“Everything Is Out To Get Me” by Dustin Curtis Murphy
A 1950's housewife, struggling with her mental health, reflects on her failed marriage and history of domestic abuse. Her depression is fuelled by the fact that her ex-husband now appears to be happily re-married with a newborn baby. But there's more to his happiness than meets the eye.
FROM THE DIRECTOR
“As a male survivor of domestic abuse l've always felt isolated from the wider social conversation about abusive relationships. Even the narrative in my own head always was: men are abusers... they're never the abused.
It's been difficult to find the space to speak my truth, feeling like a freak, an outlying data point discarded because it doesn't fit into the necessary social conversation about male violence against women... but what happened to me did happen, and my abuser didn't look like person you'd expect.
In writing and directing Everything Is Out To Get Me, I wanted to challenge audience's perceptions of what an abusive relationship could look like. It was my goal to have audiences start off empathising with Erin, believing she's a victim, but then as she tells her side of the story I wanted to expose her lies as the audience starts to notice that her words don't align with her actions. She's the very definition of the “unreliable narrator”.
The loss of an abusive relationship is confusing to process. You find yourself mourning the person you thought you were in love with, while also shedding coping mechanisms that blinded you and kept you bound to the relationship.
The post-traumatic stress of being with an abusive partner can leave you with a lot of lingering fear, hence the thriller slant to my short film. Everything Is Out To Get Me is my most personal work to date, and a key catalyst for me to make the film was after I returned to the small town where I was in the relationship almost a decade prior. I found even after all this time, my body had a chemical memory to the traumas l'd experienced there and it triggered a lot of fear and feelings of paranoia.
Facing my fears by making this short film has helped me to understand and process the trauma l've experienced and move on from it without it being a dark cloud following me around. It's the not the happiest film, but I think there's a silver lining in the resolution at the end, and l'd rather leave that darkness contained in a film than continue to carry it with me.”
-Dustin Curtis Murphy
CREDITS
Cast
Ailish Symons, Joshua Whincup, Katrin Larissa Kasper, Mike Kelson & Harry Carr
Director & Writer// Dustin Curtis Murphy
Producers// Dustin Curtis Murphy & Joshua Carrington Birch
Cinematographer// Josh Carrington Birch
Steadicam// Stephan Knight
Focus Puller// Alex Rawson
Loader// Olly Fawcett
Camera Trainee// Oli Wesley
1st AD// Top Tarasin
Gaffer// Al Rice
Sparks// Ben Alder, Sam Cheal, Dorothy Iskryznska & Ben Felming-Dufour
Production Designer// Hannah Rawson
Production Manager// Madil Hardis
Production Assistants// Ali Alajeeli, Andreas Christoforou, Robert Hackeny & Stefan Pop
MUA// Rebecca Wheeler
Editor// Dustin Curtis Murphy
Composer// Thom Robson
Colour Producer// Alessandra Milani @ Black Kite Studios
Colourist// Richard Fearon @ Black Kite Studios
Camera kit// The Unit Bag
Film Scan// Aarti Mahtani @ Cine Lab UK
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