A MIXTURE of comedy and painful deaths has earned an Oxfordshire film its first prize.

Low budget gore fest The Scar Crow was named Best Horror/Sci-Fi Film at the London Independent Film Festival on Monday.

The Summertown man behind the film hopes the recognition might help his movie secure a wider release on the big screen.

Andy Thompson sold his house to finance the movie, which he also co-wrote and co-directed.

The 43-year-old said: “Seeing it on the big screen was just phenomenal.

“The audience reaction was incredible. I have lived with it for quite a few months and I was thinking: Are people going to get the jokes and laugh in the right places? They did — it was absolutely fantastic.”

The film was recorded in three weeks, 16 hours each day, using locations in south Oxfordshire and Mr Thompson’s flat in Staverton Road.

The plot follows four city workers who opt out of team building exercises in the English countryside to spend time in the village pub.

The quartet feel pretty pleased with themselves after falling in with three sisters at the local village pub.

But little do they know the sisters are 300 years old and have been doomed to spend an eternity living on the local farm — unless they appease the living corpse of their father with the blood of innocents.

On Monday evening The Scar Crow was premiered at the Coronet, in Notting Hill, as part of the film festival.

Mr Thompson is now looking for distributors to take his film to a wider audience.

He said he had been contacted by two film festival organisers in Los Angeles, and added: “We have a couple of distributors interested. We have just signed a deal for our first release which will be in Thailand.

“The first time the film is on DVD it will be dubbed into Thai.”

For more information about The Scar Crow, visit thescarcrowmovie.co.uk