A chill will descend on a Westcountry holiday resort when it becomes the backdrop for a tense feature-length thriller.

Torbay – once home to crime writer Agatha Christie – is now commonly associated with ice cream and beach balls, but this spring a team of film-makers will turn it into a dark community where nobody can be trusted and nothing is as it seems, as the central character searches for his missing wife.

They're Coming is the brainchild of producer John Tomkins, who makes music and writes lyrics as well as working on videos for a range of local artists including the Baby Snakes and Nicky Swann.

He has amassed a team of talented volunteers to produce a film he hopes will help attract other movie-makers to the Westcountry, and will showcase the skills of those involved – all on a shoestring budget of £2,000 of his own money.

He said: "Torbay is just fantastic. I want to show it in a different light to the films which have been shot here before, like (2003 bowls-inspired comedy) Blackball. I want to make it look really great, and promote it as an excellent location for filming." Mr Tomkins co-wrote the script with Tom Menary, who has a degree in creative writing from Plymouth University.

Mr Tomkins has worked on film projects before. In 2008, he produced Like an Angel, a film he described as a "huge learning curve", with positives and negatives to the end result. Just before filming, a fire broke out at his flat, which he says changed the course of his career. "I came out of it a stronger person, and that gave me a huge amount of focus," he said.

They're Coming has already been four years in the making, and now the bulk of shooting will take place at the end of March.

Mr Tomkins has compiled a team which includes specialists such as a director of photography and a make-up artist, but he is still looking for some actors and crew to help complete the project. He said: "I've got a great body of people, with so much talent from across Devon. I'm so glad they're helping out. I can't afford to pay them, but it'll be an excellent platform to gain experience and showcase their talents.

"I plan to promote this film like never before to show the world what we're doing here."

The result will be premiered in the Westcountry and will be entered into film festivals.