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| Greta Guthrie & Jake Lazarow Pic: Johnny Call |
Housewife - Q&A With Writers/Directors Greta Guthrie and Jake Lazarow
By; Nathaniel Simpson
I received an email a few days ago from Greta Guthrie, asking me to check out their newest horror short film, Housewife. At first, I was a little hesitant due to the incredibly short runtime at 4 minutes and thirty seconds, but I was completely blown away by what Guthrie and her directing/writing partner, Jake Lazarow were able to create. Not only did they shoot on 35mm (which was an excellent choice in my opinion), but they were able to create this terrifying setting and character of the Housewife. The short film was crafted excellently, with the filmmakers making a great decision to make the runtime less than five minutes to briefly showcase the horror of this character and the world they are in.
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| Housewife Original Artwork By Miranda Parkin |
I had the opportunity to interview both Greta Guthrie and Jake Lazarow about the making of this movie, what inspired them, and how the character of the Housewife influenced them to craft this short film about her. I think they are some great directors working in the horror genre today, and they definitely will be going far in this genre. I genuinely can't wait to see what they are able to craft next.
Q: To start, how did you two meet, and how did you guys realize that you wanted to tell this story together?
A: We met in college at Penn State as part of our student film club’s trip to Sundance back in 2017. We always say that one of the first days we got to know each other we saw five movies together, which helped us to learn very quickly that we shared similar sensibilities about the films we liked. Our collaboration started with Greta composing for Jake’s films, but the longer we collaborated, the more it became apparent that we were a good fit to co-write and direct together.
Q: Is this your first movie together, or have you guys worked on previous projects as a duo before?
A: “Housewife” is our third collaboration as directors, second time as writers, and first time shooting on 35mm. Our previous horror short, “The Tooth,” also starred our wonderful “Housewife” lead Shannon Collis (Julia), who continues to be one of our greatest collaborators. Other than that, we’ve written a few feature scripts together, and we’re currently in post on our next short that we co-wrote and directed together titled “In the Palm of Her Hand.” It stars “Housewife” alums Shannon as well as Colleen Grate (Housewife herself), who made wearing a doll house as a helmet for a full shoot day look easy (it very much wasn’t).
Q: You mentioned the character's original idea is the product of artist Miranda Parkin. Were you familiar with her or her work before deciding to craft a movie around her character? If not, how did you find the character of the Housewife?
A: We’re huge Miranda fans! She has such a knack for creature design that’s so instantly compelling, it’s not surprising at all that Housewife took off as it did. So we’d been familiar with Miranda’s work for a while and had been wanting to do something with her Housewife character long before the opportunity for this short came around. The three of us had a few conversations about a feature adaptation prior, but it wasn’t until the chance to actually go out and shoot something that the ball really got rolling.
Q: Was the story totally original starring this character, or did Parkin attach some sort of lore to her when creating this character that you adapted to the screen? If it is original, how did you two come up with the concept of the story and placing the Housewife into the film?
A: It was actually a mix of both. The best part about adapting a character like this is that Miranda had a wealth of ideas that she’d drawn and animated over the years, so when we started writing it wasn’t from square one, but we also weren’t tied to a rigid set of rules. There were a couple of videos/animatics in particular that were about her making lunch for her “children” that became a springboard for us, but since the lore is so sprawling, we really wanted to hone in on giving Housewife an origin story that fans would be into and newcomers could immediately get on board with. “Archetypical” in way — we give you the basics of how she came to be, what her goal is, and why (we think) you should be compelled by her.
Q: The runtime is only four and a half minutes, which I think benefits the story greatly by not giving too much away behind this character. I think the lack of information we have about her and then seeing the horrible act she commits elevates the horror for it. Was that a deliberate decision to make it on the shorter side when you were first planning out the film or did you decide to make it only four minutes after writing and editing your drafts of the film?
A: Our incredible DP, James Russin, had reached out to us in September of 2024 that he’d just bought enough 35mm from an NYU student for a 3-pager, and asked us to write him something to shoot that December. We, of course, agreed immediately, and when we approached Miranda and she was into it, we had the benefit of going into the draft knowing exactly how long we could make it and what our goals were: to make something complete enough to enjoy, but also leave you wanting more.
It stripped a lot of the pretense out of figuring out the direction of the script could take because there was really only room for the stuff we were really excited about. The initial draft we gave Miranda pretty much ended up being the shooting draft aside from some minor blocking changes once we had our location, so what could have felt very restrictive actually freed us up to feel very confident in the direction we decided on.
Q: Did you approach Parkin about crafting a film about this character or did she approach you two? Did she have a big part in the making of the film?
A: It was very important from the very beginning that Miranda be very involved. She saw every draft and all the work in progress pics as we built the doll house and camera tested the Housewife look, and then once we were in post we shared cuts right up until it was done. We recognize the incredible amount of trust that she put in us to bring her character to life, so we wanted to make sure that she was there for every step. We were also just so excited to share it all with her! We’re superfans first, filmmakers second. So to be able to share the character come to life was really cool for us.
And, as excited as we were to have a chance to adapt the character, we also love Miranda as an artist and wanted to use this as a chance to platform her work. Aside from designing our incredible poster, she’s also a successful voice actor, so it felt very fitting that she voiced her own character.
Q: Finally, the major thought going through my head when this film finished was that I wanted more of this character and this world you have brought to the screen. Are you two planning on exploring this character in more short films, or perhaps a feature?
A: Music to our ears that you want more! We love this character and would love nothing more than to continue making stories with her and Miranda. We’ve started writing a feature for the character, and we’re hoping to use this short and the love that Miranda’s art has gotten as a springboard into making more! We just wrapped up our 30+ festival run, and now that we’ve premiered online through Crypt TV, we’re excited to continue to spread the word about Housewife as we work on finishing the feature. We’ve got some exciting stuff in the works, so we’re excited to see what the new year brings!
You can now check out their short film, Housewife, on Crypt TV's Youtube channel (https://youtu.be/PzhBbnOhTQM?si=XFyQaWuQAI8EfRUN)! This is an amazing horror short, and if you are a huge horror fan like me, you cannot miss this! Thank you so much to both Greta and Jake for taking the time to answer my questions, and I can't wait for everyone to check out this short film.
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