House of the Bleeding Hands (Horror)
Undocumented immigrant Luz goes to a West Texas women's shelter to hide from her violent ex-boyfriend, only to discover a more dangerous threat attacking the residents — giant killer insects.
“HOUSE OF THE BLEEDING HANDS” is an action-horror film that flips the script on the battered woman trope.
It’s said that leaving an abusive relationship is the most dangerous part. However, for the residents of this shelter, things get much worse when a nest of giant insects descends upon their safe house. As domestic abuse survivors, former sex workers, and recovering substance users, they already know the drill: some assholes want them dead for no good reason.
The bugs use tactics that parallel those of abusers: isolation, intimidation, cruelty, and psychological manipulation. Resembling giant cicadas, their goals are to either eat the shelter residents, lay their eggs inside of them, or both. Worse yet, the insects have a disturbing ability to cause hallucinations of traumatic memories.
Despite the odds being completely stacked against them, the women prove themselves as worthy adversaries. They’re strong as hell because they’ve already been through hell.
It’s packed with jump scares, atmospheric dread, psychological horror, and a brood of terrifying giant insects.
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Project Type:Screenplay
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Genres:Horror
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Number of Pages:101
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Country of Origin:United States
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Language:English, Spanish
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First-time Screenwriter:No
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Student Project:No
Tabitha Vidaurri is a writer based in New York. She has performed comedy for over a decade, including comedy shows for WFMU, Funny or Die, numerous NYC venues and festivals across the US. She loves using the horror genre as a way to tell new and interesting stories about women, queer folks, and people in addiction recovery.
My Texan/Mexican heritage, Catholic upbringing, and my own recovery have a big influence on this story. When I was getting sober and confronting my own trauma, movies were a huge source of comfort — and horror was the only genre that actually helped me make sense of what happened.
While there is an obvious supernatural element to this film, many of the monsters are real: flagrant human rights violations continue to harm undocumented immigrants, and attacks by male partners remain the number one cause of injury to American women between the ages of fifteen and forty-four. And as reproductive rights are being systemically taken away, a story where women are being forced to incubate insect eggs takes on a whole new terrifying meaning.