A musical horror-romance about a taxidermist who falls in love with the human she plans to stuff might be considered a bold choice for a debut feature.
“I love horror-adjacent films with heart,” says Theo Rhys with regard to Stuffed, which is fresh from opening Toronto’s Discovery section, and stars Jodie Comer and Harry Melling. “I’m drawn to Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro because there’s so much heart within these worlds – they never go that dark, they’re always very playful.”
Stuffed adapts his Bafta-nominated 2021 short film, which won the audience award and special jury recognition at SXSW in the Midnight Shorts programme. The feature was developed with the BFI and produced by Agile Films with support from Fresh Fish Films and Ffilm Cymru Wales.
Instead of any traditional training, Rhys taught himself to make animated and stop-motion films while studying illustration at University of Brighton. “I’ve ended up with a 360-degree approach,” he says of the benefits. “It’s affected the way I approach directing because I feel like I have language for all of the different aspects. I feel very involved in every aspect of the production.”
It was at university that he met Joss Holden-Rea, his co-writer on the Stuffed short and feature. “We both loved musicals,” the London-based filmmaker explains of their immediate bond. “It was like rediscovering that musicals didn’t have to be what people expected them to be. They were a medium rather than a genre.”
The pair are now developing several ideas for other big-screen musicals, while Rhys is in post-production on his own documentary White Lion, which follows a white British dancehall artist trying to break out in a primarily Black music scene.
“I want to continue making things with heart,” says Rhys of the future, which will include non-musical projects. “I want to continue making things that feel playful in their vision of England and the world.”
Contact: Alec Drysdale, Independent Talent
No comments yet