Dispose

Carol just made her first kill. She hides the body in an industrial warehouse, only to discover she's not the only person here with secrets to bury.

  • Rachel Cylie Gross
    Director
  • Stanley Swindling
    Director
  • Rachel Cylie Gross
    Writer
  • Stanley Swindling
    Writer
  • Mitchel Worley
    Producer
  • Anastasia Pavlinskaya Brenman
    Producer
  • Sydney Rose Walker
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Horror, Thriller
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 20 seconds
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Rachel Cylie Gross, Stanley Swindling

Rachel Cylie Gross & Stanley Swindling are a writing-directing team based in Los Angeles, CA. DISPOSE is their first directorial collaboration; its screenplay was a Semifinalist in the 2023 Killer Shorts Contest. Previously, they have written the feature films HOW TO EXORCISE DEMONS and ARMADILLO, the latter of which reached the Semifinals in the ScreenCraft Horror Contest, and finished in the top 10% of Academy Nicholls. Rachel currently works as an editor on social media campaigns for film and TV; Stanley is a fiction writer and actor, having appeared in music videos and short films.

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Director Statement

Think back to a time when you did something wrong and tried to cover it up (we’ve all been there.) How long did you spend looking over your shoulder, convinced you wouldn’t get away with it? Did you, in fact, get away with it? And if you didn’t... who kept your secret?

It’s safe to assume Carol didn’t kill a man out of sadistic craving - at least, not the first time. Her efforts to obscure the crime are both manic and tactical, the workings of a sane person who committed a momentarily insane act, but doesn’t believe her life should be forever altered by it.

Of course, what Carol believes, and what fate has in store for her, are two very different things.

DISPOSE, our first collaborative short film, pays homage to a number of cinematic influences, while creating a chilling atmosphere all its own. We littered the script with endless aisles, ladders standing guard like sentries. We forced our protagonist into a state of constant surveillance, as if every inanimate object was watching, and knew what she did.

Having been born and raised in Florida, we can’t help but infuse our work with the grit of the region, the heat and humidity intense enough to drive anyone crazy. We wanted to earn our dark, cathartic ending, so escalating the cat-and-mouse tension by way of woozy dream sequences and a rock-accented step-printing interlude proved essential. The goal is to keep audiences on their toes, never quite being able to predict if (or how) Carol will come out on top.

Is this the worst night of her life? Or is it the start of the rest of her life?