Police called to a pub by residents who heard blood-curdling screams stumbled on the set of a horror movie.
A lone officer was sent to the basement of the Sussex Arms in Tunbridge Wells, Kent after a worried passerby dialled 999.
He tentatively called out: “Hello – is everything alright? We’ve had a call saying there was a woman screaming.”
He stepped inside and found actress Hannah Lowe, 20, tied to a chair – and the rest of the cast standing in amusement.
They told him they were rehearsing a blowtorch torture scene for a forthcoming horror film.
Producer Haydn West, 46, said: “Hannah was screaming very loudly and because she wasn’t very well they really weren’t very nice screams
“The officer popped his head in the door and asked if there were screams, realised what was going on and left.
“I didn’t really pay any attention to it, there was so much to do, we just got back on with stuff.
“Hannah gave a fantastic performance and the first time we looked back at the video, we were a bit scared by what we had done.
“I was actually trying to get her to stop because she wasn’t feeling well and was sweating when I heard the voice of a policeman in the background.
“He was a nice man and said he had been told there was screaming here.”
Brighton-based Substantial Films were shooting the scene as part of a campaign to raise £30,000 for the psychological horror film “Backtrack.”
Kent Police said: “A passerby called the force saying he could hear a woman screaming in the Sussex Arms in the Pantiles area of Tunbridge Wells.
“An officer arrived to discover the screams were coming from a film set.”
