Table of Contents
Three Key Takeaways
- Jake Lazarow and co-director Greta Guthrie embraced the challenge and charm of shooting their horror short Housewife on 35mm film, which shaped the film’s tone and production energy.
- The film explores themes of female autonomy and vintage stereotypes through the surreal, unsettling figure of Housewife, a monster with a dollhouse for a head inspired by creator Miranda Parkin’s original character.
- Collaboration and trust among a close-knit team of filmmakers and actors were essential to bringing the unique vision to life, from prop design to performance.
New York City-based filmmaker Jake Lazarow, alongside co-director Greta Guthrie, brings the chilling and absurd horror short Housewife to FilmQuest 2025.
Starring Shannon Collis and Colleen Grate, with voice work and original character creation by Miranda Parkin, the film blends unsettling genre elements with a playful, otherworldly tone.
Lazarow and Guthrie’s partnership dates back to college, and their dedication to 35mm filmmaking and collaborative storytelling shines through in this festival-selected gem.
What drew you to make this film? Why this story, and why now?
This opportunity kind of fell into our lap in a really special way. Our longtime friend and collaborator James Russin reached out to us in September of 2024 to tell us that he’d bought 2,000 feet of 35mm film off of an NYU student and told us to write him a 3-pager to shoot in December of that year. So the parameters were pretty immediately established for how much prep time we had to pull off whatever it was we were going to do. Miranda and her character, Housewife, immediately came to mind — we’d kicked around doing something off and on over the last year, but without anything concrete, nothing moved forward. But when we emailed and told her about how the ball was basically already rolling, she was immediately on board.
As digital art, the character of Housewife lived in the realm of the modern-day creepypasta and cryptid lo-fi horror movement. The lore is sprawling and ever-expanding, but for our adaptation, we were most excited about drilling down on our love for movie monsters, both past and present, and the question of female autonomy throughout the genre’s history. As an objectification of the illusion of the 1950s era housewife, we wanted it to feel lost in time, as if Housewife should have been terrorizing the corners of your mind for decades… if only the reel hadn’t been accidentally misplaced all those years ago.
“Shooting 35mm opened us up to lean into that feeling of otherworldly that we feel a character like Housewife inhabits.”
What surprised you most about the filmmaking process this time—creatively or logistically? Was there a moment on set or in post that completely changed how you saw the story?
Since this was our first time shooting on 35mm, we really had no idea what to expect about how we would feel about the process. We knew we would love it purely as film lovers, but we were surprised to find out just how much we loved the process from top to bottom. Unlike digital, every second we rolled was precious, which led to a very specific energy when we were shooting. Everyone was on their A-game, and everyone rose to the occasion to make every take as good as it could be, which was really special. For us as directors, it also helped us move on from things that weren’t working — if a particular camera move or blocking choice didn’t come together, then we felt comfortable with quickly pivoting instead of wasting film on something we could already tell wasn’t working.
Is there a moment in the film that feels the most you—something only you could have made?
The overall tone feels unique to our sensibilities as genre filmmakers. We really wanted to find the intersection between unnerving horror and the absurd (it is a short about a monster with a dollhouse for a head after all!), and we feel like it could easily have been shot as straight horror in someone else’s hands. Shooting 35mm opened us up to lean into that feeling of otherworldly that we feel a character like Housewife inhabits, and we’re really proud of how tonally it feels like only something we could have made.
What was the hardest creative decision you made while making this film?
Building the dollhouse prop/Housewife’s head! That took over a month to perfect (with tweaks being made right up until the shoot/even some on the day), but it required a lot of trial and error. It’s Greta’s pride and joy as the designer, but both of us had to be involved pretty much every step of the way to make sure the size, color, details, materials, fit, design… the list truly goes on and on. It was based on Miranda’s art, but it was our job to interpret a 2D animation and how it might be realized as a physical object that someone had to actually wear for long periods of time (shoutout to our Housewife actress Colleen Grate, she was a trooper!) It had to blend story and practicality in a way we hadn’t experienced before, all while remaining true to what makes Housewife such an iconic character to begin with.
“Shooting 35mm opened us up to lean into that feeling of otherworldly that we feel a character like Housewife inhabits.”
What do you hope audiences take away from your film?
We made this to showcase Housewife as a character and touch briefly on the idea of a modern woman regressing into a vintage stereotype (at the hands of her murderous dollhouse, of course), but we truly are up to our ears in ideas for how to develop this further. So we hope you are interested in what we’ve done so far and curious about what might come next as we write the feature adaptation!
