SEX, violence, something nasty in the woodshed; strange things have been going on at a Herefordshire vicarage.

To be fair, amid reports in Eardisley of smashed furniture and a severed hand found in the household rubbish, the finger points firmly at the Old Rectory, where rumours of risqué romps would be enough to make a vicar blush.

Yet all becomes clear when Paul and Sue King explain how their home has provided the location for a dark film entitled This Little Death. Freelance film maker and director Alex Hardy (Williams), whose family live in the village, and producer/director Nick Blair were able to call it a wrap after five intensive days of filming, but the creepy hand - an essential prop - still lurked in the bin .

Alex, who studied at Lady Hawkins’ School in Kington and at Hereford College of Art before going on to film school, worked on Soldier Bee which has just won WorldFest Houston’s Platinum Remi Award for best short film among other global accolades.

When he was looking for a location for this latest film, he knocked on the door at the Old Rectory - his mother and stepfather Jo and John Hawes live in the village.

“He wanted a house that was old, lived in and scruffy,” says Paul.

The seven-bedroom “part Georgian-part Victorian” Old Rectory fitted the bill, even the woodshed where a ‘bloodstain’ lingers still on the chopping block.

As the Kings are about to move into their smart new kitchen at the Old Rectory, where they have lived for 18 years, the film crew seized on the old kitchen “cobwebs and all”, urging the couple to pile up unwashed crockery and general disarray.

The old house was to appear neglected, so Paul and Sue were holed up in the library and just one bedroom.

One of the other bedrooms and a bathroom formed the backdrop for some rather steamy scenes between the film's two actors, The arrangement met with strong disapproval from the Kings' cat, Sam who remained "iffy" the lengthy shoots.

“The filming was not done chronologically so the action jumped around a bit,” said Paul.

“We’d snatch something to eat and have a picnic in another part of the house!”

Even though the “decidedly dark” story required a series of gruesome scenes - the male character’s finger is sliced off on the chopping block in their woodshed and popped in the freezer - they confess they would be happy to repeat the film experience.

“They were such a lovely, lively lot,” says Sue.

“I’m not sure that it sounds my kind of film, but it’s being shot on location in our house.”

She posted on Facebook: “Unbelievable disruption to our normal life and Sam puss is decidedly iffy about it all but the film crew are lovely.”

Watching on with fascination, the Kings were hugely impressed by the professionalism of the crew.

At one point, an actor had to eat a sausage. "There were many takes and the actress told us she'd eaten so many sausages!" says Sue.

"It was all new to us, but I think if we were asked again, we'd say yes, and we're really looking forward to seeing the film."