Everglade | Horror Short Film | Tampa, FL

Synopsis: Isolated in the remote Floridian swamp, a woman turns to dark means and the occult to help her control a mysterious creature.

Written, Directed and Produced by Jennifer Amell and Alexandria Thomas

Everglade has been described as an “atmospheric ambiguous pyschosexual cattle horror”. If that doesn’t sell you, we don’t know what will. Everglade is the flagship project for Missing Woman Films, an indie production house for complex female characters. It was shot over the course of six months for under $500. This was a two-person endeavor… which turned out to be quite tricky. When Jenn was on screen, Alex was behind the camera. When Alex was on screen, well… they got their good friend, Daniel Rosario, to help them out as their camera operator because Jenn cannot be trusted with expensive things. The idea for Everglade began while drunk on a dock. They looked around and said, “Well, we have a swamp and some cows. What story can develop from that?”

Alex and Jenn shot the bulk of Everglade last winter over two days. They both weren’t Florida local at the time—Alex in Atlanta and Jenn in Toronto—so when they decided that they didn’t quite have a movie yet, they had to wait until spring to start shooting again. In fact, they shot the entirety of the swamp sequence a total of three times, learning precious lessons about how action cuts together in the process. Then, very late in the game, Jenn added first the seduction and murder scene (drastically changing the direction of the narrative) and then the nightmare scene. She is very lucky Alex didn’t kill her.

So, what’s all this about complex female characters. Here at Missing Woman Films, we got tired of hearing “strong woman” this and “strong woman” that. Women are certainly strong at times, but women are also angry, sad, vengeful, whip smart or struck dumb. They have moments of weakness and vulnerability, moments of shame and cunning, moments of love and desire— women are complex. That’s why we want our films to tell stories about women who are not just the heroine or villain, but somewhere hidden in the mysterious milieu of human experience. Everglade is our first attempt at telling the story of a complex woman. We learned so much making this short film and we hope to keep making compelling content by and featuring women.