Hastings film-maker's movie starring Bill Fellows and Jane Asher released on Amazon Prime

David Bryant’s film, called Splinter, was shot in Hastings and stars Coronation Street and Ted Lasso actor Bill Fellows, as well as Jane Asher.

He said: “Having produced a few low budget features before, including Drunk on Love which was shot in and around the pubs of Hastings, I designed Splinter as a single location film, all set in the lead character’s home, so it could be shot fast and on very little money.

"We had a tiny crew in comparison to other films and I wrote the script so that it would feature just two characters at any time.

"This allowed me to get actors involved as I wasn't asking for weeks of their life. I wrote the script especially for Bill Fellows, who is a Bexhill resident and who I had met through film friends. Jane Asher, Michael McKell and the other cast came on board as they liked the script and I only asked them for two days filming.

"I had worked with Jane on Drunk on Love and we got on very well and she was very happy to play a psychiatrist in Splinter. Bill won Best Actor for the role at Unrestricted View Horror Film Festival (I also won Best Director) and was then cast in Corrie, soon becoming a favourite character as Stu Carpenter.”

Following the brutal murder of his wife and son on Christmas Eve, Splinter features John fighting to cope with life alone.

When strange happenings start to occur during the night, John believes his family has returned and is trying to contact him but as events escalate, his mental health worsens, until he nears total psychological collapse.

David added: “I have always been a huge fan of the psychological thriller and horror genres. Classics such as Psycho, Se7en and The Sixth Sense have stayed with me, and my goal was to create a haunting psychological chiller of my own, that will stay with the audience way past the end credits.

“The key to this story was to make John a believable and sympathetic character. He is a complex person, lost in a world of pain, and his suffering makes him empathetic, someone to identify with and invest in.”