Heartthrob
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Drama, Horror
Grieving the loss of her estranged mother, Lily returns to her childhood home and a life she left behind. Jesse, who had once been like a sister to Lily, is struggling, and while Lily attempts to help, her own mental state begins to deteriorate.
Heartthrob
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Drama, Horror
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $9,760 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
52 supporters | followers
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Grieving the loss of her estranged mother, Lily returns to her childhood home and a life she left behind. Jesse, who had once been like a sister to Lily, is struggling, and while Lily attempts to help, her own mental state begins to deteriorate.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
The Story
A female led horror project about abandonment, familial resentment and a tentacle monster.
Lily (32) lives her life willfully isolated from her peers. It’s a lonely existence, but a stable one. Predictable. Safe. When she learns that her estranged mother has died, with no one able to shed light on the mysterious cause, her illusion of stability is shattered.
When she had gone away to college, Lily had left everything behind, including her childhood best friend and pseudo-sister, Jessie (31). The two had been inseparable, Jessie even living under the same roof through their formative years.
The biggest point of connection between them…they worshipped Lily’s mom and desperately sought her approval and affection. She was always leaving the girls alone while she travelled the world for her work, coming back with tales that were larger than life. Childhood wonderment quickly turned to resentment, however, as she stayed away from home for longer and longer stretches.
Reunited for the first time in years, Jessie and Lily take up temporary residence in their old house. Jessie is struggling from detox symptoms, and while Lily tries to help her recover, her grip on what is real and what is a dream seems to be shifting in and out of focus.
With the help of a charming neighbor, Jason (35), Lily begins finding the work of clearing out the home a bit more enjoyable, but the more she embraces her childhood home, the more vivid her visions. The image of a massive unknown entity dragging itself slowly towards out world seems more tangible every moment, and she begins to wonder what really happened to her mother in this house.
Our Influences: Female Centric Horror
SUSPIRIA(1977)
Dir. Dario Argento
When American ballet student Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) arrives in Germany to attend a prestigious dance academy, a series of brutal murders leads her to suspect the school has a sinister - and possibly supernatural - history in this all-timer giallo.
Argento’s dreamlike aesthetics, punctuated by moments of terror, are a significant tonal influence on a number of sequences in our film.
CARRIE (1976)
dir. Brian De Palma
Adapted from Stephen King’s seminal first novel, De Palma’s mid-70’s masterpiece stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a shy 16-year-old girl tormented at school by her bullying peers, as well as at home by her fanatically religious mother (a superb Piper Laurie).
As her anguished longing for love and acceptance mounts, Carrie discovers she possesses telekinetic abilities which she embraces in the film’s final act, culminating in a terrifying and iconic climax.
Familial resentment and the relationship between mother and daughter is crucial to our story
Producer's Statement
Horror speaks to us in different ways. For some, it's a way to exorcise our craving for thrills and terror in an exciting but ultimately safe environment. For others, it's a prism through which our shared humanity can be examined layer by layer - there are, after all, scarier things in the world than monsters.
We all experience fear, grief, loneliness, trauma, and we carry our personal histories with us. Those histories inform our choices, sometimes in seemingly inexplicable ways, as well as the personal battles we wage within ourselves. As artists, we're no strangers to the inherent clash between our desire to bear ourselves entirely and our sense of moritification at the idea of being TRULY seen.
The characters at the center of our story embody these varying facets, and their actions contrast accordingly. Like the rest of us, they will either be pulled into the light or succumb to the darkness, learning the hard way that sometimes the question isn't whether you CAN go home again, but whether you SHOULD.
Development
Though they eventually came full circle, plans for our production were thrown into upheaval by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unable to safely work together on a set, our team was left to ponder our remaining options for bringing our story to audiences. Much of our pre-production artwork stems from our exploration of other mediums - animation had been relatively unaffected by shutdowns, for example, and we also considered developing the story as a graphic novel (everyone loves pre-existing IP). Ultimately though, with vaccines available and safety protocols in place, our patience paid off and we are now able to return to our original intention - to bring Heartthrob to the screen in live-action. The dream of an epic, practical tentacle attack was too compelling to let go of.
