‘The First Day’ Brings Spanish Apocalypse Horror to Dead Northern

The end of the world is frightening enough. For two young women forced into the streets to find their missing parents, it becomes something far more personal. Spanish post-apocalyptic horror The First Day will receive its UK premiere at Dead Northern Horror Film Festival this month, with director Manu Pons Forcén attending for a Q&A after the screening.

The film plays at City Screen Picturehouse in York on Saturday 26 September, bringing a more intimate take on outbreak horror to the festival programme.

Written and directed by Pons, The First Day begins as communications fail and a violent infection starts spreading through the population. With society quickly breaking down, Emma and Lucia leave the relative safety of home and venture outside in search of their parents, entering a world where panic, uncertainty and human behaviour prove every bit as dangerous as the infection itself.

Rather than building the film solely around the mechanics of an apocalypse, Pons has said his interest was in examining what happens to a family when the structures protecting everyday life disappear.

“I knew I didn’t want to make a film simply about the end of the world,” the filmmaker explained. “I wanted to tell a story about a family facing the end of the world.”

That approach places the emotional stakes alongside the genre elements, with Pons describing the film as a story about “the fear of losing the people we love, the instinct to protect our children, and the decisions we are capable of making when everything around us begins to disappear.”

The First Day marks Pons’ feature directing debut following earlier work including La Bomba and Ramos. His filmmaking has also been shaped by 15 years working as a teacher at a CAES school in a priority action neighbourhood on the outskirts of Valencia, an experience he says pushed him towards stories rooted in ordinary lives and recognisable human behaviour.

The cast is led by Nerea Barros and William Miller. Barros is particularly well established in Spanish film and television, having won the Goya Award for Best New Actress for her performance in La isla mínima. Her credits also include La isla de las mentiras and television series La novia gitana, while her 2022 documentary short Memoria, which she directed, wrote and produced, received a Goya nomination.

That combination of outbreak horror and family drama gives The First Day a distinct place within Dead Northern’s 2026 selection, where the film will make its first UK appearance before audiences in York.

The First Day screens at Dead Northern Horror Film Festival at City Screen Picturehouse, York, on Saturday 26 September 2026 at 4.30pm, followed by a Q&A.

Pick up your tickets now from the following places: deadnorthern.co.uk/

The First Day trailer