A market town more famous for its connections with James Herriot is to become the setting of a grisly horror movie.

A group of amateur film makers will film their production, called Slow Rot, in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.

The film is about a man who finds himself down on his luck when his relationship comes to a bitter end.

He discovers he has contracted an extreme strain of the deadly Ebola virus and his body begins to rot.

Executive producer Simon Lavin said: "Basically, his life is falling apart, and he is falling apart as well."

A 12-member crew has been filming in the town and surrounding area with a cast of about a dozen actors for the past week and a half.

They decided to use Thirsk as the setting as most of the crew are from the town.

Mr Lavin, who works in construction management with Severfield Reeve, in Thirsk, said the town had a lot going for it as a film location.

"There is a lot of character in Thirsk," he said. "The house that we are using for one of our primary locations is absolutely superb.

"We are using the local cinema in Thirsk, which is a more rustic type of cinema than you would get anywhere else. It has its own particular vibe to it and its own ambience."

The group have got a specialist coming up from London to put together a trailer for the film.

"The intention will be to show that around film festivals with a view to either getting a distributor for the final product, which would be great, or just to get ourselves known for if we want to do it again," said Mr Lavin.

"If everything goes to plan, it should take two weeks, but it is probably going to need an extra week and maybe a bit more to get it finished.

"We are going for a quality product rather than quantity."