The Parish
Joe is consumed by a recurring dream that won’t let him go, always threatening to surface in reality.
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Matt R. SmithDirector
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Matt R. SmithWriter
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Rhian Louise SmithProducer
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Alexander CobbKey Cast"Joe"
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Sam ParksKey Cast"Blake"
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Matt R SmithDP
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Rhian SmithProduction Design
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Joby NewsonCamera Operator
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Matt BaxterGaffer
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Alex HylandOriginal Score
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Matt R SmithOriginal Score
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Matt R SmithSound Design
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Richard ReedVisual Effects
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Project Type:Short
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Genres:Thriller, Horror
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Runtime:12 minutes 59 seconds
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Completion Date:October 31, 2024
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Production Budget:1,000 GBP
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Country of Origin:United Kingdom
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Country of Filming:United Kingdom
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital RED
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Aspect Ratio:1.19:1
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
Matt is a filmmaker from South East England with a background in experimental filmmaking. His early short films played at BAFTA-recognised festivals before he branched out into digital media, theatre, and artist filmmaking, with support from Arts Council England, The Arts Council of Wales, and France’s Drac Occitanie - Ministère de la Culture.
In 2020, Matt shot BUGBEAR, a no-budget short film that kickstarted his move into narrative filmmaking. His stories, often rooted in South East England, explore unsettling realities and imagined histories, blurring the line between what is real and what is fantasy.
Matt's approach to narrative is similar to his artist-films with a hands-on approach which sees him wearing many hats, including DP, sound designer, and composer. His latest film, NEW ATLANTIS, was backed by BFI, and he’s just wrapped up another short, The Parish.
'The Parish' came from a few different places. We had just finished a short, were stuck in early development for a feature, and just wanted to make something very atmospheric, creepy, and very British. For the feature, I had been researching dreams and wanted to explore those ideas in the short, but in a simpler way—somewhere atmosphere could really take the lead.
On a practical level, I also wanted to develop as a filmmaker by experimenting with a single location and a tiny crew—just five of us handling everything—and seeing what we could accomplish. That restriction itself became key to the short really. I already had a location in mind—the scout hut featured in the film—which is unmistakably British and just down the road from us, which is always helpful! The building itself is stuck in a sort of time warp, like a bizarre museum piece from the 1970s. To me, it conjures images of the J.G. Ballard books I’ve read throughout my life: oozing a strange Britishness—proper on the surface, but sort of decaying just underneath. It became a prominent feature as the short was developed, and the script was written almost specifically for it.
It was as I was writing 'The Parish' that I was lucky enough to meet Alexander Cobb, who plays Joe in the film. I knew immediately that he’d be perfect to collaborate with. His ability to play something in such a real, embodied way impressed me so much that when we were shooting, I genuinely forgot I had written the words. And with Sam Parks as the perfect therapist opposite him, they created this great central scene that hopefully opens into something a little unexpected.
I also wanted the film to be an homage to dreams and dream descriptions in some of my favourite films—Tarkovsky’s 'The Sacrifice', Bergman’s 'The Hour of the Wolf', and of course Lynch’s 'Lost Highway' or 'Mulholland Drive'. But I wanted our version to feel different—to nod to those influences but in a very British way, playing with audience expectations and offering up something that doesn’t quite follow them.
Dreams often put us in strange, liminal states: full of people we think we know, who become vague and distant when we wake. This film is a small attempt to capture that disorienting, half-remembered feeling.