Production Status
Our goal is to film in the summer of 2023. We are currently in talks with a potential director. Last year we signed a deal with MovieMaker Production Service, who are helping us lock in our equipment and post production needs at discounted rates, and have found us a potential prop house for our tentacles. We cannot wait to share photos as those props come to life. One of our biggest concerns was finding a location in Los Angeles. We needed something of a unicorn - a house within 30 minutes of our cast and crew, with a study AND a basement. Third location scout was the charm - we found a place in our price range with everything we needed and then some - privacy, parking, beautiful holding areas and a secret door leading to a hidden basement.
Help Get the Word Out
If you can't support us with a contribution, another amazing way to help is by sharing our project within your own network! If you know anyone who may be interested, please share this page and have them follow us!
@heartthrobmovie on Instagram and Facebook
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Location: A Country Home with a Study
Costs $4,000
The house is a character in our story. The right location is essential to making it work.
Craft Services
Costs $1,500
Our crew will be working hard across 4-5 shoot days and need proper fuel, no foraging for fungi.
Tentacles
Costs $1,000
You can't make a Cthulhu-esque horror without some awesome practical tentacles.
Festival Submissions
Costs $700
To reach an audience when our film is completed, we need to submit to festivals to get the word out!
Crew Members
Costs $4,000
Our production wouldn't be possible without a solid crew behind us. Help us compensate them!
Director
Costs $1,000
To make this a female led production, we need a solid budget to find a director with a strong voice.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Mulderon, LLC (Executive Producers)
Co-Founders – Alexandre Michael Bookstein, Mary Ann Raemisch
Alexandre Michael Bookstein
Lex has been all hands on deck since day one of this production, working as producer, screenwriter, and soon taking on the role of Jason, the charming boy next door with a dark edge.
As a performer, Lex has worked steadily both on camera and on the stage. In addition to appearing in short films, he co-created, co-wrote, co-produced and starred in Us Too, a low budget proof of concept series for YouTube. He has also appeared in a series of sketches for successful social media influencers (@MissJayDMV and Super Deluxe). These sketches have attracted over 100,000 views to date.
Lex may be best known for his work on online aftershows for Maria Menounos’s Afterbuzz TV network, its sister network Popcorn Talk and his own podcast, Missing Out.
We cannot wait to bring the vision of his script to life!
Mary Ann Raemisch
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin with two degrees, Mary Ann has been working in the industry for 12 years.
She started off her behind the scenes career in Wisconsin as a Production Assistant on Hulu’s first original series Battleground and MTV’s Off Pitch. Before migrating to Los Angeles, she also interned with Chicago’s largest casting agency, O’Connor Casting.
In addition to producing the film, she is taking on the role of Jessie, the troubled childhood friend of Lily.
As an actress, Mary Ann has appeared in various short form projects (Killboy and Krash, What Have You Booked), feature films (A Better Place – Award of Excellence, Leading Lady at the Accolade Global Film Competition, and The Penny – Best Feature Film at SAICFF) and most recently appeared in FX's final season of Legion.
If there’s been a major takeaway from Lex and Mary Ann’s combined years of experience in Los Angeles, it’s that generating your own opportunities serves you far better than waiting on opportunities to find you. The entertainment industry is among the most fiercely competitive in the world, and opportunities to work and create can be few and far between.
Lex and Mary Ann know firsthand how difficult building a network and career in Los Angeles can be. After moving to Los Angeles with no support system in place, it can take years to get even an entry level job on a professional set. Every year, creative individuals in Los Angeles are working entry-level jobs because they lack the opportunity to show what they can do.
Mulderon, LLC was formed as a home for self-generated content in the entertainment business. Our goal is to create high-quality content for low cost by creating opportunities for the untapped mine of talent in Los Angeles – people who have lived and worked here for over five years and are ready to do more.
