Quiet in the House
Chicago, Illinois | Film Feature
Horror, Drama
Quiet in the House is a psychological horror film about four women inspired and tormented by their manipulative theater director–and an unseen supernatural force. An examination of sadomasochism in artistic production, the film asserts the need for community over isolation in the face of fear.
Quiet in the House
Chicago, Illinois | Film Feature
Horror, Drama
1 Campaigns | Illinois, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $23,150 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
129 supporters | followers
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Quiet in the House is a psychological horror film about four women inspired and tormented by their manipulative theater director–and an unseen supernatural force. An examination of sadomasochism in artistic production, the film asserts the need for community over isolation in the face of fear.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Quiet in the House is a psychological horror film about a group of actors inspired and tormented by the mind games of their manipulative theater director. These four women hope to give the best performances of their careers, but soon realize this opportunity comes at a devastating cost. As they sink deeper into emotional and physical exhaustion, a violent supernatural force makes itself felt within the darkness of the theater.
The film grapples with the complex masochistic tendencies of artistic production, and the importance of community over isolation in the face of what scares us – whether that’s a poltergeist, or a man you thought you knew well. Quiet in the House begins production in Chicago this July. By joining our campaign, you can be a part of bringing this project to life.
Why tell this story now?
In our personal, professional, and political lives, we are often confronted with abuses of power on systemic and individual levels, even as we are told not to recognize them. We may be made to question our own experiences, tamp down our own feelings. In creative fields – where cults of personality abound – there is a persistent narrative that we must suffer for art. We cannot completely avoid intense feelings of discomfort in life – nor should we. Our ambitions and personal growth may demand that we challenge ourselves. Connecting with others, and with our own authentic selves, means being vulnerable to possible harm. So how do you know where to draw the line? When do the scales tip into violence?
Quiet in the House wrestles with the manipulation that can occur when fantasy and reality slide too readily into each other, when isolation and control distort perception. In environments rife with misogyny and homophobia, we need community and solidarity, transparency and communication – to bring light and sound to that which is obscure and silent.
Genre & Style
images from The Brood (1979), The Haunting (1963), Possession (1981), The Entity (1982), and The Witches of Eastwick (1987).
Repressed emotion has to come out somewhere. Supernatural horror often physically manifests psychological pain – the unexpressed becomes too immense, too Real, that it breaks forth into material reality.
The otherworldly horrors in Quiet in the House call our characters’ attention to those that are more mundane, but equally terrible. Unlike other hauntings, some articulate poltergeist phenomena as a violent force that emerges from the repressed emotions of a living person, often a girl or young woman connected to a particular house. And what is a theater if not a building where people go to experience intense emotions night after night?
image from Stage Fright (1987)
While much of the inspiration comes from supernatural horror, there are also influences from horror films that take place in something slightly closer to the “real” world – but in theatrical spaces akin to haunted houses.
images from The Gang of Four (1989), Opening Night (1977), Drive My Car (2021), and Madeline’s Madeline (2018)
Other influences include dramas about theater that feature heightened moments of surreal subjectivity, blending theatrical processes with real-life interpersonal relationships.
image from Sombre (1998)
Two exciting stylistic elements in Quiet in the House will be the use of abstract, textural, analog video footage during the memory exercise sequences, and the use of stop motion during select unsettling moments. On an acting level, part of our style will be the blending of heightened theatrical performance and naturalistic, partially improvised dialogue.
Characters
Casting announcements will be made throughout the campaign for our principal characters:
Amy (Amanda Fink) - After leaving a burgeoning career as an actor to support her family through a crisis, Amy has reconnected with her former collaborator in the hope that she can still pursue her professional and artistic ambitions.
John (Alex Grelle) - A theater director known for his experimental and provocative reworkings of canonical plays, John is a demanding and charismatic force in the rehearsal room. He makes extensive use of “sense memory” exercises, adapting these methods to his own ends.
Miranda (Katie Mazzini) - Lonely and dissatisfied after years of touring in regional Shakespeare productions, Miranda sees this project as a chance to expand not only her professional options, but her sense of community.
Emily (Loren Hayes) - When her on-again off-again lover invites her to join his new theatrical project in a track intended for a conservatory dancer, trained actor Emily pushes her physical and emotional capacity to prove herself.
