A weaverfish spends most of its day buried under the sand, save for two eyes that watch the waters above for passing prey. Should an unfortunate shrimp pass its way, the unassuming brown coloured bed-dweller can disable it with venomous spines that are strong enough to penetrate a wet suit boot – and sometimes do.

Small but with a powerful punch, it’s an appropriate namesake for Weaverfish, the debut feature film by Chingford director Harrison Wall.

“It’s got a pretty nasty sting,” says the 22-year-old, who self-funded the independent sci-fi horror movie with writer and producer Mark Maltby. "It’s that symbolic element of there being something sinister beneath the surface.”

The film follows a group of teenage friends who return to a childhood hangout by a river, now the restricted grounds of a condemned oil plant. Amid an evening of heartache and chaos, the weekend turns sour when the revellers fall victim to a disfiguring infection. As they make a break for civilisation someone, or something, is hunting them down.

The story of its making starts at the London Film Makers Convention where Harrison and his Bournemouth University colleague Mark are screening their short CyberBeat.

“We found that we really were just the little fish in the bigger pond, excuse the pun,” says Harrison. “One message became startlingly clear to us: we had to make a feature to get recognition.”

The friends shook on the idea, graduated, found full-time jobs and set up their own production company named Dollhouse Pictures. After raising funds which would run to a mere £10,000 (“considered pretty much no-budget in the grand scheme of the film industry” adds Harrison), in the following months they assembled a volunteer cast and crew. With help from director of photography Thomas Shawcroft, who wrote the original concept of the film, the team found an ideal location on the River Hamble, near Southampton.

“The next few months became more and more manic,” says Harrison, “organising kit, securing locations, acquiring costumes and production design items; the workload began to pile on.”

With everything ready – in July last year, the 30-strong team set off for the woods for a designated 16 days to shoot their film in.

“It was a very tight schedule. We were shooting days that ran into nights: starting in the morning, running into the evening, stopping for dinner then coming back at night. Then coming home and getting up again for the morning.

“Once you’ve got a certain number of people on board who are relying on you to pull through – it becomes a no way out! You’re in it ‘til the end and you have to deliver – otherwise you’ve pretty much lost all your friends!

“We were getting about four hour’s sleep a night. Although it was draining, it was a pretty exhilirating experience. It’s strange when you see everything come together in front of the camera.”

The team battled against sunburn, allergic reactions, unseasonal downpours and “all kinds of unforeseen problems you’d just never imagine” to complete shooting in little under two weeks. After a period of intensive post-production, the film was ready, just about, to be screened at the Bootleg Film Festival in Toronto.

“The festival audience was the first to see it. I felt like I could hear every single breath, every shuffle you think ‘are people getting bored?’ I’ve never looked at the film as critically as I did there – for 100 minutes it’s just complete fear of what people are thinking.”

He soon found out – Weaverfish collected the Audience Choice Award at the festival, while lead actress, Lucy-Jane Quinlan took home Best Female Actor in a Feature Film.

“We couldn’t have hoped for anything better than that,” adds Harrison. “There have been so many lessons learnt, but it’s been exhilirating and a total rollercoaster ride from beginning to end.”

For more information and to watch the trailer visit: www.weaverfishmovie.com