After years of isolation, two survivors drift apart while the monstrous beings in the forest draw closer.

In most Zombie Apocalypse films we have a developing relationship story, but always as a side story to the main event. In ‘Tanglewood’, Jordan Prosser manages to turn things around, almost putting aside the entire monster side of things and focusing on a crumbling relationship within the circumstances. A mysterious plague has forced Sarah and Zach to flee the city and make a new life in the depths of the forest. Years of isolation make Sarah hard and controlling, while Zach becomes depressed and fatalistic. As they drift further apart, the monstrous beings in the forest draw closer, threatening their tenuous existence.

I wanted to make Tanglewood as a chance to work with an amazing team of collaborators I’d first met at film school between 2009 and 2012. It had been a few years since we all graduated, and it felt like the right time to challenge ourselves with something big. I also wanted to further explore my interest in blending genre conventions with more naturalistic performance styles – hence a relationship drama with forest zombies.

The film uses silences from the isolation and captures a wonderful photography to set the eerie and suspenseful tone. Anna Samson and Tim Ross star as the drifting couple, with some chilling performances, particularly after its twisting moments. The audience is easily manifested into setting, and a story that certainly holds itself apart from the typical zombie films.