‘Employee of the Dead’ Moves to Kickstarter After Indiegogo Funding Changes

Making a zombie film secretly inside a supermarket is already a fairly precarious proposition. Financing a feature about someone attempting exactly that has now produced its own unexpected complication, with writer-director Aaron Truss moving the crowdfunding campaign for British comedy-horror Employee of the Dead from Indiegogo to Kickstarter after changes to Indiegogo’s funding model caught the production team by surprise.

Q Cumber Films had been seeking £50,000 through Indiegogo, with supporters pledging close to £10,000 before the decision was made to change platforms. The campaign followed Indiegogo’s acquisition by Gamefound in 2025 and subsequent platform changes that removed the Flexible Funding option and shifted campaigns towards an all-or-nothing system.

‘We had no idea that Indiegogo had changed from Flexi-Funding to Fixed Funding, that’s what Indiegogo was all about! The safety net!’ Truss said. He added that digital art designer Ignacio Mazuecos subsequently suggested Kickstarter, where the filmmakers could restructure the campaign around bundles and additional rewards.

Existing supporters will not simply be left behind in the move. According to Truss, those who backed the original campaign will receive a hidden free add-on when they pledge again through Kickstarter, an acknowledgement of the support already given to the production.

Employee of the Dead follows Hooban, a supermarket night worker who left film school years earlier but has not abandoned his filmmaking ambitions. Given four weeks to make a zombie movie secretly among the aisles, he must complete his production without attracting the attention of his manager.

There is a real story behind that knowingly chaotic premise. Truss and co-writer Joe Acres made a zombie short inside their local Sainsbury’s in 2008 with the late Rob Knox, who was murdered only weeks later. That connection subsequently gave the original project a significance its creators could not have anticipated at the time, and the experience now forms the foundation for the feature.

Dani Harmer, Ellie Raé Winstone, Paul Casar and Acres are among the cast, with comedian and actor Nick Helm also joining the production. The horror credentials behind the camera are substantial without needing to labour the point. Composer Simon Boswell will provide the score, Vince Knight serves as cinematographer and Doghouse filmmaker Jake West is directing the zombie film being made within Employee of the Dead. Nicholas Vince and Sean Cronin will also appear.

‘Independent horror runs on people backing each other before the money shows up,’ said Lu, director at Disturbia Films. ‘If you have ever said you want more original genre films, this is the part where you actually do something about it.’

It has been a slightly messy detour for a production already built around filmmaking under less than ideal circumstances, although the underlying project remains unchanged. The next stage is simply taking place somewhere different.

The Employee of the Dead crowdfunding campaign is moving to Kickstarter and is due to launch soon, with prospective backers able to follow the project through its official website and Kickstarter campaign page: kickstarter.com/projects/qcumberfilms/employee-of-the-dead-a-feature-length-comedy-horror

Employee of the Dead promo

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