Funding sought for folk horror film to be made near Chichester

Cathy and the team have already made a proof of concept for the film, ie a short film lasting 13 or 14 minutes to give people an idea of the tone and the mood of the planned full-length version. It will be key to pitching the film to potential investors so that the full-length film can be made.

For the feature-length version, the film-makers are hoping to return to Itchenor where they made the proof of concept and where Cathy grew up. The film has already won backing from Stephen Fry who contributed voice-over work to the proof of concept.

“It is folk horror and it is set in a community tainted by the effects of badly-polluted water,” Cathy explains. “It is about this couple that go on holiday into this community and disastrous things start to happen. One of the couple is really anxious and will only drink bottled water while the other one is much more free spirited and will drink tap water

Cathy is playing Mari, the anxious one. Ishtar Currie-Wilson is playing Isla.

“Mari is a workaholic actually, and the film looks quite a lot at toxic relationships. But it uses toxic relationships as a metaphor for our toxic relationship with the natural world, the relationship between humans and their natural environment which is becoming more and more abusive. It uses their relationship as a mechanism to talk about the wider issues. But it is also about the people in the town who are quite weird. They start saying some quite unusual things, and slowly Mari starts to realise there is something deeply wrong in the community as Isla starts to become possessed by the polluted water. It's a supernatural take on polluted water.”

Cathy and the team are working with River Action, a campaigning organisation on a mission to rescue Britain's rivers from a toxic cocktail of agricultural, sewage and industrial pollution.

“The idea is to make it into a full-length feature film, and we're working with a really good production company. Stephen Fry is executive producer and he's got a voice-over role. He came on board through River Action UK, and he came on board because he liked the idea and supports the feeling behind it which is basically that we should not let our rivers become polluted. He is great. He is very easy to work with, very easy in person but I didn't actually have that much interaction with him. He recorded his voice-over remotely. But we've got a very good team that we're working with, with lots of experience.”

When the film will be made will obviously depend on the finances: “It is very difficult right now to finance independent films. With our last project in the UK quite a lot of the money came from outside the UK even though it was a very British film, as is this one – though obviously this one's got wider implications.”

A substantial sum is needed but Cathy is confident it will happen.