Chloe (currently reviewing audition tapes) - Fresh out of a BFA program in classical acting, Chloe is self-assured for her age but eager to prove herself in the “real” world by working with a director she has admired from afar.
Jackie (currently reviewing audition tapes) - A brusque but caring stage manager, Jackie fights to reinforce healthy boundaries for the actors in the face of John’s grueling methods, but finds herself the only one willing to risk her role in the project.
Stretch Goals
PRACTICAL EFFECTS / ART DEPARTMENT – While this is more a psychological horror film than an effects-heavy one, there are a few key moments that would be greatly enhanced by allocating more budget to effects. The vision is to keep this everything as physical as possible, rather than overly relying on digital post-production. Our scenic, prop, and costume budgets are also currently very minimalist, and additional funds here will allow us to get stranger and bolder with our production design. We would love to dedicate another $1,200 to this department. (This isn't a gory film, although it will be a frightening one, but you can still help us buy some blood!)
ADDITIONAL FILMING DAYS -- Making a feature film on a micro budget means we need to work with a very small number of filming days. Meeting the stretch goal of an additional $2,000 means we can add another day to our shooting schedule, with cast and crew day rates, craft services, and potential equipment rental.
Other Ways to Support
If you’d like to support this film in other ways, please share our campaign with your networks!
You can also email [email protected] if you are interested in offering in-kind support in the following areas:
- Catering / craft services - I will literally cook every meal for this if I have to; help me chop carrots?
- Equipment rental
- Set construction materials
- Transportation
- Fundraiser event collaborations - We are having a fundraiser at the Empty Bottle in Chicago on June 11th! Let me know if you'd like to help out.
Please don't hesitate to reach out to discuss this project, and thank you for taking the time to read through our campaign page!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Professional, Multi-talented Actors
Costs $8,700
This script is partly about acting itself, demanding a lot from its performers. We need to compensate exceptionally talented professionals.
Craft Services
Costs $800
To keep everyone fed and caffeinated during long days of filming! We are also seeking food/beverage partnership connections.
Camera Crew
Costs $4,300
To hire a cinematographer, an assistant camera operator, and gaffer with their specialized skills and kits of equipment.
Art Department
Costs $800
Materials and labor for props, costumes, masks, and other design elements.
Location Rental
Costs $3,900
Toward the cost of renting our principal location (the Upstairs Mainstage at the Den Theatre in Chicago's Wicker Park) for 3 weeks.
Lighting
Costs $1,500
Renting theatrical lighting inventory and hiring a Lighting Designer and Master Electrician to plot, hang, and focus lights on the grid.
Set Construction
Costs $800
Lumber, paint, and hardware toward building a set for the play-within-the-film; curved risers that evoke historical operating theaters.
Share this update!
About This Team
More cast and crew announcements will be coming throughout the campaign; we look forward to introducing you to the full team!
Writer/Director - Sid Fiore Branca
Sid Branca photographed by Sarah Joyce
Sid Fiore Branca’s scholarship and artistic practice in cinema is heavily informed by a background in experimental theater and performance art. Their expansive time-based practice has spanned film, video, performance, sound, music, browser-based multimedia, artist’s books, and texts of many kinds. They often blend live performance and editing processes: using theatrical improvisation techniques to generate material for films; creating videos to operate in tandem with live stage performance. Branca often plays with the symbolic functions of the science fiction and horror genres to express experiences related to gender, sexuality, kink, and disability. Branca’s work has been featured with The Wrong Biennale, the Onion City Experimental Film Festival, the Center for Book and Paper Arts, the Chicago Fringe Festival, First Floor Theater, the Neo-Futurarium, and Salonathon, among others. Branca holds degrees from the University of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago, and taught as faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for nearly a decade. This fall they will join McGill University as a PhD researcher focusing on the carnivalesque in cinema. After over a decade of moving image practice and recently completing a mid-length film collaboration with Bree Dani Parman entitled A Real Inverted Person, Quiet in the House will be their first narrative feature film. More at https://sidbranca.com.
Production Sound Mixer - Yuxin Lu
See https://sourlyx.com/.
