Article by : John-Otto Phike
Glasshouse is the first film in a three-picture dystopian slate Showmax has developed with Local Motion Pictures, in association with Crave Pictures, with Kelsey directing. The Showmax film has been selected for the 25th Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Canada. Billed as North America’s top genre film festival, Fantasia is running from 5-25 August 2021.
Glasshouse is set after The Shred, an airborne dementia, has left humanity roaming like lost and dangerous animals, unable to remember who they are. Confined to their airtight glasshouse, a family does what they must to survive – until the sisters are seduced by a stranger who upsets the family’s rituals, unearthing a past they have tried to bury.
“Sensual and savage, Glasshouse weaves aspects of dystopian science fiction with notes of folk horror and perverse, brooding, Gothic melodrama to craft a taught existential tale that ultimately explores the importance of storytelling and memory,” says Fantasia, using additional adjectives like “stunning.” Kelsey adds that Glasshouse “explores two opposing coping mechanisms to trauma: holding tightly to the past as a form of preservation, and wilful forgetting.”
Glasshouse stars British actress Jessica Alexander (the upcoming live action remake of The Little Mermaid) and newcomer Anja Taljaard as the sisters, Bee and Evie, opposite Hilton Pelser (the BAFTA-nominated Moffie, the upcoming remake of Dangerous Liaisons) as The Stranger. The spooky yet sexy post-pandemic love triangle is the feature film directorial debut of Kelsey Egan, who co-wrote the script with associate producer Emma Lungiswa de Wet. Kelsey and Emma are award-winning writers: Kelsey is best known for helping adapt the Deon Meyer bestseller Trackers for M-Net, Cinemax and ZDF, while Emma was a staff writer on the YouTube animated phenomenon Munki and Trunk, which now has over six million subscribers to its Jungle Beat channel.
This October, Glasshouse will release as a Cinema Premiere on BoxOffice by DStv and will be available to rent on PVRs only in South Africa, as well as in countries on the African continent where BoxOffice is available. Glasshouse will be available to stream on Showmax from February 2022.
