The crime writer itching to make a midges horror film

The dreaded biting Highland midge could be set for horror movie infamy.

Scottish crime novelist JD Kirk has pitched the concept of mutant flesh-eating midges to his readers.

His fans' reaction to just a few lines of script and mocked-up movie stills has encouraged him to pursue the idea further.

With fellow writer Alex Smith he hopes to work up a full script and eventually secure the backing needed for the film to be made.

Real-life biting midges are well-known to residents and visitors of Scotland, particularly the Highlands.

They are often encountered on mild, damp summer evenings, and are the scourge of campers and hillwalkers.

Female midges gather in swarms of millions as they seek out a blood meal to feed their eggs, leaving many of their human "victims" with red, itchy sores.

"I think the real menace of the midge is that they are tiny and there are so many of them," said Fort William-based Kirk.

After 10 years writing children's stories for publishers Harper Collins and Penguin, and stints writing comedy sci-fi and Beano comic storylines, Kirk has established himself as a crime writer with his DCI Jack Logan Highland police series.

He is also involved in the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival.

Along with Smith, author of his own line of DCI Robert Kett novels, Kirk has written TV and film scripts which are at various stages of development.

Kirk said: "We were bouncing some ideas back and forth the other day to what the scariest Scottish creature was."

Mutant hairy haggis were suggested and quickly dropped, before the chat turned to midges.

Kirk said: "That led me to thinking what if someone releases a chemical to wipe out the midge menace but it makes it a semi-indestructible creature that can strip the flesh from a man in seconds?"

Kirk sought to sound out his readers' views on the idea in posts on social media and his blog.

He uploaded concept movie stills made using AI imaging tool Midjourney.

"I'd opened the images in Photoshop and used the spray tool to add millions of midges," said Kirk.

"The readers of my books went crazy for it."

He said a next step in the story's development could be a crowdfunded low-budget short Scottish horror film.

The idea of monster midges may have been lodged in Kirk's memory since his youth.

"Thirty years ago at high school I went on a camping trip for a Duke of Edinburgh Award and there was a point where I thought I was going to be consumed by the midges," he said.

"I imagined my stripped skeleton being presented back to my parents, with a bronze award as consolation."