Havenfall: New Post-Apocalyptic Horror Thriller Lands from Indie Trio of Directors
Three people. One cottage. No good choices. The end of the world does not announce itself. It arrives with a knock on a cottage door.
After civilization collapses under a relentless outbreak, a hardened survivalist (Jack) and a grieving woman (Jessica) forge a fragile alliance in an isolated cottage. Their uneasy peace shatters when Jessica’s desperate brother (Daniel) arrives, searching for his missing daughter. As buried truths come to light and violence erupts, Jessica must choose between family and survival before the choice is made for her.
When a devastating outbreak brings civilisation to its knees, Jack, a hardened and solitary survivalist, retreats to a remote Welsh cottage, determined to wait out the end of the world alone. That plan unravels when Jessica, a grieving and desperate young woman, arrives at his door with nowhere else to turn.
What begins as an uneasy and reluctant arrangement slowly transforms over the following months into something neither of them expected: trust, and the fragile beginnings of friendship. But their hard- won sanctuary is shattered when Jessica’s brother Daniel appears, gaunt and frantic, driven by a single obsession: finding his missing daughter.
Daniel’s arrival tears open secrets both Jack and Jessica have kept carefully buried. Old loyalties are tested, dangerous truths come to light, and violence, from outside the walls and within, closes in fast. With everything she has built at stake, Jessica faces an impossible choice: stand by her brother, or protect the life and the man she has come to depend on. She cannot do both. And time is running out.
Dan McNaughton as JACK
Dan plays Jack as a man who has decided the world is simpler without other people in it. He is not wrong, exactly. The performance is quiet and watchful, and when it shifts it shifts fast. You believe he survived. You also believe it cost him something.
Hannah Kirby as JESSICA
Hannah delivers a raw and deeply affecting performance as Jessica, a woman carrying grief like a second skin. Even in her quietest moments there is something burning underneath, and as the story tightens around her, that fire becomes impossible to ignore. When the moment of reckoning arrives, Hannah makes you feel every ounce of it.
Simon Willshire as DANIEL
Simon brings a fierce and haunting intensity to Daniel, a father pushed to the very edge of reason by love and loss. Beneath the desperation is a man who was once someone’s safe harbour, and Simon never lets you forget that, even as Daniel’s arrival sets everything ablaze. It is a performance that is equal parts heartbreaking and terrifying
DIRECTORS
Andrew Bell
Director
Andrew was the backbone of the production, the organiser who kept the shoot moving and made sure everything was in place for the team to do their best work. Filming in a remote Welsh location with a small crew demands someone who can hold it all together, and Andrew did exactly that.
Julian Gamm
Director
Julian were several hats on HAVENFALL. As a hands on director he was in the thick of every scene, but he also served as the production’s armourer and security, keeping the cast and crew safe throughout a demanding shoot in an isolated location. The kind of person every production needs and very few have.
Andy Dodd
Director
Andy wrote the screenplay and co- directed, bringing a clear and instinctive eye to every shot. He knew exactly where to put the camera, using the Welsh landscape and the cramped interior of the cottage to create a pressure that never lets up. His script was built around one central question: when survival demands the unthinkable, what kind of person do you choose to be? There is no clean answer. That was always the point.
PRODUCERS
Andrew Bell, Julian Gamm, Andy Dodd
Producers
HAVENFALL was brought to life by a dedicated producing team who guided the project from its earliest stages through to completion. Andrew Bell, Julian Gamm and Andy Dodd pooled their collective expertise to ensure the film was delivered to the highest possible standard, managing every aspect of the production from location logistics in rural Wales to final post production.
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Andy Dodd Director of Photography
Andy shot HAVENFALL on the Sony FX3 in S- Log3 at 4096 x 1716, 2.40:1. Wide format was the right call. The cottage needed to look small against the landscape, which it does. Inside, the lighting is close and dim. Candles mostly. It feels like somewhere you would run out of air.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Havenfall is a story about what it truly means to survive. Not just physically, but emotionally and morally. We wanted to strip away the noise of the apocalypse and focus on something far more intimate and far more frightening: what happens to people when the world stops watching.
We chose to set the film in the breathtaking but unforgiving landscape of rural Wales because the isolation is not just a backdrop, it is a character in itself. The cottage becomes a world within a world, a place where trust has to be built from nothing, and where the arrival of one desperate man is enough to bring everything crashing down.
At its heart, Havenfall is about a woman standing at a crossroads with no good options. Jessica’s journey is one of grief, resilience and ultimately courage. We wanted audiences to feel every step of that journey alongside her, and to ask themselves what they would do in her position.
We are incredibly proud of what this cast and crew achieved, often in difficult and demanding conditions. Havenfall is a film made with passion, precision and a deep belief in the power of human stories, even at the end of the world.
Andy Dodd, Andrew Bell, Julian Gamm
Directors, HAVENFALL
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
RUNTIME: 30 minutes
LANGUAGE: English
ASPECT RATIO: 2.40:1
RESOLUTION: 4096 x 1716
CAMERA: Sony FX3
COLOUR SCIENCE: S Log3
AUDIO: Stereo
GENRE: Horror / Thriller
LINKS & ONLINE
IMDB: imdb.com/title/tt36450228
