After screening work at the Tribeca Film Festival, Rotterdam, and SXSW, NYC filmmaker Laura Moss made their feature directorial debut at Sundance this past January with “birth/rebirth.” And it didn’t disappoint at the festival: The Playlist’s review says “Moss presents the movie as an eerie amalgam, stitching together horror roots with an off-kilter tone, dreamlike framing, and a focus on human sin over monster shenanigans. Whether her filmmaking reads chiefly as horror or surrealism is in the eye of the beholder.”
Sound intriguing to anyone else? Read on for a plot synopsis of “birth/rebirth,” which updates Mary Shelley‘s classic horror novel “Frankenstein” to the present in an unexpectedway.
Here’s the official synopsis, courtesy of IFC Films and Shudder:
Rose is a pathologist who prefers working with corpses over social interaction. She also has an obsession — the reanimation of the dead. Celie is a maternity nurse who has built her life around her bouncy, chatterbox six-year-old daughter, Lila. When one tragic night, Lila suddenly falls ill and dies, the two women’s worlds crash into each other. They embark on a dark path of no return where they will be forced to confront how far they are willing to go to protect what they hold most dear.
This standout directorial debut from Laura Moss reimagines Mary Shelley’s classic horror myth Frankenstein with such a contemporary understanding that it becomes something exciting, terrifying, and singularly new.
“birth/rebirth” stars Marin Ireland, Judy Reyes, A.J. Lister, Breeda Wool, and Monique Garbiela Curnen. Rina Mejia, Grant Harrison, and LaChanze also stars.
Along with directing, Moss co-writes the script for “birth/rebirth” with Brendan J. O’Brien. Prouducers on the film include Mali Elfman and David Grove Churchill Viste. O’Brien and Jordan Barker serve as executive producers.
Cerebral, surrealistic horror your thing? Then check out “birth/rebirth,” which hits theaters next month on August 18, courtesy of IFC Films and Shudder. Watch a trailer for the film below.