A HORROR FILM written and produced by local residents has gone on to receive international acclaim.

The feature-length ‘folk horror’ flim Dogged, directed by Richard Rowntree of Iver Heath, has won ‘Best Horror’ awards at major film festivals across UK and USA.

The film, that was written and produced by a team of four filmmakers from Windsor, Slough, Langley and Iver Heath, was shot at locations in Iver and Farnham Royal with the help of local drama groups.

Mr Rowntree, 39, of St David’s Close, Iver Heath, said: “We’ve put it on at nine festivals so far – we won Best Horror at Glasgow Horror Fest, and Best International Horror at the Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival in New York. We also won Best Producers at the San Antonio Horrific Film Festival. We’ve had five awards and 14 nominations.”

Dogged concerns a man who returns to his island home to visit his withdrawn parents, but news about the mysterious death of a local girl draws him into the island’s hidden underbelly of pagan cults and mysticism.

Mr Rowntree said: “It’s a folk horror film, so mostly rooted in fear of the landscape and ancient traditions.

“It was a mix of actors – some of them were locals. Our main character, Sam, the actor who plays him was from Reading. We worked with the Iver Heath Drama Club and the Slough Arts Forum for extra people.”

The film was made possible thanks to a successful campaign on the online fundraising site Kickstarter, which raised over £15,000. Of the film’s 211 donors, over half of them were from Slough.

More success is on the horizon for Mr Rowntree and his newly created production company, Ash Mountain Films, as they have successfully negotiated an international distribution deal. Mr Rowntree said: “We’ve got a distribution deal for the film on DVD, which is across the UK and the USA - The film should be coming out in April, 2018.”