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Director's Statement:
In the fall of 2019, I had read a horror script my friend Sebastian Dean wrote about an office worker who has become discontent and disillusioned with life. In his eyes, this office worker had become a “nothing” person, no clear identity of self besides being an office worker. All he seemed to do was wake up, work, eat, sleep, and repeat.
The script, to me at the time, seemed to be asking what happens when a person who has attached his life to his workplace realizes that he is expendable to them. Being just a replaceable cog of a bigger machine. His dissatisfaction with life creates an existential question in the office worker, who begins to question every single thing in his life. That dissatisfaction takes a tangible shape in the form of a monster. Using the frameworks of the horror genre to express a dissatisfaction with life that is ever-present in today’s capitalist age.
At the time, the script had stuck with me. It wasn’t a perfect script, and I had read better ones that season, but for some reason, Sebastian’s story really struck a chord with me. It took me two years to understand why. It was almost as if the script had come too early in my life for me to grasp it thoroughly; I wasn’t mature enough when I read it to grasp it.
For a bit of context, I took up filmmaking fairly late in my life. Up until four years ago in high school, I was well on my way to work a 9-5 job for National Grid. At the time, the thought of working a 9-5 job was extremely depressing for me, and that was a sentiment shared between my friends who were in the same boat as me. One of the things we would talk about the most was what we wanted to do when we grew up. Someone would say, “I wanted to play soccer!,” someone else would shout, “Have you heard about those animal photographers out in Antarctica? I want to do that,” one would shout, “Chef? I want to try my hand at cooking!” I would say, “I want to make movies!”
After four years, I had the privilege and luck to pursue what I wanted to do, but unfortunately for my friends, they didn’t have the same luxury for one reason or the other.
When I read Sebastian’s story, I had been taking the luxury of doing what I wanted to do for granted. This is why I couldn’t fully grasp why I loved his story. In hindsight, his script represented an alternate life that I could’ve had if I didn’t have the chance to pursue what I wanted to do. Slowly becoming comfortable in my misery would have certainly been my fate.
It is for this reason why I wanted to make this film. Imagining this dark version of my future was one to two choices away from becoming my reality.
In the fall of 2019, I had read a horror script my friend Sebastian Dean wrote about an office worker who has become discontent and disillusioned with life. In his eyes, this office worker had become a “nothing” person, no clear identity of self besides being an office worker. All he seemed to do was wake up, work, eat, sleep, and repeat.
The script, to me at the time, seemed to be asking what happens when a person who has attached his life to his workplace realizes that he is expendable to them. Being just a replaceable cog of a bigger machine. His dissatisfaction with life creates an existential question in the office worker, who begins to question every single thing in his life. That dissatisfaction takes a tangible shape in the form of a monster. Using the frameworks of the horror genre to express a dissatisfaction with life that is ever-present in today’s capitalist age.
At the time, the script had stuck with me. It wasn’t a perfect script, and I had read better ones that season, but for some reason, Sebastian’s story really struck a chord with me. It took me two years to understand why. It was almost as if the script had come too early in my life for me to grasp it thoroughly; I wasn’t mature enough when I read it to grasp it.
For a bit of context, I took up filmmaking fairly late in my life. Up until four years ago in high school, I was well on my way to work a 9-5 job for National Grid. At the time, the thought of working a 9-5 job was extremely depressing for me, and that was a sentiment shared between my friends who were in the same boat as me. One of the things we would talk about the most was what we wanted to do when we grew up. Someone would say, “I wanted to play soccer!,” someone else would shout, “Have you heard about those animal photographers out in Antarctica? I want to do that,” one would shout, “Chef? I want to try my hand at cooking!” I would say, “I want to make movies!”
After four years, I had the privilege and luck to pursue what I wanted to do, but unfortunately for my friends, they didn’t have the same luxury for one reason or the other.
When I read Sebastian’s story, I had been taking the luxury of doing what I wanted to do for granted. This is why I couldn’t fully grasp why I loved his story. In hindsight, his script represented an alternate life that I could’ve had if I didn’t have the chance to pursue what I wanted to do. Slowly becoming comfortable in my misery would have certainly been my fate.
It is for this reason why I wanted to make this film. Imagining this dark version of my future was one to two choices away from becoming my reality.
Organizer
Alisa Rabin
Organizer
Newton, MA