_{Art by: Stephen Mackey}

It was October the 29th, back when I hated myself the most. It was a time when I couldn’t go a day without crying. Why was I crying? A broken heart. I fell in love with someone that broke me open, our love broke us open. We triggered our childhood wounds that we didn’t even know we had. Well, we had clues they were there, but our love made these wounds be felt in such an intense way. It was that crazy type of love that keeps you up at night. We were mirrors for each other and sometimes, it’s really hard to look at the mirror. I didn’t even know my brain could function the way it was during this time. Every time he pulled away, I felt insane. My mind and heart shattered, each time. The most maddening part is, that he didn’t pull away because he didn’t like me, he pulled away because he loved me. His childhood wounds were different than mine. His mother died when he was young, so every time he felt the deep love he had for me, he disappeared. Losing a mother at a young age can make someone fearful of true intimacy and vulnerability. A true avoidant, I would say. And for me, I had a big rejection and worthlessness childhood wound that followed me forever. So every time he did pull away, my anxiety took over and it was hard to breathe at times. I felt so rejected, just like I did, as a child.

Anyway. It was October 29th and I looked like shit from crying so hard the night before. My eyes looked so puffy and dead looking. His distance became unbearable. The loneliness made me repeat intrusive thoughts that I don’t even want to admit. I needed to give my tear glands a break, this I knew.

Thankfully I had plans to go to a Halloween party. My friend’s Halloween party that she throws every year. I thought, I can put makeup over my sadness and lean into the purpleness of my eyes from the tears that I cried the night before. I decided to be a dead bride because it was two things that seemed so far away from my reality. I had my step mother’s wedding dress in the closet that I pulled out for fun every once in a while, what a perfect time to wear it.

As I got ready, alone. I looked at myself with this wedding dress on and thought, “Will this ever be me? Will I ever get to wear a wedding dress?” This question I told myself was too deep for me to ask right before a social event, like a Halloween party. So I moved on and left the house.

_{Auguste Toulmouche, The Reluctant Bride, 1866}

On my way to the party, I stopped at the store to pick up a six pack. Beer is always a good option to bring at parties. As I walked through the aisle of my local Jiffy Store in my dead bride outfit, I started to feel lighter. Looking at people with Halloween costumes on in public spaces made me giggle to myself. It was a vibe and made me feel a little cozier.

I grabbed the beer and suddenly I noticed a preteen in a zombie outfit walking straight to me. I kinda looked back to see if he was walking towards someone else, he wasn’t. He went straight to me.

He said, “I didn’t know you were supposed to be here. You said you weren’t supposed to be here.” It kinda took me off guard a bit. I’ve never seen this kid in my life before. Ever. I finally replied back and said, “Sorry I think you have the wrong person.” He stands there, looking at my face. It got real awkward, I had to slowly move out of the way towards the front. The boy’s eyes followed me. Like where is your parents young boy? For real.

I finally got to the cashier and no one was behind the counter. I looked to see if the cashier was around, I only saw, what seems to be a few other customers. The young boy approached me again. He looked at my bridal outfit and said, “You’re gonna die a bride. Not a literal death. An emotional death. Ball and chain. Your future husband, the person in your heart, will put a chain on you that will have the heaviest iron ball. That’s how he will control you. You will wear his mother's jacket and carry his trauma. You will drown. We tried to keep you away. And now you’re here and you weren’t supposed to be here.”

^{Vasili Vladimirovich Pukirev, The Unequal Marriage, 1862}

The cashier appeared, I quickly paid and walked out. I didn’t have anything more to say to the young boy. I didn’t understand why he thought he knew me. Gosh, it felt like maybe he did know me.

Not even thirty seconds passed and I saw my ghost phantom, my love. My mirror. My heart dropped. He was smoking a cigarette with a black tuxedo on. His blue eyes pierced through my heart. We smiled at each other. I saw his fake vampire teeth, he looked handsome with his costume. Vampire, what a choice, it was a metaphor that I didn’t even catch at the time. The life he slowly sucked away from me. We looked like a bride and groom already. We spent the night together, people thought we did a clever couples costume. We didn't have the energy to tell the real truth, that it’s been six months since we have spoken. That night, we decided to be together again.

