Haunted

A young woman copes with grief by exorcising the memory of her mother.

Max always had a difficult relationship with her mother and now that she's passed, she's faced with the impossible task of coping with the loose ends, the 'what if's, and the stinging regrets. Max is plagued by memories that convince her that she's being haunted by a ghost. She works to put together yet another exorcism, hoping to finally be free from this endless cycle of grief.

  • Giselle Turner
    Director
    Pride and Protest (2020), How To Cope With Serial Killing (2021)
  • Alexandrine-Aramí Haeberli
    Writer
  • Oliver Cooper-Proč
    Producer
  • Kaja Chan
    Key Cast
    "Max"
  • Isabella Leung
    Key Cast
    "Frances"
  • Alonso Astiazaran Anza
    Cinematographer
  • Tibet Boyer
    1st Assistant Director
  • Adham Elsherif
    1st Assistant Director
  • Moritz Oskar Meyer
    Camera Crew
  • Jack Murphy
    Camera Crew
  • Diven Nair
    Camera Crew
  • Eli Hughes
    Camera Crew
  • Sihaam
    Camera Crew
  • Zen Wallace
    Sound Crew
  • Nikolas De Moura
    Sound Crew
  • Maciej Jaszkiewicz
    Sound Crew
  • Alonso Astiazaran Anza
    Production Design
  • Juliette Joy Anquetil
    Production Design
  • Kaja Chan
    Production Design
  • Ben A. Wolfin
    Post Production
  • Jing Ru Lim
    Post Production
  • Imael Garcia
    Post Production
  • James Tearne
    Composer
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Fantasy, Drama, Horror
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    November 5, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    1,800 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, ARRI Alexa Amira
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.77:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - London Film Academy
Director Biography - Giselle Turner

Giselle Turner is a queer writer-director who is fascinated by the changeable dynamics of relationships, the tragedy of human nature, and hopes to bring hidden voices to the forefront in entertaining ways. Often deep within the thriller genre, Giselle’s screenplays and films echo fears with which they hope to move the audience, or dramatic character focuses to instil sadness. They are passionate about sharing deep emotions with which they feel the world, to share an aspect of their life.

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Director Statement

Dealing with the loss of a parent can be infinitely difficult to manage, particularly when there are unresolved issues - this is one of my biggest fears. I have my own complex relationship with a parent, and I couldn't imagine coping with the loss of them. How are you supposed to find peace when there is no more space for silence? It's important to me to show this dynamic, to illustrate how Max's life has been taken over by this negative figure. Not because she's an enemy, nor a monster, rather the unresolved questions. A relationship hanging.

Light is a core feature of this film: using warm tones, flickering candlelight, and then a contrast between the lit darkness and full darkness. Similar to the feeling in Robert Eggers' 'The VVitch' (2015), there's an intimate, yet sinister warmth that floods the room while Max interacts with her mother, which becomes slowly replacement by the cold tones of moonlight and darkness. This shift accompanies our realisation of Max's loneliness and sense of abandonment; where there is absence of warmth, there's an absence of her mother.

Ultimately, Max will need to face up to the unknown, the dark, and let her pain be felt in order to cope and move on.