Isolation and its ability to perpetuate abuse is something many are unfortunately more familiar with from this last year, leading to a global mental health crisis. Sharing trauma, our mission is to be a voice for how excruciatingly painful it can be to break toxic bonds, eating you from the inside.

Brothers Beastly is a psychological horror film about two identical twin brothers isolated on an old family farmhouse somewhere in 1960’s rural Upstate NY. There, they are trapped in a cannibalistic familial tradition and increasingly poisonous relationship.

Henry is someone trapped. Trapped by his home, his childhood, and most importantly his brother. He wants nothing more than to end the cycle of violence and guilt, but lacks the strength to take action against the only life he’s ever known.

Ed is someone hungry. Hungry for total control of his brother and anything unfortunate enough to cross his path. He carries the responsibility of family tradition, and dominates with false brotherly love, viewing himself as the savior of their clan and his brother.

In this film, we examine their twisted relationship come to a breaking point as the deep primal forces that drive all of us come spilling out of the psyche and onto the screen, consuming us in an abject creeping terror. 

Heavy Snow by Andrew Wyeth, 1967

Brothers Beastly is a story based upon abject trauma and emotional pain. Abuse by those closest that we trust most, a toxic bond reaching dangerous levels of depravity, and a relationship just as decrepit as an old family farmhouse. We were all trapped in 2020 and we’re still dealing with the mental health repercussions from the isolation surrounding COVID-19.

This film has been my greatest passion for 5 years. My passion only became stronger for it when the narrative started bleeding into my real life during the pandemic. It was only through my own disturbing and agonizing experience that I understood the importance of this story. Of what it takes to end a Beastly cycle, eating you from within.

I have suffered, grown, and continue to grow through personal effort and with the films I create. My goal is to be a voice for others trapped in cycles of abuse.

-Peter J. Hartsock

Writer Director of Brothers Beastly

Brothers Beastly storyboards illustrated by Peter

Fantasma House is a homegrown midnight movie production house that thrives on community— we are nothing without our audience. We’ve produced a collection of other short films hinging on the same themes as this project, whether it’s Optic Nerve, our psychedelic Giallo film dealing with mental health and post-traumatic stress, Daddy Knows Best a 50’s thriller taking on abusive relationships and gender dynamics, or our most recent Journey to the Innerspace, a silent film homage delving deep into the unconscious mind. Our previous projects have found great success on the mid-tier festival market, and we’ve been continually garnering accolades and reputation in this industry.

Brothers Beastly is set to be our biggest undertaking yet and we can’t do it without a community like you. The team at Fantasma House is just as passionate about film as you are, and our catalogue shows we’re ready to take on this ambitious project. To learn more about our previous work and join our community follow us at @FantasmaHouse, or check us out at fantasmahouse.com

To learn more about why the team of people making this project are the right ones for the job, check out our Team Page.

Posters of our previous films

Think The Shining meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Horror films from the 70’s are often referred to as part of the “Golden Age” of the genre, a time when boundaries were being pushed and innovative storytelling left us with a collection of films that have a classic quality to them. Picture the cold slow-burn atmosphere of The Shining meets the gruesome family of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Brothers Beastly pulls from these cinematic traditions, while incorporating contemporary trends in horror such as the recent development of the “Elevated Horror” genre. Such entries in this genre include the work of Eggers and Aster, creating films which aim to deeply emotionally upset and disturb you, while commenting on socio-philosophical ideas.

The Shining, Hereditary, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Witch

The script is written, pre-production is underway, and our fantastic team is assembled. Brothers Beastly is already in motion, and all we need now is your help. We’re aiming for a 3-day production in February 2022, and distribution in the latter half of 2022. We believe with Brothers Beastly we’d be able to take our experience from previous festival runs and target major festivals. This would include targeting general film festivals such as Sundance or TIFF through their Midnight curation blocks or through genre specific major festivals such as Fantastic Fest or Sitges.

Seed & Spark requires that we raise at least 80% of our goal for the project to be funded. We must reach this goal in 45 days or we don't receive any funds at all.

Your contribution will help Brothers Beastly come to life as a production, ensure fair compensation to our crew, and make certain the film has a successful distribution onto the festival circuit. Your contribution will help pay for:

• Cast and crew compensation
• Production designing and custom building our sets
• Renting proper film equipment
• Ensuring production goes smoothly
• Post-production process

How your contribution is used

Our goal of $13,000 will allow us to make Brothers Beastly, but reaching the following stretch goals will allow us to continue to perfect the vision of this film.

• At $15,000 we’ll have the ability to even further improve the production design of the film with period appropriate props and further detail in the custom sets.
• At $18,000 we’ll increase the compensation of our fantastic crew and be able to provide improved lodging and transportation options.
• At $20,000 we’ll be able to upgrade the budget to include an in-depth film festival and marketing strategy to help make sure all our work with Brothers Beastly succeeds.

Other ways to help:

Follow our campaign on Seed&Spark. It's 100% free and once we hit a certain number of followers we’ll get access to tons of perks, products, and services.

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Join us in helping make @peterjhartsock's next @fantasmahousefilms horror classic, Brothers Beastly! Support them on @seedandspark

Send this campaign to someone you know. Text them, email them, or even call them! Anything you do to get our film out there is a massive help. Join us over at @FantasmaHouseFilms and let's do this together.

Our number one priority is always the health and safety of our cast and crew. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created new challenges for the filmmaking process, but our team has already taken them on. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have produced 2 Fantasma House short films and 4 music videos adhering to COVID safety best practices, creating our own COVID production manual approved by the local county Health Department. Brothers Beastly will be informed by our success with this health and safety process, and even further mitigate risk with a single location, single actor, and skeleton team.

Thank you for taking the time to look at our project, and thank you for supporting us. We’re ready to make this project, all we need is you.