Three months pass and he got down on one knee and asked for my hand in marriage. I said, “Yes.” Then I said, “I do.” The wedding itself was bigger than I wanted, he wanted the big wedding and I would have been fine doing a court house wedding. Walking down the aisle with a beautiful vintage 1940s dress on, I looked gorgeous. If only how I looked on the outside equaled how I felt inside. Each step I took, I felt the weight of my emotions getting heavier and heavier. You see, we weren’t in a good place before our wedding day. He became distant, not physically, emotionally. He would go out with his friends as he forced me to stay home. He was so frightened of losing me, especially to another man. His jealousy reached a toxic peak, I was conflicted. I would look at my ring and thought how shiny it was, my wounded self thought I wouldn’t have a chance to get another ring from someone else. So I stayed. As a wife, the energy of the young boy echoed daily through the walls I was confined to, by choice. I thought maybe, I wasn’t suppose to be at that Jiffy Store on October 29th buying that beer at that moment in time. Then I thought, the type of person my husband is, and the obsessiveness he has over me, we would have reconnected again. And again. The young boy was right. I did die as a bride, a lonely death. I was still breathing, but stopped feeling, stopped crying, stopped living. Numbness went through my body. My social life ended and I would have dreams about it starting again, and meeting people, possibly falling in love with another. Then that dream stopped and I lived on with my nightmare. The chain hurts my ankle as I drag the iron ball like a ghost through this house. The loop I’m in with him will last until my real death. The way he watches me, every move I make. The way I smile as if I’m actually feeling something that makes my mouth muscles move involuntary. Our traumas made us mirrors and our mirrors made us become a rubber band. We stretch out, far enough, to snap back together again. Writing from my golden cage. Happy wife, happy life. “Till Death Do Us Part.”

_{Firs Sergeyevich Zhuravlev}

_{1911. Frederick William Elwell – The Wedding Dress}

Thanks for reading,

Elisa Victoria

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Thank you so much Girls In Film for featuring and premiering The Tell-Tale Heart.

https://www.girlsinfilm.net/videos/the-tell-tale-heart

And thank you for watching!

Edgar Allan Poe still lives on.

<3

CREDITS:

Director: Elisa Victoria elisavictoria

Director of Photography: Silvia Lara thesilvialara

Editor & Colorist: Whitney Weir poorlaurapalmer

1st Assistant Director: Antonieta Carpio antonietacarpio

Producer: Gaby Ono

Costume Designer: Elisa Victoria

Hair and Makeup: Jake C. Barber jakecbarber_artistry

Wardrobe: Lizzie Flores elizabethesperanzaa

Wardrobe: Kaitlin Cochran planned_obsolescence_

1st Assistant Camera: Ric Keyes ready_steadi_ric

2nd Assistant Camera: Beatriz Lanzas

2nd Assistant Camera: Ian Deleon iandeleonarts

Property Master: Antonieta Carpio

Gaffer: Blake Smith

Key Grip: Julian Molina julian_film

Grip: Eli Wehr ill.eli

Grip: Rick PB dp_mares

Sound: Sam Lulloff samlulloff

Property Master Assistant: Shelby Paige creepazoid36

Production Assistant: Jaclyn Kully jaclyn.kully

Music: Elisa Victoria

Producer: Elisa Victoria

Sound Mixer: Lucas Bakker iamlucasbakker

CAST
Lenore: Alexandra McVicker alexandramcvicker

Old Man: Martin Speer

Officer: Chris Labadie chrislabadie

Location, ‘Fox Lake Park’ in Mims, Florida. It’s about 3 P.M. on a Saturday in August. The Florida Water is calm as I sit on a wooden bench watching a gator float peacefully on the lake. His reptile eyes are staring straight at me, looking into my soul. I feel like he’s talking to me? Maybe he’s reminding me that still waters run deep, and that there are secrets in the water, secrets people don’t want me to find.

I grew up here. Things are so different now since I was a kid, the water is so different now… Being a Floridian, I was always around some sort of body of water. As a child, I loved Florida. I loved the water that Florida had to offer. Beaches, lakes, pools, water parks, and the rain. Yes, I even liked the rain. I’ve gotten some of my best ideas while it was raining. Florida was paradise. Until it wasn’t.

I was seventeen when my perspective of the joyful Florida water started to change. I had a boyfriend, a new boyfriend, Will. We were together two weeks to be exact. Even though it was only two weeks, it was lustful and fast. First teenage love at its finest. We met in biology class. We mostly made out and went to the beach. I watched him surf, while I soaked up the sun. “Your dream date.” I know. It was cute.

One day, Will and I were at the beach. Seemed like a normal day… Will came in early from his surf because he got a cut on his foot from the coral reef. From my memory. It wasn’t a huge cut. There was a good amount of blood, but the bleeding stopped shortly after he cleaned it up and put a bandaid on it. I didn’t think twice about it. We put a bandaid on his boo-boo and it was suppose to heal. It did not heal. It did the opposite, it killed him. A flesh-eating bacteria parasite killed my boyfriend. The ocean entered his bleeding wound and now he is dead. After the beach, he dropped me off at my family’s house and he kissed me goodbye. That was the last time I saw Will.

The next morning my mom came to my room and told me that Will passed away. Just like that. My first boyfriend died and water murdered him. The infection was so bad, it killed all of his insides, especially his brain. His ecosystem had no chance for survival. I was devastated.

