Director's statement:
My vision for this screenplay is edged on surrealist horror. I wanted something that not only unsettled the audience, but left a deep mark too. Surrealism has been a recent passion of mine and I wanted to write something that, in some ways made no sense, but there was a definite theme behind the madness.
For inspiration on how a surrealist story should look, I turned my attention to two of my favourite surrealist stop-motion animation movies: The House by Edna Walsh and Mad God by Phil Tippett. I loved the fever dream aesthetic that both gave, but I especially loved the acid trip that was the second part of The House, which was divided into three parts. It was a combination of the specific section and my own experiences and fears to influence my writing.
Originally, I planned on writing the story to be about how Bren finds out their family isn't as innocent as expected. I envisioned a story of Bren facing grief but discovering a dark secret about their grandfather and their family, leading them to question their life as they realise everything they've experienced was a lie. However, I wanted something that would resonate with the audience on a deeper level, so I turned to a common experience almost everyone has had: loneliness.
Loneliness has been proven to drive people mad and I wanted to explore that while leaving room for interpretation of if it's all in Bren's head or if it's really happening. By using my own experiences with loneliness, I built off of it and took into account some potentially paranormal aspects that could increase the unsettling sense of loneliness.
