Director Andrew Rutter Seeks Personal Growth In Kickstarter For His Latest Horror Short

Writer/Director Andrew Rutter has announced the Kickstarter campaign for his new horror short film “Personal Growth”, a new collaboration with producer Lauren Parker (Wash Club, Lord of the Free Range).

The film follows Paul, suffering a recent bereavement, who 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.

Both students of classic horror, Personal Growth will feature a ton of practical effects, from strange growths emerging from the garden to a living and talking tree. There will be plenty of ooze and blood alongside some haunting imagery and even puppetry that will stay with you long after you leave the cinema. The film also delves into VFX to push the effects to the next level and will even be using virtual production for the film’s grand finale which is the technology made famous by The Mandalorian.

Andrew is a writer & director who grew up in the Black Country, England on a steady diet of Monty Python and video nasties. His short film ‘Peter the Penguin’ became a huge festival hit screening at the likes of Slamdance, Fantasia and Beyond Fest and winning Best Short Film at Grimmfest.

In 2022 Andrew wrote & directed his episode ‘The Heritage’ for Disney as part of their ‘Bite Size Halloween’ season which premiered on Hulu over Halloween 2022. It went on to win awards at Toronto After Dark Film Festival, Panic Fest & Vortex in Rhode Island. It also won the grand prize at Meme Pas Peur which led to a distribution deal on Shadowz, the leading horror platform in France.

The film also caught the eye of Monkeypaw Productions (Get Out, Nope), which led to various meetings with the studio for potential future projects. Recently, Andrew was one of only fifteen filmmakers selected in the UK for the prestigious BFI NETWORK@LFF talent lab and last year was selected for the BFI NETWORK Early Development Fund with his feature film Headcase.