Composer - Macie Stewart
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Macie Stewart photographed by Shannon Marks
Macie Stewart is a musician and multi-disciplinary artist based in Chicago, IL. Heralded for their versatility, Stewart works with piano, violin, guitar, voice, and synthesizers, effortlessly traversing styles and scenes. Stewart is a distinguished, go-to collaborator who Pitchfork credits with “making some of the best tracks of the past five years transcendent.” More at https://maciestewart.com/.
Costume Designer - Alexis Carrie
See https://www.alexiscarrie.com/
Story collaborator - Jack McDonald
Quiet in the House was written by Sid Branca, story by Sid Branca with Jack McDonald. Jack McDonald is a writer and musician based in Los Angeles. He will also contribute compositions to the synthesizer element of the film's score.
Technical Director - Peter Wilde
Cast (Amy) - Amanda Fink
Amanda Fink is a Chicago-based actor and educator. On stage, she has had the pleasure of working with Steppenwolf, Geffen Playhouse, Writers Theatre, Court Theatre, Sideshow Theatre Company, and First Floor Theater, where she is a co-founder and company member. In 2019, she was named one of the Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago in Newcity Stage for her work with FFT. Amanda is a co-owner of Black Box Acting alongside Eric Gerard and Andrew Cutler, and now holds the title of Creative Director. She holds degrees in Theater and Performance Studies and English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago. More at https://www.amandacfink.com/.
Cast (John) - Alex Grelle
Alex Grelle photographed by Sarah Elizabeth Larson
Alex Grelle is a multifaceted performer and creator of The Grelley Duvall Show, a series of performances that bring together film, theater, and music in a wild blend of obsessive homage and empowering spectacle, underscored by deep cuts from the gay canon. Grelle and his collaborators have performed his works on numerous iconic Chicago stages, including Steppenwolf, the Chopin Theatre, the Hideout, the Empty Bottle. He has also appeared in the films Holy Trinity (2019) and Make Out Party (2018), multiple music videos for the acclaimed band Dehd, and his own streaming specials, Grelley Duvall: In My Home, In My Prime (2020) and grelley (2021). Grelle also hosts and curates the recurring variety show “Ordinary Peepholes”. More at https://www.instagram.com/beerbatteredcod/.
Cast (Emily) - Loren Hayes
Loren Hayes is a Kentucky-born, Los Angeles-based actor, writer, and deviser. With a particular personal bent toward the surreal and strange, whether getting into the guts of queer body horror, making westerns on a shoestring or bouncing around LA’s Immersive Theatre scene; they’re obsessed with borderless and boundless narrative creation. More at https://lorenhayes.com/.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Quiet in the House is a psychological horror film about a group of actors inspired and tormented by the mind games of their manipulative theater director. These four women hope to give the best performances of their careers, but soon realize this opportunity comes at a devastating cost. As they sink deeper into emotional and physical exhaustion, a violent supernatural force makes itself felt within the darkness of the theater.
The film grapples with the complex masochistic tendencies of artistic production, and the importance of community over isolation in the face of what scares us – whether that’s a poltergeist, or a man you thought you knew well. Quiet in the House begins production in Chicago this July. By joining our campaign, you can be a part of bringing this project to life.
Why tell this story now?
In our personal, professional, and political lives, we are often confronted with abuses of power on systemic and individual levels, even as we are told not to recognize them. We may be made to question our own experiences, tamp down our own feelings. In creative fields – where cults of personality abound – there is a persistent narrative that we must suffer for art. We cannot completely avoid intense feelings of discomfort in life – nor should we. Our ambitions and personal growth may demand that we challenge ourselves. Connecting with others, and with our own authentic selves, means being vulnerable to possible harm. So how do you know where to draw the line? When do the scales tip into violence?
Quiet in the House wrestles with the manipulation that can occur when fantasy and reality slide too readily into each other, when isolation and control distort perception. In environments rife with misogyny and homophobia, we need community and solidarity, transparency and communication – to bring light and sound to that which is obscure and silent.
Genre & Style
images from The Brood (1979), The Haunting (1963), Possession (1981), The Entity (1982), and The Witches of Eastwick (1987).
Repressed emotion has to come out somewhere. Supernatural horror often physically manifests psychological pain – the unexpressed becomes too immense, too Real, that it breaks forth into material reality.
