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The Woman in the Room

Based on a short story from Stephen King's 1978 collection, "The Night Shift". Johnny is burdened with the desire to euthanize his terminally ill mother in order to relieve her.

  • Alex Leas
    Director
    Unsealed Prophet
  • Stephen King
    Writer
    Short story by
  • Alex Leas
    Writer
    Unsealed Prophet
  • Cassie L. Taylor
    Producer
    Beautified
  • Marie Litzinger
    Producer
    Open
  • Cassie L. Taylor
    Cinematographer
  • Fernando Duran
    Key Cast
    "Johnny"
    Abomination (Short, 2004)
  • Lina Pittser
    Key Cast
    "Momma"
    Open
  • Ingrid Sanai Buron
    Key Cast
    "Dr. Darabont"
    Because I Said So
  • Juan Aleman
    Key Cast
    "Abraham (Abe)"
    Grimm
  • Rusty Miller
    Key Cast
    "Kevin"
    A Brush with Danger
  • Cassie L. Taylor
    Production Designer
    Beautified
  • Nicole Dempsey
    Production Assistants
  • Marie Litzinger
    Production Assistants
  • "Ekki Mukk" by Sigur Ros
    Song Choice
  • "Circular as Our Way" by Hammock
    Song Choice
  • Nicole Dempsey
    Sound Operator
  • Alex Leas
    Editors
    Unsealed Prophet
  • Alex Leas
    Storyboards
    Unsealed Prophet
  • Marie Litzinger
    Operator
  • Marie Litzinger
    Location Scouts
  • Nicole Dempsey
    Location Scouts
  • Alex Leas
    Director of Photography
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    30 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 23, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    2,500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English, Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 4k
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Alex Leas

Born on March 23, 1994, in Alexandria, Virginia. Alex was born to Khmer-Chinese parents who escaped their war-torn country to find refuge in America.

Alex took a great appreciation for The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a child. Going as far as to reenact and recreate the scenes from the films with his friends.

He would go on to do high school drama and eventually becoming a stage actor at Green River College.

Having a great love for movies, and always wanting to be a part of it from youth. Alex took the reins by finding ones as passionate as him to help him tell stories through the lenses. As the acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino said “if you truly love cinema with all your heart and with enough passion, you can’t help but make a good movie. You don’t need to go to school, you don’t have to know a lens. You know: a 50, or a 40 and a fuck all that shit. “Crossing the line”, none of that shit is important. If you just truly love cinema with enough passion and you really love it! Then you can’t help but make a good movie.”

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

My first attempt at writing a page-to-screen adaptation had to be Stephen King's, "The Woman in the Room". It speaks on so many volumes of personal fears of losing a loved one but what must be more painful than that is watching your loved one suffer.

This story walks on the wire of morale; what is the RIGHT choice. Does anyone have a good answer for this?

I have yet to lose a dear loved one, but the way I approached this was to empathize with Johnny my main character and the things we had in common was that we are both someone's son and we love our mother dearly. So I spilled a lot of my personal struggles with my relationship with my mother and my personal regrets as a son while making it fit the context (or boundaries) of King's pre-established story.

I hope whatever audience views my film adaptation, they can resonate with this as I have over the years with my script.

I liked to think I filled in the blanks in between.