Surprise!

When a prank goes awry, 4 best friends and an awkward outcast witness a murder that threatens their hard-won success and obsessively sunny dispositions. Bummer!

  • Lucé Tomlin-Brenner
    Director
    Messed Up, Gilmhower Girls
  • Lucé Tomlin-Brenner
    Writer
    Messed Up, Gilmhower Girls
  • Lucé Tomlin-Brenner
    Producer
    Messed Up, Gilmhower Girls, Self Help, Demon Juice
  • Casey O'Brien
    Producer
    Smallest Girl in the World, Pie Fidelity, Lucy Follows Her Dreams
  • Emma Cogan
    Producer
    Fanatico, Camp Calypso, Baby Fever
  • Alex Hartwig
    Producer
    Fanatico, Camp Calypso, Baby Fever
  • Warren Xian
    Producer
    Messed Up, Flesh and Blood a Go! Go!, The Abscense of Milk in the Mouths of the Lost
  • Tom Curley
    Producer
    Whiplash
  • Mal Merpi
    Key Cast
    "Rose"
    The Politican, Pose, 9-1-1, American Horror Story, American Crime Story, Scream Queens
  • Risdon Roberts
    Key Cast
    "Lulu"
    Bite Me
  • Ellie Race-Moore
    Key Cast
    "Celine"
    Messed Up, Self Help, Saltine, Eat Shit Kenny Daniels
  • Marcelina Chavira
    Key Cast
    "Julia"
    Posehn: New Music Sucks, Super Giant Robot Brothers, Red Dead Redemption II
  • Julie Rosing
    Key Cast
    "Danielle"
    College Humor, The Characters, Danger Force
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Dark Comedy, Horror Comedy
  • Runtime:
    29 minutes 57 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 8, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    7,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:09
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Lucé Tomlin-Brenner

Lucé Tomlin-Brenner is a comedian and filmmaker who hails from Elyria, Ohio, and resides in Los Angeles. Her background as an improviser with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater informs her writing, directing, and performance style. Her award-winning horror-comedy, Messed Up, finished its festival run in 2020. In 2021 she launched Too Much Productions, a queer feminist horror-comedy collective for DIY filmmakers with audacious visions. Lucé believes that genre films help us examine the absurdities and inequities of our surreal world. Her favorite characters are loud, hysterical women being driven to the brink of sanity by a cruel unforgiving society. Her biggest fear is being murdered.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I made Surprise! because I hate to see a girlboss winning.

I'm exhausted by the superficial portrayal of feminism in mainstream film. With Surprise! I crank the petty insults up until they crescendo into callous violence to highlight the ways in which centering individual success causes torment rather than empowerment. So this film should throw you into a rage! But also make you laugh wildly and scream in terror!

It is a dark comedy inspired by Heathers (1988) & Jawbreaker (1999) that satirizes boss babes, toxic positivity, and the idea that women are inherently "good."