World premiere
Prince Charles Cinema, Downstairs Screen
COASTAL FOLK HORROR · 22 MINUTES
FISHBRAIN
Desperate to escape her decaying coastal town but unable to abandon the grandfather who depends on her, Ori sees a way out when tainted fish wash ashore, but only if she can bring herself to put them on his plate.
70TH BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL
Part of the Land of Hope and Gory shorts programme.
Second screening
BFI Southbank, NFT2
General tickets go on sale at 10:00 on 17 September. BFI Patrons can book from 9 September; BFI Members from 10 September.
Written and directed by Max Vanderspuy. Produced by Daniel Panyko. A Viridian Films production. Best Production Design – Short Film — Winner, BFDG Production Design Awards 2026
The World
The horror in Fishbrain is not separate from the family. It grows from it.
The Coast
At low tide, the beach becomes a mass grave. What washes up outside the house begins to change the air inside it.
The House
Jeb’s home is shelter, sickroom and trap. Every act of care keeps Ori there a little longer.
The
Body
What cannot be said begins to surface elsewhere: in appetite, skin, smell, touch and contamination.
The Family
Fishbrain is a horror story about love curdling into duty, and duty becoming something monstrous.
Synopsis
When Ori returns to care for her grandfather Jeb in his isolated coastal home, the routines keeping them together begin to rot. Outside, dead fish blanket the shore. Inside, old resentments gather in the kitchen, the sickroom and the silences between them. As warnings go ignored and the sea’s contamination enters the house, Ori is forced to confront the terrible shape of escape.
Film Details
Completion 2026
Runtime 22 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Sound 5.1 / Stereo
Genre Coastal folk horror
Status World premiere at the 70th BFI London Film Festival
World premiere on 7 October 2026, followed by a second BFI London Film Festival screening on 18 October 2026.
Max Vanderspuy
Writer / DirectorDirector’s Note
“The horror comes from care becoming captivity.”
Fishbrain began with an image: a coastline full of dead fish, and a young woman carrying a responsibility she should have been allowed to escape. My mother grew up by the British coast, and I wanted the film to hold the feeling of those places in bad weather: beautiful, withheld, salt-stained and unforgiving.
I was interested in the point where care stops feeling like love and starts to feel like captivity. Ori loves Jeb, but love does not make the room breathable. Body horror gave us a way to make that pressure physical through food, skin, smell, water and the rituals of keeping someone alive. The sea is not just outside the house. It gets in.
The film draws from British folklore and from the body-horror lineage of The Thing, Under the Skin and Eraserhead, but the heart of it is smaller and more domestic: a granddaughter, a grandfather, a kitchen and a choice that should never have become available.
Stills
Dead fish. Closed rooms. Things left unsaid.
What washes ashore finds its way in.
Cast
John Henshaw
Chloe Lea
Karren Winchester
Key Crew
Written and directed byMax Vanderspuy
Produced byDaniel Panyko
Director of PhotographyNicolas Booth
Production DesignerOlavo Abrantes
EditorFlaura Atkinson
Sound DesignerAntek Rutczynski
Music byKjartan Holm and Sindri Már Sigfússon
Casting byYvonne Lawlor
VFX Producer & SupervisorÁgoston Princz
Feature development
Fishbrain is currently being developed as a feature film, written and directed by Max Vanderspuy.
Access to the short
Private screeners and press materials for the short are available on request. Please include your organisation, viewing purpose and any relevant deadline.
Contains body horror and themes of grief and bereavement.