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"
  • Genres:
    horror, psychological horror
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 48 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 1, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Student Project:
    No
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. Her body of work includes over a dozen critically acclaimed short films which have toured the international festival circuit.

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 development on her second feature film.

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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. Four words that changed my life and that I vehemently refused to accept. Four words I tried for so long to 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 it. 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 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. Tourette Syndrome is my 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 side of it, the very worst and nightmarish one. But also the one that we never talk about. 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.