CROOKEDFINGER

After the sudden deaths of her aging parents, Maria Gallucci returns to her childhood home on Cape Cod (Massachusetts). When Maria’s estranged brother Nico (and his older girlfriend Sigrid) show up to help sort out the estate, tensions soon rise about how to best sell the decrepit house. While Maria and Sigrid forge an unexpected friendship, Nico’s emotional volatility becomes increasingly unstable. Is it the effects of an old brain injury, the toll of revisiting past family traumas, or something related to the strange vibrating hum that only Maria seems to hear?

  • Julia Halperin
    Director
    NOW, FORAGER; BARRACUDA
  • Jason Cortlund
    Director
    NOW, FORAGER; BARRACUDA
  • Jason Cortlund
    Writer
    NOW, FORAGER; BARRACUDA
  • Julia Halperin
    Producer
    NOW, FORAGER; BARRACUDA
  • Todd Remis
    Producer
    STRAWBERRY MANSION; JEZEBEL; UNDER THE SILVER LAKE; TO DUST; WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY; THIRST STREET; KEEP THE CHANGE; SYLVIO; PORTO; ALWAYS SHINE; MAGIC MAGIC
  • Paula Jon DeRose
    Key Cast
    "Maria"
    SUCCESSION; LAW & ORDER; CITY ON A HILL; THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA
  • Welker White
    Key Cast
    "Sigrid"
    KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON; THE IRISHMAN; GOODFELLAS
  • Blake DeLong
    Key Cast
    "Nico"
    WHEN THEY SEE US; TESLA; SISTER AIMEE; THE BLACKLIST
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Suspense, Mystery, Thriller, psychological, supernatural, Drama
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 32 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    November 1, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    ARRI Alexa 3.2K & 16mm
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.85
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • American Film Festival
    Wroclaw
    Poland
    November 9, 2023
    World Premiere
  • IFF Boston
    Boston, MA
    United States
    May 4, 2024
    North American Premiere
  • Ridgefield IFF
    Ridgefield, CT
    United States
    May 18, 2024
    Best Psychological Suspense Award
  • Brooklyn Film Festival
    New York, NY
    United States
    June 3, 2024
  • Gulf of Naples IFF
    Naples
    Italy
    June 11, 2024
  • Nevada Women's Film Festival
    Las Vegas, NV
    United States
    June 20, 2024
  • Woods Hole Film Festival
    Woods Hole, MA
    United States
    July 30, 2024
  • Mystic Film Festival
    Mystic, CT
    United States
    September 19, 2024
    Best Ensemble Cast Award
  • Montevideo Fantastico Film Festival
    Montevideo
    Uruguay
    South American Premiere
    Best Actress Award
  • Monadnock International Film Festival
    Keene, NH
    United States
    October 4, 2024
  • Bread & Roses Film Festival
    Asbury Park, NJ
    United States
    October 19, 2024
    Best of the Fest Award
  • Alexandria Film Festival
    Alexandria, VA
    United States
    November 9, 2024
  • Weyauwega IFF
    Weyauwega, WI
    United States
    November 15, 2024
    Robert Bloch Award for Best Suspense/Thriller/Horror
Director Biography - Julia Halperin, Jason Cortlund

Julia Halperin and Jason Cortlund have co-directed shorts, installations, and narrative feature films. Their debut feature NOW, FORAGER (2012) premiered at IFF Rotterdam and New Directors/New Films. It was nominated for a Gotham Award for Breakthrough Director. Their follow-up, BARRACUDA (2017) starring Allison Tolman and JoBeth Williams, premiered in the narrative competition at SXSW and in the Critics Week competition at Cairo IFF. It was distributed in the US by Samuel Goldwyn Films/Orion Pictures, and sold across multiple international territories.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The feeling of being alone in one’s own family is a specific kind of terror. CROOKEDFINGER uses elements of slow-burn suspense to explore this underlying feeling of dread, one that generates from a liminal space between the psychological and the supernatural.

Like all the problems with an aging house, there are some things you just can’t fix. CROOKEDFINGER is about breaking attachments to the old stories that haunt us—and finding the strength to start over again from zero.

We developed the script for actors we knew—Paula Jon DeRose and Welker White—around the seasonal landscapes of off-season Cape Cod. We made the film with a small crew in an isolated location, including key collaborators from our previous two features—most notably cinematographer Jonathan Nastasi and composer Chris Brokaw.