Call it art imitating life. Marielle Heller (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” “A Beautiful Day in the Neigborhood”) was at the top of the list for Amy Adams and author Rachel Yoder to write and direct “Nightbitch.” What was not expected was Heller bringing real life experience to the project. For a body-horror/comedy that closely tracks the struggles of a recent mother, her raising of her children, and her slow transformation into, no joke, a dog, Heller, oddly enough, took direct inspiration from her life. As she recently expressed in an article for Vanity Fair:
“I was writing it after being isolated in my house for a year” during the pandemic…And my husband…was on production, so I was alone with two kids for the first time. It was a nightmare. I was sleep-deprived; I couldn’t see anybody or do anything. And my daughter was waking up at five in the morning every day…I would literally be midscene, and someone would start crying and I’d have to stop.”
In taking passages from her life, Heller came to some interesting conclusions:
“With this, I’m like, ‘Becoming a parent is also a coming of age.’ Your identity shifts in a really major way that not everybody talks about, especially as an artist—what you’re giving up, what you’re leaving behind.”
READ MORE: ‘Nightbitch’ First Look: Marielle Heller’s Latest Starring Amy Adams Is “About Motherhood And Rage”
“Nightbitch” stars Amy Adams, Scoot McNairy, Arleigh Patrick Snowden, Emmett James Snowden, Jessica Harper, Zoe Chao, Mary Holland, and Archana Rajan. It’s written and directed by Heller. Based on the book by Rachel Yoder. Allison Rose Carter (“American Honey,” “Everything Everywhere All At Once”), Megan Ellison (“Her,” “Zero Dark Thirty”) and Rachel Yoder are attached as executive producers.
The movie follows Mother (Adams), an artist turned stay-at-home mom, as she struggles to raise her rowdy child while Mother’s Husband (McNairy) is away at work. All while she slowly turns into a furry animal.
Synopsis:
A woman pauses her career to be a stay-at-home mom, but soon her domesticity takes a surreal turn.
Searchlight Pictures acquired distribution rights from Annapurna Pictures for $25 million and will release “Nightbitch” in select theaters December 6. You can watch the trailer below: