GHOULS and ghosts may haunt West Fife this Halloween but a Dunfermline film producer is ready to thrill audiences looking for a spook-tacular thrill with the release of his own horror movie.

Former Dunfermline High School pupil and actor Mark Paul Wake has teamed up with BAFTA-winning actor and award-winning producer Stuart Brennan to transform his own home town, and locations as diverse as Perth and Loch Ness to Chicago and Vienna, into blood-filled scenes of zombie terror in his new feature film, Plan Z.

Mark, who won the British Independent Film Best Actor Award in 2011 for his lead role in the 2010 feature film, ‘Masterpiece’, was working with Brennan on a UK-wide theatre tour when the first seeds of creating a zombie thriller were sewn.

“Stuart had the idea of doing a feature film and I’d always wanted to write a zombie film,” Mark said.

“He wasn’t sure where to set it but I suggested here because it’s my home town and I know a lot places around the area. Stuart came up here and fell in love with it so we thought, ‘Let’s get it made’.”

Co-produced by Zoghogg Studios, David Izatt’s company based in Dunfermline, production took the small cast and crew to a variety of locations but some of the film’s key scenes will resonate immediately with West Fife audiences.

Mark continued: “We shot in the restaurant next to the Alhambra Theatre, on the High Street at New Row and a key part was actually in the area around Shaw Street. We had a drone sequence and was one of our most ambitious scenes where survivors escape the house and flee to freedom. We managed to close off three roads and the second part of the street was full of zombies. It was one of the defining moments because people were looking out their houses wondering what was going on but they were really supportive. So many people were saying, ‘This is exciting, can I get involved?’, and we had around 70 extras that day.

“We shot parts of it in Chicago, Vienna and London and it’s interesting to see the juxtaposition of cool, calm Dunfermline to busy London. Sometimes I have to remember that this is not just a film shot with a wee camera in Dunfermline but across the world.

“It wasn’t easy; we have so little infrastructure and less actors than London. There are projects trying to get off the ground but, with limited support and access to funding, it is incredibly difficult to get a film not only into production but distributed at the end.”

Among the names starring in the film is Terry Deary, best known as the author of the Horrible Histories books. Mark added: “The reviews have been really good so far. A lot of people have been surprised; they thought there might be one or two zombies but they didn’t expect what they saw.

“As a 10-year-old this was a dream so I have to pinch myself that someone will sit down, on Hallowe’en, and watch me in it, especially from my home town. That’s scary to think!”

Plan Z, which has been released in both the USA and South Korea so far, will be released exclusively on DVD in Asda on Monday and digitally on iTunes. A premiere of the film takes place this Sunday at 7pm at Dunfermline High School and tickets, costing £4.50, can be bought at planzpremiere.bpt.me or brownpapertickets.com.

The film is certificate 15.