Rare case they said. Yeah at the time it was rare. Now, it’s common. All types of body of water in Florida are infected. A flesh-eating, parasite infestation. People are frightened to go to some beaches, and I don’t blame them. A lot of beaches and lakes look like ghost towns. Empty. Hazard signs. Not welcoming at all. Florida isn’t doing well. And the crazy part is, it’s mostly effecting the east side. The west side of Florida is fine. This has made such a big divide between economical classes. The rich claimed the west and wants nothing to do with the east. The mayor wants to build a wall between the east and the west.

And you thought Florida was in the headlines a lot back then, you should see the headlines now. And what has become of Florida. You see something is happening to the mind’s of the Florida residents. Florida is scary right now. More homicides have been happening, more unusual homicides, yes, unusual for Florida. And a lot has to do with the water.

People are either dying because of the water or accidentally becoming psychopaths. It’s doing something to the brain. See what happens is, if the infected water goes up your nose or in your ear. The parasite attacks the brain where empathy is stored. You can be innocent one day and a psychopath the next. The state of Florida is lacking empathy, in more ways than one.

This case has been a full circle for me. I’m in my thirties now and still have a strong memory of the past. I witnessed the downfall. My job is important to me. Being a homocide detective on the east side is dangerous, but purposeful. I know I can solve this, because I know deep down inside there must be a reasoning for this. A human or humans are to blame and I know it.

I’m still looking at the lake, thinking it’s going to whisper all the answers to me. The gator begins to move with the shift of the sun. “Later gator,” I say out loud to it. They can survive any climate, they always have. He finally goes under the mysterious water, I watch the ripples he just made grow wider and wider. Cause and effect. Gators are good at hiding and so are people. This isn’t just an average pollution or eco imbalance problem. Someone is behind this. Why is it just affecting the East side of Florida? The answer is swimming, waiting for me to catch it.

The Florida death poll rises everyday, as the prisons and mental hospitals on the east get overpopulated. Floridemic, it’s a Florida pandemic. And it’s getting bad. What happened within the last fifteen years or more? What happened to the sunshine state?

Detective Richards - On the case.

I was in High School when my English teacher taught us about Edgar Allan Poe. She played a VHS tape and we watched a little biography video on him. The thing about Edgar Allan Poe is, once you see his face, you can’t unsee it. Once you hear a poem or two, you can’t unhear it. The word, “Nevermore,” is timeless. Poe is the original emo and is still relevant. I’m not an expert on Poe. But I always been mentally called back to him. The rhythm of his dialogue, his perspective on loneliness, and his haunting imagery, like a black raven tapping on a chamber door, or an evil vulture eye.

Not only did I learn about it in English class, my High School also put on a play of Poe’s work and that’s when I saw Poe’s words acted out. I was particular drawn to The Tell-Tale Heart. I thought it was maddening.

There is a reason that “The Tell-Tale Heart” has been redone A LOT. If you search for it on youtube, you will find so many versions of this tale. It was told before me and it will be told after me.

My version is abstract and includes dialogue from “The Raven.” I even named the lead character “Lenore,” the maiden from “The Raven.” I basically directed an eerie love letter to Poe. We filmed one of the two days on his birthday, January 19th. I wish I could say I did that on purpose, but it was just when people were available. Maybe his spirit came to visit us on set. Maybe his spirit came knocking, tapping, rapping, at the chamber door of the house I rented on Giggster.com.

Starring, Alexandra McVicker, Chris Labadie, and Martin Speer.

Full Credits Here

I enjoyed working on this film and can’t wait to share more about it. Until then, here is the synopsis and trailer.

“Meet Lenore, a lonely maid who hates the look of her employer’s nasty teeth. Overwhelmed with ick, Lenore decides to take the life of the Old Man after a beautiful dinner she made for him. Happy as can be and rotten mouth free. Her joy is interrupted when she hears a knock, a tap, tap, tapping on the chamber door.”

“Miss Reaper’s Gallery” is a horror anthology comic book series hosted by Miss Reaper. Miss Reaper’s grandma facade is charming and comforting, but her true identity is revealed as the Grim Reaper. Over the years, she picked up a hobby, photography. She loves taking photographs on the job. She has a gallery full of photographs of people close to death, close to her... Each photograph has a story.

Illustrated by: Derek Eads.

Here are some examples of what is inside:

My second book is called,

“Spooky Tales of Fiction” is four spooky tales told through poems and illustrations that include, Mummy, Slime, Moon, and Mirror.

Illustrated by: Crow Phantom

Here are some examples of what is inside:

Very proud of both of these amazing spooky books. Just in time for Halloween!

Buy them here:

BOOKSTORE