Leicester Square screening

Chichester-based Annabella Rich and her partner Chris Mills have secured a prestigious slot for the world premiere of their new psychological horror film The Death Of Us.

It will be screened in Leicester Square at FRIGHTFEST LONDON, taking place over the late summer Bank Holiday weekend. The Death Of Us will be shown on Saturday, August 29 at 1.05pm, with tickets available on https://frightfest.co.uk/LondoN2026/tickets.html

Bella said: “It is amazing. I'm just one of just five new directors chosen for it. It's amazing to be premiering alongside some massive films and some other really amazing independent films.”

Bella and Chris co-wrote the film and play the leads Casey and Danny. Bella is also the director and Chris the producer, with cinematography by Raffaele Nocerino and an original score by David Wright. Locations included the Chichester area and also the Ashdown Forest.

Chris describes the film as a psychological horror thriller which deals with the effects of grief and “poses the question how do people pass through the hardest things in their life and come out the other side with some semblance of their humanity left.”

“The film follows a couple that have just hit fame and are subjected to a home invasion that goes wrong. The whole thing puts them in disarray, and because they are in the spotlight it is all put across YouTube and so on.”

The point of interest for Bella is that they are a healthy couple: “I couldn't find any films where the couple really was actually healthy. Usually they've cheated or they've done things and that's the way they find the conflict. But I needed to find the conflict in other ways which made it quite an interesting film to write.”

During the home invasion their child is murdered and so is the babysitter:

As they struggle to come to terms with their loss and its devastating impact, Casey is haunted by visions of a supernatural entity connected to their tragedy while partner Danny becomes entangled in the actions of the cult responsible for their devastating nightmare

“The film follows Casey’s character and Danny’s character in the aftermath of it all. They are in separate stages of the grieving process. Danny's character is depressed but Casey is furious. She is furious throughout the film. Before, women just used to cry a little bit on screen but now we're seeing women who can really show anger throughout a film and you can really see her emotional development, all of her anger and there's also quite a lot of gaslighting towards her.”

Bella is delighted with the way the film developed during the making: “We have just cut it from 93 minutes to 88 minutes which is quite a lot off a film but we wanted to make it tighter. We are really pleased with it.

“Casey for me is a character that was in a really safe relationship, and that has been taken away. She becomes very internalised in her thoughts and she becomes a really angry character for all the right reasons. She does not follow the typical female trope of going quiet. She just starts bubbling and trying to work out what has gone wrong. She is a very layered character.”

And she is the perfect juxtaposition with Danny, played by Chris.

Chris said: “Danny is Mr Let's Fix It, Mr Let's Make It Right. He wants to protect his other half as best he can. But it ends up that Danny is constantly met with adversity. His redeeming characteristic is that he really wants to carry on but he becomes quite shut down and instead of voicing his feelings he becomes quite introverted. Casey is craving to see that Danny is feeling what she is feeling but he is so closed off, and it becomes a source of conflict between them. They are very layered characters and there are lots of triggers. We have really built up those layers.”

The film cost between £35,000 and £40,000 to make, including their own money, some private investment and a crowdfunder.

Chris is thrilled with the results: “Bella and I have acted opposite each other before, but this is her first time directing and she took to it like a duck to water.”

They are currently talking to distributors and setting up meetings with sales agents and looking at other festivals but the hope would be to release the film on a streaming platform, maybe early next year, latest next summer.