Kalliste Zoe Productions (Executive Producer)
Mary Rachel Gardner
Mulderon, LLC is teaming up with Kalliste Zoe Productions’ Mary Rachel Gardner. Mary Rachel graduated from USC with major studies in Acting, Business and Film Production. She worked in Production for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Steve Carell’s Carousel Productions, and Zucker Productions. Mary Rachel took the skills and knowledge she learned from these experiences and founded her own film company Kalliste Zoe Productions, to explore, capture, and share the wondrous beauties in life through film and storytelling. She has developed, produced and directed many award-winning films, along with an academy-qualifying, Grand Jury Prize winning independent short film A Purgatory Story.
When Mary Rachel came to us with the concept for this short film, we knew it was a perfect fit for our goals as a production company. She has been instrumental in fostering our deal with MovieMaker Magazine and putting together an amazing cast and crew.
www.KallisteZoeProductions.com
Isaiah Lenoue (Associate Producer)
Isaiah began work on Heartthrob as an intern and proved to be an invaluable asset to the project. We are proud to have promoted them to Associate Producer and are excited to see their career path unfold. As a junior at USC, the skill set Isaiah has already demonstrated is staggering. From contract negotiations, to finding the best crew members, to creative brainstorming, their work is exceptional.
Kelsey Marie Edwards (Lead Actor)
When Kelsey Marie Edwards submitted her first audition, it was like the character on the page had come to life. We knew instantly that she was the one to play the leading role of Lily.
Kelsey is an American actress and musician best known for her role as Abby in "Minor Details" starring opposite Jennette McCurdy. She can be seen as Liz Fairchild in Orion Pictures' newest film "The Wolf of Snow Hollow," directed by Jim Cummings. One of her favorite roles was playing Tony Hale's daughter in TV pilot "The Farkles.
We are awestruck by her talent and cannot wait to see her take on the role.
MovieMaker Magazine (Investor Match and Production Services)
MovieMaker got involved in this project in November of 2021 after accepting us into their Production Services program. Through the program, they matched our original budget of $10,000 – bringing our total budget up to $20,000. Since then, they have procured a fantastic prop house for our practical effects (Lolliprops), all of our needed equipment for production (Brainbox), and a heavily discounted rate for our locations (Giggster). The work they are doing to negotiate deals with vendors is invaluable. In addition, MovieMaker has their own in-house post-production facility which will save us from exorbitant editing and special effects costs.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
The Story
A female led horror project about abandonment, familial resentment and a tentacle monster.
Lily (32) lives her life willfully isolated from her peers. It’s a lonely existence, but a stable one. Predictable. Safe. When she learns that her estranged mother has died, with no one able to shed light on the mysterious cause, her illusion of stability is shattered.
When she had gone away to college, Lily had left everything behind, including her childhood best friend and pseudo-sister, Jessie (31). The two had been inseparable, Jessie even living under the same roof through their formative years.
The biggest point of connection between them…they worshipped Lily’s mom and desperately sought her approval and affection. She was always leaving the girls alone while she travelled the world for her work, coming back with tales that were larger than life. Childhood wonderment quickly turned to resentment, however, as she stayed away from home for longer and longer stretches.
Reunited for the first time in years, Jessie and Lily take up temporary residence in their old house. Jessie is struggling from detox symptoms, and while Lily tries to help her recover, her grip on what is real and what is a dream seems to be shifting in and out of focus.
With the help of a charming neighbor, Jason (35), Lily begins finding the work of clearing out the home a bit more enjoyable, but the more she embraces her childhood home, the more vivid her visions. The image of a massive unknown entity dragging itself slowly towards out world seems more tangible every moment, and she begins to wonder what really happened to her mother in this house.
Our Influences: Female Centric Horror
SUSPIRIA(1977)
Dir. Dario Argento
When American ballet student Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) arrives in Germany to attend a prestigious dance academy, a series of brutal murders leads her to suspect the school has a sinister - and possibly supernatural - history in this all-timer giallo.
Argento’s dreamlike aesthetics, punctuated by moments of terror, are a significant tonal influence on a number of sequences in our film.