The otherworldly horrors in Quiet in the House call our characters’ attention to those that are more mundane, but equally terrible. Unlike other hauntings, some articulate poltergeist phenomena as a violent force that emerges from the repressed emotions of a living person, often a girl or young woman connected to a particular house. And what is a theater if not a building where people go to experience intense emotions night after night?
image from Stage Fright (1987)
While much of the inspiration comes from supernatural horror, there are also influences from horror films that take place in something slightly closer to the “real” world – but in theatrical spaces akin to haunted houses.
images from The Gang of Four (1989), Opening Night (1977), Drive My Car (2021), and Madeline’s Madeline (2018)
Other influences include dramas about theater that feature heightened moments of surreal subjectivity, blending theatrical processes with real-life interpersonal relationships.
image from Sombre (1998)
Two exciting stylistic elements in Quiet in the House will be the use of abstract, textural, analog video footage during the memory exercise sequences, and the use of stop motion during select unsettling moments. On an acting level, part of our style will be the blending of heightened theatrical performance and naturalistic, partially improvised dialogue.
Characters
Casting announcements will be made throughout the campaign for our principal characters:
Amy (Amanda Fink) - After leaving a burgeoning career as an actor to support her family through a crisis, Amy has reconnected with her former collaborator in the hope that she can still pursue her professional and artistic ambitions.
John (Alex Grelle) - A theater director known for his experimental and provocative reworkings of canonical plays, John is a demanding and charismatic force in the rehearsal room. He makes extensive use of “sense memory” exercises, adapting these methods to his own ends.
Miranda (Katie Mazzini) - Lonely and dissatisfied after years of touring in regional Shakespeare productions, Miranda sees this project as a chance to expand not only her professional options, but her sense of community.
Emily (Loren Hayes) - When her on-again off-again lover invites her to join his new theatrical project in a track intended for a conservatory dancer, trained actor Emily pushes her physical and emotional capacity to prove herself.
Chloe (currently reviewing audition tapes) - Fresh out of a BFA program in classical acting, Chloe is self-assured for her age but eager to prove herself in the “real” world by working with a director she has admired from afar.
Jackie (currently reviewing audition tapes) - A brusque but caring stage manager, Jackie fights to reinforce healthy boundaries for the actors in the face of John’s grueling methods, but finds herself the only one willing to risk her role in the project.
Stretch Goals
PRACTICAL EFFECTS / ART DEPARTMENT – While this is more a psychological horror film than an effects-heavy one, there are a few key moments that would be greatly enhanced by allocating more budget to effects. The vision is to keep this everything as physical as possible, rather than overly relying on digital post-production. Our scenic, prop, and costume budgets are also currently very minimalist, and additional funds here will allow us to get stranger and bolder with our production design. We would love to dedicate another $1,200 to this department. (This isn't a gory film, although it will be a frightening one, but you can still help us buy some blood!)
ADDITIONAL FILMING DAYS -- Making a feature film on a micro budget means we need to work with a very small number of filming days. Meeting the stretch goal of an additional $2,000 means we can add another day to our shooting schedule, with cast and crew day rates, craft services, and potential equipment rental.
Other Ways to Support
If you’d like to support this film in other ways, please share our campaign with your networks!
You can also email [email protected] if you are interested in offering in-kind support in the following areas:
- Catering / craft services - I will literally cook every meal for this if I have to; help me chop carrots?
- Equipment rental
- Set construction materials
- Transportation
- Fundraiser event collaborations - We are having a fundraiser at the Empty Bottle in Chicago on June 11th! Let me know if you'd like to help out.
Please don't hesitate to reach out to discuss this project, and thank you for taking the time to read through our campaign page!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Professional, Multi-talented Actors
Costs $8,700
This script is partly about acting itself, demanding a lot from its performers. We need to compensate exceptionally talented professionals.
Craft Services
Costs $800
To keep everyone fed and caffeinated during long days of filming! We are also seeking food/beverage partnership connections.
Camera Crew
Costs $4,300
To hire a cinematographer, an assistant camera operator, and gaffer with their specialized skills and kits of equipment.
Art Department
Costs $800
Materials and labor for props, costumes, masks, and other design elements.
Location Rental
Costs $3,900
Toward the cost of renting our principal location (the Upstairs Mainstage at the Den Theatre in Chicago's Wicker Park) for 3 weeks.
