Private Project

The Monster Inside My Head

A woman is tormented by a menacing creature who tries to take control of her body.

  • Maude Michaud
    Director
    Dys-
  • Maude Michaud
    Writer
    Dys-
  • Maude Michaud
    Producer
    Dys-
  • Karine Kerr
    Key Cast
    "the woman"
    Pinup Dolls on Ice
  • Shelagh Rowan-Legg
    Key Cast
    "the creature"
  • Completion Date:
    April 1, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Fantasia International Film Festival
    Montreal (Qc)
    Canada
    July 22, 2023
    World Premiere
    Special Jury Mention: ARRQ's Award for Best Directing (Fantastiques Weekends du Cinéma Québécois)
  • Charlotte Film Festival
    Charlotte
    United States
    September 29, 2023
    US Premiere
  • Requiem Fear Fest
    Montreal
    Canada
    September 23, 2023
    Winner: Best Local Short
  • Vancouver BadAss Film Festival
    Vancouver
    Canada
    October 15, 2023
    Nominated: Best Short, Best Script
Director Biography - Maude Michaud

Maude Michaud is an award-winning Montreal-based writer-director specializing in genre entertainment who has been making a name for herself over the past 20 years with films that use horror metaphors to address social issues. With over a dozen critically acclaimed short films which have toured the international festival circuit, her body of work explores identity, mental health, interpersonal relationships and the horror of normality.

Her debut feature film, DYS-, World Premiered to a sold out crowd at the 2014 Fantasia International Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Best Canadian Feature. She is currently in pre-production on her second feature film, Requiem for a Sad Girl.

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Director Statement

I have Tourette Syndrome. It took me more than twenty years before even being able to say those four words out loud. The four words that changed my life and that I vehemently refused to accept. Four words I tried for so long to deny, hide and suppress. Four words that brought tears to my eyes just thinking about them. Then, one day, I eventually uttered them to a few close friends and I was shocked by their reaction; it was no big deal for them and it didn’t change in any way how they saw me or interacted with me.

This small taste of normalcy got me thinking about the reasons why I was so afraid of my condition. What was it about this condition that made me want to hide and deny it for long? I realized a lot of it came from the stigmas associated with it, mostly the fact that most (if not all media representations) of the condition mainly focus on coprolalia, something that only 10% of the people with Tourette experience. Worse, Tourette syndrome is almost always used as the butt of a joke. As someone without coprolalia, what I experience is everything but funny. For me, Tourette Syndrome is an inner monster that keeps tormenting me, not a vulgar joke. But that’s something hard to explain to people who do not know better.

Being a genre filmmaker who loves to harness the power of the horror genre to draft powerful metaphors, it didn’t take long before the idea behind THE MONSTER INSIDE MY HEAD was born. This short film is my humble attempt at visually representing what it feels like for me to live with Tourette Syndrome. It shows one of the very worst side of it, one that impacts my daily life, but that very few people talk about: the nightmarish feeling that you are not in control of your own body. While I am in no way claiming that this portrayal is universal, I am hoping it will help provide a different representation of the condition that will hopefully get a conversation started as people realize Tourette Syndrome is much more than just randomly yelling out a swear word or barking at people.