Something Is Growing... And It Needs You.

A new Midlands short film Personal Growth aims to explore the lingering effects of grief and how not processing these feelings can lead to complications further down the line, asking what does this grief manifest into?

Writer-director Andrew Rutter grew up in the Black Country and is already on the Midlands radar with a string of award-winning short films including Peter the Penguin and 2021's The Front Door (our review).

And this new film from the filmmakers follows a man named Paul, who after suffering a recent bereavement discovers a human growth poking halfway out of the grass in his garden.

After calling a specialist for it to be removed, Paul is left with a dark empty hole that threatens to confront him with the things he'd prefer to keep buried. A cautionary tale of not tending to your garden.

Supporting Andrew and the project is Lauren Parker - a Nottingham based producer with her company Kato Pictures whose recent shorts include the Creative England/ BFI NETWORK supported Wash Club which premiered online with Short of the Week and received a Vimeo Staff Pick.

As part of their Kickstarter, the project is looking for support with all aspects of production but especially practical effects. From strange growths to a living and talking tree, the team promise "plenty of ooze and blood alongside some haunting imagery and even puppetry that will stay with you long after you leave the cinema".

The team are also delving into VFX to push their effects even further and will even be using virtual production for our grand finale which is the technology made famous in Disney's The Mandorlian.

"We’re really pushing the scale of the effects on this project and want to show the industry that large scale projects can come from the Midlands", adds Lauren.

In the past, the team behind the film have been commissioned by Disney and the BFI and their films have played at top film festivals around the world from BFI London Film Festival to LA's Palm Springs Short Fest.

Lauren adds, "Our work has also been screened on BBC 2 and the Horror Channel and we hope this project will see the same success if not more".

And you can check out Personal Growth's early trailer above and you can help support the production via their Kickstarter right here