Dean Puckett

Directing

Dean Puckett

Dean Puckett is an English filmmaker and director working primarily in horror and genre cinema. His work focuses on atmosphere-driven storytelling, often drawing on elements of folk horror and the uncanny. He has directed a number of acclaimed short films, including The Sermon (2017), which screened internationally and received strong recognition on the festival circuit. His short-form work has played at major festivals such as Sitges, FrightFest, Overlook, Palm Springs ShortFest, HollyShorts, and Encounters, helping establish him as a distinctive voice in contemporary British horror. In 2024, Dean made his feature debut with The Severed Sun, a folk horror feature developed with backing from BFI, BBC Film, and Creative England. Following its premiere at Fantastic Fest, the film was released by Dark Sky Films, with Blue Finch handling UK, Ireland, and ANZ distribution, received a limited UK cinema run, and launches on Shudder in January 2026. Alongside his directing work, Dean is a co-founder of the production company Grasp The Nettle, which he founded with award-winning producer Rebecca Wolff. The company develops and produces work across both documentary and fiction, with a focus on distinctive, filmmaker-led projects.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Circles poster
5.0

Circles is a comedy/sci-fi/horror which follows a pair of parnormal investigators as they discover a string of crop circles around their small town of Totnes, Devon.

Circles

2016

The Sermon poster
4.4

A young woman’s secret rocks an isolated church community.

The Sermon

2018

The Sermon poster
4.4

A young woman’s secret rocks an isolated church community.

The Sermon

2018

The AutistiX poster
NR

Jack, Luke and Saul are The AutistiX, the UK’s premier autistic rock group. The boys are a tight-knit friendship group, expressing themselves through rock and roll in a way that they struggle to off the stage. Can they impress the crowds as they go on tour for the first time, and build up to their biggest gig so far, Autism’s Got Talent?

The AutistiX

2015

Seagull poster
3.0

A recovering drug addict is about to have a very strange night on The English Riviera.

Seagull

2022

The Severed Sun poster
6.1

Magpie lives in an isolated church community ruled over by her father, The Pastor. When a man is murdered, paranoia sets in and people start to whisper about a strange 'Beast' that lives in the forest.

The Severed Sun

2025

The Severed Sun poster
6.1

Magpie lives in an isolated church community ruled over by her father, The Pastor. When a man is murdered, paranoia sets in and people start to whisper about a strange 'Beast' that lives in the forest.

The Severed Sun

2025

The Crisis of Civilization poster
7.4

The Crisis Civilization is a documentary feature film investigating how global crises like ecological disaster, financial meltdown, dwindling oil reserves, terrorism and food shortages are converging symptoms of a single, failed global system. Proving that 'another world' is not merely possible, but on its way.

The Crisis of Civilization

2011

FUCK FACE poster
NR

A single mother and her child are put through a nightmarish ordeal when a politician knocks on their door.

FUCK FACE

2026

FUCK FACE poster
NR

A single mother and her child are put through a nightmarish ordeal when a politician knocks on their door.

FUCK FACE

2026

FUCK FACE poster
NR

A single mother and her child are put through a nightmarish ordeal when a politician knocks on their door.

FUCK FACE

2026

The Devil's Footprints poster
6.0

In December of 2004, the bodies of a young couple were found in the middle of Dartmoor, a vast moorland that sits in the south western corner of the United Kingdom. The following film is made up of footage which was recovered eighteen years later.

The Devil's Footprints

2024

The Devil's Footprints poster
6.0

In December of 2004, the bodies of a young couple were found in the middle of Dartmoor, a vast moorland that sits in the south western corner of the United Kingdom. The following film is made up of footage which was recovered eighteen years later.

The Devil's Footprints

2024

The Devil's Footprints poster
6.0

In December of 2004, the bodies of a young couple were found in the middle of Dartmoor, a vast moorland that sits in the south western corner of the United Kingdom. The following film is made up of footage which was recovered eighteen years later.

The Devil's Footprints

2024

Honey at the Top poster
NR

Honey at the Top is a film about the Sengwer forest people of the Cherangani Hills, Kenya, being evicted from their ancestral land in the name of conservation. The film centres around father of two Elias as he works with his community to try and hold onto their culture and resist the evictions. It is an intimate portrait of this community at a crossroads, facing international pressure from organisations like the World Bank, a corrupt Kenya Forest Service who are burning their houses and attempts to turn the forest into a commodity through carbon offsetting schemes.

Honey at the Top

2015

Grasp the Nettle poster
NR

Grasp the Nettle follows the exploits of a ragtag band of land rights activists in London as they struggle against corporations, government, police - and themselves - in their efforts to create alternative communities outside the framework of consumer society. When an eco-village pops up on a piece of disused land in West London , film-maker Dean Puckett (The Crisis of Civilization) gives up everything - his flat, job and normal life - to live among its eclectic inhabitants in an effort to understand what makes them tick.

Grasp the Nettle

2013

Grasp the Nettle poster
NR

Grasp the Nettle follows the exploits of a ragtag band of land rights activists in London as they struggle against corporations, government, police - and themselves - in their efforts to create alternative communities outside the framework of consumer society. When an eco-village pops up on a piece of disused land in West London , film-maker Dean Puckett (The Crisis of Civilization) gives up everything - his flat, job and normal life - to live among its eclectic inhabitants in an effort to understand what makes them tick.

Grasp the Nettle

2013

Loony in the Woods poster
2.1

A camping trip seems like the perfect way for a group of friends to spend a vacation they will never forget. Unfortunately, no one will be left alive to remember the trip! Something lurks in these barren woods, something more insane than a chainsaw-wielding psycho, something more brutal than machete swinging mama's boy and more savage than a tribe of flesh-eating cannibals. There's a LOONY loose!

Loony in the Woods

2006

Satan's Bite poster
8.0

Made for straight 8's 2018 competition on one cartridge of super 8mm film with only in-camera edits and no post-production. Premiered on may 14th 2018 at straight 8's Cannes film festival screening.

Satan's Bite

2018

Satan's Bite poster
8.0

Made for straight 8's 2018 competition on one cartridge of super 8mm film with only in-camera edits and no post-production. Premiered on may 14th 2018 at straight 8's Cannes film festival screening.

Satan's Bite

2018