The Murder On Cape Melancholy

After becoming the suspect of a brutal hammer murder, Todd Bishop falls into a well of chaos as he discovers the fantastically twisted secrets of his small town, in his journey to vindicate himself and return to a quiet life of order.

  • Christian Meier
    Director
  • Christian Meier
    Writer
    Dementophobia, Graveyard
  • Zach Echols
    Producer
    Lovestruck
  • Edi Tingle
    Producer
    Dementophobia, Lovestruck
  • Christian Meier
    Producer
    Dementophobia, Lovestruck, All of Me, Campout, Graveyard
  • Jacob Briggs
    Key Cast
    "Todd"
    Be Still and Know, Triggered
  • Ashley Ames
    Key Cast
    "Primm"
    Hawkeye, Dolly Parton's Heartstrings, Queen Sugar
  • Lawson Gray
    Key Cast
    "Finn"
  • Project Type:
    Television
  • Genres:
    Comedy, murder mystery, dark comedy, absurdist, surrealist
  • Runtime:
    25 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    September 5, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    8,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Christian Meier

As the son of a Jewish Alaskan Traveler and a black bodybuilder from Japan, Christian Meier was born to be a storyteller. Christian grew up in rural North Georgia and had an affinity towards film and television. He pursued acting and performed in many stage productions, before entering the world of television and film. Though he started as an actor, he quickly found his way into writing and filmmaking, producing narrative productions, and doctoring scripts. He’s a lover of absurdist, dark humor, writing whimsical, theatrical comedies about melancholic situations, to tell deeper stories of sadness and grief in a more lighthearted way. He currently has two production companies: Grand Line Creations, focusing on horror and thriller feature films, and Trash Mouth Productions, focusing on comedic narratives.

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Director Statement

The Murder on Cape Melancholy was a fever dream born from living in a ghost town of Cape Cod, Massachusetts during the Covid Lockdowns. The haunting shores and looming skeletal-like trees of the then empty tourist-trap evoked the feeling of living in the PBS made for TV Murder Mysteries I grew up on. I spent lonely days walking empty streets and imagining myself in a fictional town, full of eccentric characters, each satisfied with simple lives, but shaken up with a catastrophic event…a murder.

The script was shaped by my time in Cape Cod as well as the rural North Georgia town I grew up in. It is heavily inspired by the media I absorbed when I was young, the strange people I met growing up, and the places I called home. When developing this screenplay I strived to
create a distinct and yet familiar world within the fictional Road Island beach town of Cape Melancholy, that harkins back to these influential places rich with their own lore, characters, and distinct mythology.

Why The Murder on Cape Melancholy? It sounds dumb. It is! It’s the bonkers, out of pocket, small town, gossipy adventure story that everyone sought out, whether it be a quest through creepy woods with your friends, a small town “who done it”, or a tall-tale told by a wacky family member. It’s meant to evoke the emotions of the “You had to see it to believe it” folklore that creates the ethos of what makes each person's hometown unique.