CARRIE (1976)
dir. Brian De Palma
Adapted from Stephen King’s seminal first novel, De Palma’s mid-70’s masterpiece stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a shy 16-year-old girl tormented at school by her bullying peers, as well as at home by her fanatically religious mother (a superb Piper Laurie).
As her anguished longing for love and acceptance mounts, Carrie discovers she possesses telekinetic abilities which she embraces in the film’s final act, culminating in a terrifying and iconic climax.
Familial resentment and the relationship between mother and daughter is crucial to our story
Producer's Statement
Horror speaks to us in different ways. For some, it's a way to exorcise our craving for thrills and terror in an exciting but ultimately safe environment. For others, it's a prism through which our shared humanity can be examined layer by layer - there are, after all, scarier things in the world than monsters.
We all experience fear, grief, loneliness, trauma, and we carry our personal histories with us. Those histories inform our choices, sometimes in seemingly inexplicable ways, as well as the personal battles we wage within ourselves. As artists, we're no strangers to the inherent clash between our desire to bear ourselves entirely and our sense of moritification at the idea of being TRULY seen.
The characters at the center of our story embody these varying facets, and their actions contrast accordingly. Like the rest of us, they will either be pulled into the light or succumb to the darkness, learning the hard way that sometimes the question isn't whether you CAN go home again, but whether you SHOULD.
Development
Though they eventually came full circle, plans for our production were thrown into upheaval by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unable to safely work together on a set, our team was left to ponder our remaining options for bringing our story to audiences. Much of our pre-production artwork stems from our exploration of other mediums - animation had been relatively unaffected by shutdowns, for example, and we also considered developing the story as a graphic novel (everyone loves pre-existing IP). Ultimately though, with vaccines available and safety protocols in place, our patience paid off and we are now able to return to our original intention - to bring Heartthrob to the screen in live-action. The dream of an epic, practical tentacle attack was too compelling to let go of.
Production Status
Our goal is to film in the summer of 2023. We are currently in talks with a potential director. Last year we signed a deal with MovieMaker Production Service, who are helping us lock in our equipment and post production needs at discounted rates, and have found us a potential prop house for our tentacles. We cannot wait to share photos as those props come to life. One of our biggest concerns was finding a location in Los Angeles. We needed something of a unicorn - a house within 30 minutes of our cast and crew, with a study AND a basement. Third location scout was the charm - we found a place in our price range with everything we needed and then some - privacy, parking, beautiful holding areas and a secret door leading to a hidden basement.
Help Get the Word Out
If you can't support us with a contribution, another amazing way to help is by sharing our project within your own network! If you know anyone who may be interested, please share this page and have them follow us!
@heartthrobmovie on Instagram and Facebook
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Location: A Country Home with a Study
Costs $4,000
The house is a character in our story. The right location is essential to making it work.
Craft Services
Costs $1,500
Our crew will be working hard across 4-5 shoot days and need proper fuel, no foraging for fungi.
Tentacles
Costs $1,000
You can't make a Cthulhu-esque horror without some awesome practical tentacles.
Festival Submissions
Costs $700
To reach an audience when our film is completed, we need to submit to festivals to get the word out!
Crew Members
Costs $4,000
Our production wouldn't be possible without a solid crew behind us. Help us compensate them!
Director
Costs $1,000
To make this a female led production, we need a solid budget to find a director with a strong voice.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Mulderon, LLC (Executive Producers)
Co-Founders – Alexandre Michael Bookstein, Mary Ann Raemisch
Alexandre Michael Bookstein
Lex has been all hands on deck since day one of this production, working as producer, screenwriter, and soon taking on the role of Jason, the charming boy next door with a dark edge.
As a performer, Lex has worked steadily both on camera and on the stage. In addition to appearing in short films, he co-created, co-wrote, co-produced and starred in Us Too, a low budget proof of concept series for YouTube. He has also appeared in a series of sketches for successful social media influencers (@MissJayDMV and Super Deluxe). These sketches have attracted over 100,000 views to date.
Lex may be best known for his work on online aftershows for Maria Menounos’s Afterbuzz TV network, its sister network Popcorn Talk and his own podcast, Missing Out.