Lighting
Costs $1,500
Renting theatrical lighting inventory and hiring a Lighting Designer and Master Electrician to plot, hang, and focus lights on the grid.
Set Construction
Costs $800
Lumber, paint, and hardware toward building a set for the play-within-the-film; curved risers that evoke historical operating theaters.
Share this update!
About This Team
More cast and crew announcements will be coming throughout the campaign; we look forward to introducing you to the full team!
Writer/Director - Sid Fiore Branca
Sid Branca photographed by Sarah Joyce
Sid Fiore Branca’s scholarship and artistic practice in cinema is heavily informed by a background in experimental theater and performance art. Their expansive time-based practice has spanned film, video, performance, sound, music, browser-based multimedia, artist’s books, and texts of many kinds. They often blend live performance and editing processes: using theatrical improvisation techniques to generate material for films; creating videos to operate in tandem with live stage performance. Branca often plays with the symbolic functions of the science fiction and horror genres to express experiences related to gender, sexuality, kink, and disability. Branca’s work has been featured with The Wrong Biennale, the Onion City Experimental Film Festival, the Center for Book and Paper Arts, the Chicago Fringe Festival, First Floor Theater, the Neo-Futurarium, and Salonathon, among others. Branca holds degrees from the University of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago, and taught as faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for nearly a decade. This fall they will join McGill University as a PhD researcher focusing on the carnivalesque in cinema. After over a decade of moving image practice and recently completing a mid-length film collaboration with Bree Dani Parman entitled A Real Inverted Person, Quiet in the House will be their first narrative feature film. More at https://sidbranca.com.
Production Sound Mixer - Yuxin Lu
See https://sourlyx.com/.
Composer - Macie Stewart
Macie Stewart photographed by Shannon Marks
Macie Stewart is a musician and multi-disciplinary artist based in Chicago, IL. Heralded for their versatility, Stewart works with piano, violin, guitar, voice, and synthesizers, effortlessly traversing styles and scenes. Stewart is a distinguished, go-to collaborator who Pitchfork credits with “making some of the best tracks of the past five years transcendent.” More at https://maciestewart.com/.
Costume Designer - Alexis Carrie
See https://www.alexiscarrie.com/
Story collaborator - Jack McDonald
Quiet in the House was written by Sid Branca, story by Sid Branca with Jack McDonald. Jack McDonald is a writer and musician based in Los Angeles. He will also contribute compositions to the synthesizer element of the film's score.
Technical Director - Peter Wilde
Cast (Amy) - Amanda Fink
Amanda Fink is a Chicago-based actor and educator. On stage, she has had the pleasure of working with Steppenwolf, Geffen Playhouse, Writers Theatre, Court Theatre, Sideshow Theatre Company, and First Floor Theater, where she is a co-founder and company member. In 2019, she was named one of the Fifty People Who Really Perform for Chicago in Newcity Stage for her work with FFT. Amanda is a co-owner of Black Box Acting alongside Eric Gerard and Andrew Cutler, and now holds the title of Creative Director. She holds degrees in Theater and Performance Studies and English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago. More at https://www.amandacfink.com/.
Cast (John) - Alex Grelle
Alex Grelle photographed by Sarah Elizabeth Larson
Alex Grelle is a multifaceted performer and creator of The Grelley Duvall Show, a series of performances that bring together film, theater, and music in a wild blend of obsessive homage and empowering spectacle, underscored by deep cuts from the gay canon. Grelle and his collaborators have performed his works on numerous iconic Chicago stages, including Steppenwolf, the Chopin Theatre, the Hideout, the Empty Bottle. He has also appeared in the films Holy Trinity (2019) and Make Out Party (2018), multiple music videos for the acclaimed band Dehd, and his own streaming specials, Grelley Duvall: In My Home, In My Prime (2020) and grelley (2021). Grelle also hosts and curates the recurring variety show “Ordinary Peepholes”. More at https://www.instagram.com/beerbatteredcod/.
Cast (Emily) - Loren Hayes
Loren Hayes is a Kentucky-born, Los Angeles-based actor, writer, and deviser. With a particular personal bent toward the surreal and strange, whether getting into the guts of queer body horror, making westerns on a shoestring or bouncing around LA’s Immersive Theatre scene; they’re obsessed with borderless and boundless narrative creation. More at https://lorenhayes.com/.