How has this film shaped or shifted the kind of stories you want to tell next?
This may be a cop out, but with each short we make, it further solidifies how important it is for us to craft stories around being able to work with the people we love. This was our second short working with the great Shannon Collis (after being friends for several years). We hadn’t worked with Colleen Grate (Housewife) before, but at the end of last month, we found ourselves shooting another short with both Shannon and Colleen in roles that we’d specifically written for them. Housewife was instrumental in guiding us to focus on writing with our collaborators in mind, and that’s something we’ve already carried over to our next project.
What’s a tool, technique, or resource that really helped you during production?
Shoutout to the Cook Varotal 18-100mm lens, we shot nearly the entire short on it, and it’s truly stunning. It gave us a look that was dreamlike at times, alien at others — we couldn’t imagine a different look for this short.
Also, a bonus tool: the Laowa 24mm Pro2be, which we used for the final shot of us entering inside Housewife’s head. It’s the lens that commercials use for those extreme close-up product shots that travel through something. It was our DP James Russin’s idea to use it from the very beginning, and it was such a fun addition and a fantastic way to end it.
“Building the dollhouse prop/Housewife’s head…required a lot of trial and error. It had to blend story and practicality in a way we hadn’t experienced before.”
Independent filmmakers often rewrite the rules out of necessity. What do you think is the greatest strength of independent filmmaking, and how did you lean into that on this project? Is there a lesson or breakthrough you’d share with others navigating this path?
For us, the best thing about indie filmmaking is how much of an advocate you have to be as a creator. By necessity, we have had to have a hand in producing, and even more than that, we have to step in and do whatever the project asks to get it done. We appreciate every opportunity we have to do what we love because we have put so much work and heart into getting it off the ground. It also requires a lot of trust from people unfamiliar with our work to come on board and believe that we’ll do a good job. For this one especially, we leaned on that trust, as Miranda took a huge leap of faith to trust that we were the right people for the job of adapting her character. We’re thankful to her every day for that trust!
For anyone out there navigating this path heading into their own independent projects, know that it will be incredibly difficult and push you in ways you never anticipated, but if it’s something you love doing and you’re surrounded by people who want to see this project succeed, then it will have been worth it.
What does it mean to you to have your film selected for FilmQuest, one of the world’s top reviewed genre film festivals?
FilmQuest has been a dream of ours for years, and it’s truly such an honor to be included alongside not just an incredible collection of films this year, but over a decade’s worth of films. This time last year, one of our feature scripts placed as a semi-finalist in Filmquest’s screenplay competition, and we were given the opportunity to judge some of the shorts categories. We were both in different worlds on Housewife (Jake handling logistics, Greta building the dollhouse prop/helmet), but we both spent the month being inspired over and over again by last year’s selections. It was a huge motivator to get Housewife over the finish line, to have the opportunity to show our work in festivals like FilmQuest. We just couldn’t believe it would actually be FilmQuest! So this feels like a very full-circle moment to be able to bring it there.
FilmQuest celebrates the majesty and might of genre filmmaking across fantasy, horror, sci-fi, action, thriller, western, kung-fu, and beyond. How does your film fit within—or push the boundaries of—genre storytelling?
Touring with Housewife has been such a fun experience because it plays differently every time. Sometimes it feels alien and fantastical, sometimes it’s silly and absurd, sometimes it just feels like up-and-down horror. Since it ebbs and flows between the cracks of genre, there’s truly no better place for it than a place that celebrates genre film in all its forms. FilmQuest is known for all facets of genre storytelling, and we’re so excited for Housewife to be a part of such an eclectic collection.
“For us, the best thing about indie filmmaking is how much of an advocate you have to be as a creator.”
Where do you see this film going next?
We have a few more festivals that we’ll be playing at, but we’re nearing the end of our run and have partnered with the incredible team over at Crypt TV for our online premiere on November 21st! We’re hoping to get some traction and interest as we work on the feature adaptation and are excited to share with a wider audience. But for now, we’re so thrilled with the success it's found on the festival circuit and are looking forward to see where it goes from there!
“At the core of all my work is a desire to create something that we’re not only proud of, but also something that gives our entire cast and crew the opportunity to shine and be proud of their own work."
Cast & Crew
James Russin — Director of Photography, with experience on feature horror projects
Andrei Dolezal — Producer and actor, co-founder of So Precious Films