We cannot wait to bring the vision of his script to life!
Mary Ann Raemisch
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin with two degrees, Mary Ann has been working in the industry for 12 years.
She started off her behind the scenes career in Wisconsin as a Production Assistant on Hulu’s first original series Battleground and MTV’s Off Pitch. Before migrating to Los Angeles, she also interned with Chicago’s largest casting agency, O’Connor Casting.
In addition to producing the film, she is taking on the role of Jessie, the troubled childhood friend of Lily.
As an actress, Mary Ann has appeared in various short form projects (Killboy and Krash, What Have You Booked), feature films (A Better Place – Award of Excellence, Leading Lady at the Accolade Global Film Competition, and The Penny – Best Feature Film at SAICFF) and most recently appeared in FX's final season of Legion.
If there’s been a major takeaway from Lex and Mary Ann’s combined years of experience in Los Angeles, it’s that generating your own opportunities serves you far better than waiting on opportunities to find you. The entertainment industry is among the most fiercely competitive in the world, and opportunities to work and create can be few and far between.
Lex and Mary Ann know firsthand how difficult building a network and career in Los Angeles can be. After moving to Los Angeles with no support system in place, it can take years to get even an entry level job on a professional set. Every year, creative individuals in Los Angeles are working entry-level jobs because they lack the opportunity to show what they can do.
Mulderon, LLC was formed as a home for self-generated content in the entertainment business. Our goal is to create high-quality content for low cost by creating opportunities for the untapped mine of talent in Los Angeles – people who have lived and worked here for over five years and are ready to do more.
Kalliste Zoe Productions (Executive Producer)
Mary Rachel Gardner
Mulderon, LLC is teaming up with Kalliste Zoe Productions’ Mary Rachel Gardner. Mary Rachel graduated from USC with major studies in Acting, Business and Film Production. She worked in Production for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Steve Carell’s Carousel Productions, and Zucker Productions. Mary Rachel took the skills and knowledge she learned from these experiences and founded her own film company Kalliste Zoe Productions, to explore, capture, and share the wondrous beauties in life through film and storytelling. She has developed, produced and directed many award-winning films, along with an academy-qualifying, Grand Jury Prize winning independent short film A Purgatory Story.
When Mary Rachel came to us with the concept for this short film, we knew it was a perfect fit for our goals as a production company. She has been instrumental in fostering our deal with MovieMaker Magazine and putting together an amazing cast and crew.
www.KallisteZoeProductions.com
Isaiah Lenoue (Associate Producer)
Isaiah began work on Heartthrob as an intern and proved to be an invaluable asset to the project. We are proud to have promoted them to Associate Producer and are excited to see their career path unfold. As a junior at USC, the skill set Isaiah has already demonstrated is staggering. From contract negotiations, to finding the best crew members, to creative brainstorming, their work is exceptional.
Kelsey Marie Edwards (Lead Actor)
When Kelsey Marie Edwards submitted her first audition, it was like the character on the page had come to life. We knew instantly that she was the one to play the leading role of Lily.
Kelsey is an American actress and musician best known for her role as Abby in "Minor Details" starring opposite Jennette McCurdy. She can be seen as Liz Fairchild in Orion Pictures' newest film "The Wolf of Snow Hollow," directed by Jim Cummings. One of her favorite roles was playing Tony Hale's daughter in TV pilot "The Farkles.
We are awestruck by her talent and cannot wait to see her take on the role.
MovieMaker Magazine (Investor Match and Production Services)
MovieMaker got involved in this project in November of 2021 after accepting us into their Production Services program. Through the program, they matched our original budget of $10,000 – bringing our total budget up to $20,000. Since then, they have procured a fantastic prop house for our practical effects (Lolliprops), all of our needed equipment for production (Brainbox), and a heavily discounted rate for our locations (Giggster). The work they are doing to negotiate deals with vendors is invaluable. In addition, MovieMaker has their own in-house post-production facility which will save us from exorbitant editing and special effects costs.