Bio

Brandon resides in New York where he writes and directs for stage and film, and makes up one-third of Maternity Leave Films. He’s drawn to slice of life stories about the human condition in unique situations and adjacent realities. This is his feature directorial debut. "His other credits include short films “The Flip Side” (writer); “Stay” (writer/director); “In Time” (writer/director); and the stage play “What We’re Made Of.”

Directors's Statement

After years of trying to conceive, my wife and I finally decided that I should see a specialist - as if the stressors of being a first-time feature director and EP weren’t enough. The test results came back, and I was told that it would be unlikely for us to have a child without scientific intervention. Coupled with my wife preparing to portray a woman experiencing the unusual condition of a phantom pregnancy and wearing a silicone baby bump for the role, it was all a little unsettling. Just before we headed north to shoot, we agreed that kids might not be in the cards for us, and we were content with that decision. 

Hyten Davidson (writer/actor), Ashley Bacon (actor / my wife), and myself, work as a dynamic Venn diagram of interests, backgrounds, and skills. We wanted “Something of a Monster” to be a psychological thriller, but one that existed in the same slow burn, visually striking worlds of “Nomadland” and “Anatomy of a Fall.” Centered on a woman grappling with grief, the film began evolving beyond a straightforward psychological thriller into more of a “psychological / thriller,” shifting genres midway through to further reflect the heightened stakes and intensifying paranoia the protagonist is experiencing while keeping the audience uncertain of what to expect.

Between Hyten’s maternity leave, PTO that had a March expiration date, and various other timing parameters, we set about shooting the entire film in 14 days. In February. In the Catskills. This was a major gamble, as Catskills winters are notoriously harsh, and we were cautioned against this plan by many locals. We’re a stubborn bunch and couldn’t afford to delay the shoot, so we forged ahead, shipping our team in from around the country, and hunkered down, living and working on location on a remote street outside of Hunter, NY, to make this film happen. 

I’m a collaborator. I don’t want my team to work for me, I want them to work with me. I trust that each department knows more about their concentration than I do. I want to know if there’s a better shot, an interesting lighting idea, or an inventive way to capture audio. This is how we can craft the best possible story: with each person integral to the final product. Being our first feature, it felt like we struck gold with this team. We wrapped production with bells on, hoping that the excitement and love we fostered on set would translate on screen. 

This film is, at its heart, about loss and being lost and how we take what we need from our past in order to find a new way forward. Once we arrived back home in Brooklyn, Ashley was feeling a little out of sorts. Initially, she wrote it off as exhaustion after the whirlwind of the Catskills. Out of curiosity, she used one of the leftover prop pregnancy tests we had on hand. Turned out she had been pregnant during production. 

-Brandon Duncan

Director