| Malacostraca | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Credits | |
| Title: | Malacostraca |
| Director: | Charles Pieper |
| Writers: | Charles Pieper |
| Producers: | Case Barden; Joel Garay; Boman Modine; Travis Cultreri; Kimmie Yan; Jordan Daniel Chesney; Bob Clark; Yvette Clark; Anthony Pieper |
| Composer: | Ross Garren; Andre LaFosse |
| Cinematography: | Ava Benjamin Shorr |
| Editors: | Matt Latham |
| Production | |
| Production company: | Tonight I'll Make It |
| Released: | September 25th, 2018 |
| Running time: | 16 min. |
| Country: | USA |
| Language: | English |
| Navigation | |
| Previous: | — |
| Next: | — |
"Malacostraca" is an American independent film short of the psychological thriller subgenre of horror. It was written and directed by Charles A. Pieper. It was produced by Tonight I'll Make It and premiered on September 25th, 2018.
Plot[]
Chris and his wife Sophie are on a beach. Sophie peacefully sleeps while sunbathing while Chris sits nearby struggling on his next writing project. As he jots furiously in his journal, Sophie begins moaning in ecstasy. His wife is pregnant, and he sees an image of a giant hermit grab emerging from her stomach. He shouts to alert her, but it turns out to just be a regular sized hermit crab crawling across her belly. She awakens with a start, screams "What the hell, Chris?!?", and then storm off back to their house.
That evening, Chris goes into the bedroom where Sophie is waiting in bed. She apologizes for freaking out, and invites him to her side where she begins kissing him. Later, Chris retires to his study and sits at his typewriter smoking a pipe.
Months pass and Sophie begins to show. She beckons Chris to come to her to feel the baby kicking. Chris places his hand on her stomach and tells her "I don't feel anything". Soon after, Sophie goes into labor inside the house. Chris assists and Sophie gives birth to a mutant cockroach child. She commands Chris to find something to cut the umbilical. Sophie seems unaffected by the physicality of her child, and names her Emily.
Later, Chris reaches for the child and hallucinates that it bites his finger off. Sophie dismisses his reaction and points out that he is fine. Chris tries throwing himself into his work, but Sophie grows frustrated with him and his apparent neglect over their child.
That evening while Sophie is asleep, Chris takes a large lobster pot and fills it with water and sets it to boil. He then goes into the nursery and takes up his shellfish child and brings it into the kitchen. Sophie awakens, and sensing something wrong, races into the kitchen. Chris drops the child into the boiling water. As he does so, he suddenly hears the cries of pain of a human child. In his insanity, he mutters to his wife, "I found our ending, Sophie". I found our ending".
Cast[]
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Charlie Pecoraro | Chris |
| Amber Bollinger | Sophie |
Notes & Trivia[]
- Malacostraca was also screened at Panic Fest on January 26th, 2019.
- This film short was reproduced episode 1x03 of the Beyond the Dark streaming series on September 26th, 2022.
- Director and writer Charles A. Pieper is credited as Charles Pieper in this episode.
- Actress Amber Marie Bollinger is credited as Amber Bollinger in this episode.
- Malacostracas are the second largest of the six classes of pancrustaceans just behind hexapods, containing about 40,000 living species, divided among 16 orders. Its members, the malacostracans, display a great diversity of body forms and include crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, prawns, woodlice, amphipods, mantis shrimp, tongue-eating lice and many other less familiar animals.
Recommendations[]
- Conversion Therapist
- Final Girl Returns, The
- Man in the Corner
- Peopling
External Links[]
Gallery[]
Keywords[]
Births | Cockroaches | Hallucinations | Insects | Scissors | Severed fingers | Smoking