Les Jarvis / Greg Lupeen, Laurence Saunders, is a volatile small-side TV actor whose unpredictable outbursts rattle a modest film crew as they set up to shoot a low-budget zombie movie in a quiet village in the West Midlands, using a local pub as their main shooting location. The tight-knit pace of village life collides with the manic energy of the production, turning every rehearsal into a test of nerves and patience.
Three locals from the village—Les, Mike, and Bob—view the project as their big chance to break into the film world, chasing a dream that the production seems to promise. This opportunity feels even more tantalizing because Greg is Les's doppelgänger, a mirror image that both fascinates and unsettles the trio. The sense of possibility mingles with unease as the crew works, and the locals watch closely, counting every rumor and rumor's reply as a potential stepping stone toward their own futures.
As filming progresses, a string of strange accidents and unexplained deaths disrupts the shoot. Each setback tightens the village’s atmosphere and fuels superstition, with whispers that the production itself has become cursed. The accidents accumulate, and the mood shifts from curiosity to fear, turning the once-hopeful trickle of gossip into a loud, spreading frenzy. The pub’s dim lights and the skeleton of a makeshift set become a stage for a growing sense that something beyond the ordinary is at work in this seemingly ordinary place.
With the toll rising, a Detective Inspector Pablo Raybould and his sergeant are called in to investigate. Their arrival brings the steady, methodical pressure of outside eyes into a community already primed by fear. The investigators begin to sift through the chaotic events, interviewing crew and villagers, examining the patterns of the accidents, and trying to separate coincidence from causation. The investigation is hampered by Greg’s erratic behavior and his uncanny resemblance to the suspect described by witnesses, which makes Greg a focal point of suspicion and a source of tension for everyone who interacts with him.
The case tightens around the film’s most visible link to the recent tragedies: Greg, whose volatility on set and his looks create a knot of doubt that is hard to untangle. As more clues surface, the investigators must navigate the delicate balance between belief and evidence, while the locals’ hopes—especially the three who dreamed of a gateway into the film industry—press them to see a simpler culprit in the chaos. The possibility that the murders might be tied to the storyline of the movie complicates matters: is this a peril born of art, or a real danger that has spilled into the village from the set?
A full moon draws closer, and the tension thickens. The combination of a looming lunar cycle and the mounting mystery pushes both the investigators and the villagers to push harder for answers. In this fraught moment, the boundaries between reality and fiction blur: the dash of production schedules with the heartbeat of fear, the line between a cursed shoot and a real threat, and the way perception shifts under pressure. Everyone connected to the project—cast, crew, and locals—feels the weight of the mystery settle in the village’s streets, its pub, and its quiet corners.
What unfolds is a careful balance of atmosphere and motive, where a community’s desire for fame collides with the fear of danger. The story maintains a calm, observant tone even as dread rises, inviting readers to weigh alibis, motives, and the thin veil that separates storytelling from truth. The village’s quiet normalcy is repeatedly pierced by the wave of unexplained events, forcing characters to confront what they truly fear and what they are willing to believe when the moon climbs higher.
In the end, the film within the film becomes a mirror for the villagers’ own hopes, secrets, and insecurities. The investigation persists as both investigators and locals strive to uncover what lies behind the murders before the situation spirals even further out of control, all while the ghostly charm of the pub and the rural landscape holds steady in the background. The result is a story that feels grounded and intimate, yet tense and unsettling, leaving room for interpretation about how much of what happens is coincidence, design, or something darker hiding in plain sight.
