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Grieve

A man engulfed in the suffocating grip of loss finds his life fragmented. Struggling to navigate through his emotional fog, his mother suggests a retreat to her cabin – but an ancient entity that thrives on sorrow has taken root. The New England winter punctuates this love letter to creeping horror and slow cinema.

  • Robbie Smith
    Director
    Morning Deliveries
  • Paris Peterson
    Key Cast
    "Sam"
    Cam, The Dropout, How to Blow up a Pipeline
  • Danielle Keaton
    Key Cast
    "Sarah"
    Village of the Damned, Beethoven 2
  • Roy Ellis
    Gaffer
    Blindspotting, The Last Blackman on Earth, P.O.M.E
  • William Spataro
    Special Makeup FX
    Renfield, Emancipation, Walking Dead: World Beyond
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Horror, Drama, Arthouse, Comedy
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 6 minutes 18 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 3, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    16,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English, French
  • Shooting Format:
    Red Komodo
  • Aspect Ratio:
    4:3, 16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Philadelphia Unnamed Footage Festival 2023
  • Philadelphia
    United States
    September 28, 2023
    World Premiere
Distribution Information
  • Terror Films
    Distributor
    Country: United States
    Rights: Video on Demand
Director Biography - Robbie Smith

Growing up poor I never thought that making movies, or my dreams of being a director, were a possibility. An art form for the elite. I kept watching movies and dreaming and eventually turned to music as an artistic outlet. Screaming into a microphone didn’t cost any money and I could will worlds and stories into existence with the simple act of putting pen to paper. I graduated high school and jumped in a van, touring the world in a punk band and living in a van for several years.

Fast forward to 2013. I’m living in Santa Cruz, CA. My band had stopped touring and I was at a creative standstill. Out of the blue, my friend Tim Murphy asked if I wanted his family’s old DV camera, the same camera I’d borrowed from high school to film skate videos, a Panasonic dvx100b. I eagerly accepted and a erendipitously, one of the ABCs of Death films was coming out and called for submissions using the letter ‘M’.

I wrote a short film and rallied all my friends and made a very strange stream-of-conscious short film, M is for Melancholy, that I’m still proud of. I’ve been making no-budget short films and music videos ever since.

In 2022 I raised just under $10,000 through indiegogo and received several private donations amounting to just under $6,000. I used that money to fund my feature debut, Grieve.

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Director Statement

Grieve is about depression and the way it warps our lives; inside and out. What it's like to suffer crippling waves of randomized torture inhabited by unknown demons that only they will ever see or understand.

Grieve is my tribute to slow cinema and the films of Chantal Akerman, with my love of horror gnawing its way in. A meta text on elevated horror that provides a gorgeous visual puzzle.

Grieve was made for $16,000 through generous contributions to our indiegogo and filmed in Massachusetts in March 2022.

The film is dedicated to our late friend Josh Simpson, who took his own life in 2019.

Thank you.