Private Project

Rare Medium

Rare Medium is a bloodless horror-comedy about a straightforward spiritual possession hijacked by murderous cannibals. When Dave, a grieving everyman, hires Gus, a maybe-too-legit spiritual medium, to contact his recently deceased girlfriend, their session starts off hopeful but soon starts to smell off. Twist after relentless twist propel them on a psychological thrill ride driven by an inter-dimensional Bonnie and Clyde, without ever leaving Gus' office. A simple recipe yielding complex results.

Official Selection: Dances With Films '24, Edmonton International Film Festival '24, ScreamFest NoLa '24, Newport Beach Film Festival '24, Dam Short 25', Poppy Jasper '25 (WINNER: Best Local Horror)

  • Emily Maya Mills
    Director
  • Ryan Meharry
    Writer
  • Alyssa Fritz
    Producer
  • Ryan Rosenberg
    Producer
  • Ryan Meharry
    Producer
  • Dave Theune
    Key Cast
    "David"
    "Good Girls", "The Big Bang Theory", "For All Mankind", "Frasier", "Night Court"
  • Ryan Meharry
    Key Cast
    "Gus"
    "How I Met Your Mother", "Black-ish", "Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Horror, Comedy
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes 27 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 11, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    7,200 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Dances With Films
    Los Angeles
    United States
    June 29, 2024
    North American Premiere
  • Edmondton International Film Festival
    Edmondton
    Canada
    October 5, 2024
    Canadian Premiere
  • ScreamFest NoLa
    New Orleans
    United States
    October 17, 2024
    Louisiana Premiere
  • Newport Beach Film Festival
    Newport Beach
    United States
    October 19, 2024
Director Biography - Emily Maya Mills

Emily Maya Mills is a Los Angeles-based comedy creator, originally from San Francisco. A recent graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, she was selected to direct the university-funded short, Boo Hag or Shadow Man, which won the Audience Award at Seattle SciFi and Fantasy, Best of the Fest and Best Director at WhoHaHalloween, and has been distributed by Fox, AspireTV and Argo. Since graduating she’s directed Arsenio Hall in field pieces for his Netflix is a Joke reboot, a capstone production of the Lee Strasberg Institute, and festival favorite This Actually Happened (per Deadline). Before her pivot to filmmaking, Emily worked as an actor on many of your TV commercials and shows (Orange is the New Black, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Key & Peele, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Parks and Rec, and as a series regular on Disney’s Right Now Kapow!), toured as standup, spokesmodeled for cherry tomatoes, and think-tanked for a VR startup. She now lives in Burbank and plays a fictional version of her husband’s wife on the podcast, Valley Heat (Time’s Best of, NYT Op-Ed, Vulture).

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