the mid noughties Wingrove diversified the companies activities still further with the creation of the Satanic Sluts, an all girl Internet collective which achieved notoriety in 2008 when one of its number, Georgina Bailie the granddaughter of actor Andrew Sachs, found herself at the centre of the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand Sachsgate scandal. The furore saw the Satanic Sluts mentioned in the House of Commons and was for a couple of weeks the main news story in the UK at that time.

Other projects during the mid to late noughties included the design and briefly publishing the UK satanist magazine Rule Satania, the running of a monthly nightclub, Black Mass, which was initially approved and sanctioned by the official Church of Satan and which became a showcase for Satanic Slut members to meet and perform their own blend of horror and exploitation themed Burlesque. More diversifying followed with the short lived collaboration Redemption TV in 2006, the launching of record labels Triple Silence and Hydra in 2007, and the printing of a new company publication, the newspaper format Nihilista, the aim of which was to promote all aspects of the company on its pages.

However, this period of diversification also saw four of Redemption's main UK distributors close in the space of just two years, whilst in the US its distributors went through a succession of disruptive mergers. The losses incurred by these closures in the UK and forced changes in the US meant that by 2009 Redemption had had to streamline its business and concentrate on building back up its core labels and well as adapting its business model to best cope with the industries shift from conventional DVD and similar 'bricks and mortar' delivery methods to VoD, streaming and other online ways of viewing and purchasing films.

To this end, Salvation Films spent a year in effective distribution and financial limbo before signing a new distribution deal for the UK with 4 Digital in December 2010. Salvation then opened into negotiations with the prestigious US film company, Kino Lorber in February 2011, with Redemption eventually exiting from its previous distributor, the Warner owned, ADA, in August 2011. Salvation Films and Kino Lorber formally announced their new US distribution deal on the 26th October 2011. At the same time Wingrove brought in the long-standing and acclaimed films of Paris based distributor Euro London whose extensive library of horror and exploitation titles would now also be released in the US through Kino Lorber on the Salvation created labels Redemption and Jezebel.

2012 has seen Salvation's library of titles, including the works of French director Jean Rollin, being completely remastered into High Definition by Kino Lorber and released to great critical acclaim on Redemption in Blu-ray. Meanwhile in the UK Salvation is continuing to break new ground by offering its films online via cutting-edge streaming and VoD facilities, and by having signed the major horror indy title, Humans Versus Zombies, a zombie title inspired by the successful game of the same name and which sold over 90,000 units in the US in its first week of release.

On January 31st 2012 the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) announced that Nigel Wingrove's controversial short film, Visions of Ecstasy, which had been banned for 23 years on the grounds of blasphemy, was finally being passed. Visions of Ecstasy was released on 2nd April 2012 and an announcement regarding its US release will be made soon.

Further projects in development are the relaunching of the Satanic Sluts, including the making of a number of Satanic Slut films, the production of the Sci-Fi Nunsploitation feature film 'Sisters of Armageddon', and the publication of a book, 'If Needs Must the Devil Drives: The Story of Redemption Films' in 2013 to coincide with Redemption's 20th Anniversary.

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Nigel Wingrove

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Thanks

Self