Actress, Writer & Director Lucille Hansen has a new horror short for you and it’s pretty wild. Today she releases the Awake trailer, a psychological horror thriller about a young woman named Hope, with a mysterious sleep condition. She is dragged into a hallucinatory journey to confront the past. This trailer, set to an ambient dark track, shows Hope visibly ill. You quickly get that she has some sort of disease. The disease is called Fatal Familial Insomnia. It’s genetic and there’s no cure for it. Medication actually makes it worse. Once the disease starts, you only have about 5-10 months to live. First you have complete insomnia, followed by hallucinations, panic attacks, paranoia, all culminating in dementia and death. This is what Hope and her father have in this short film.
Lucille, a Staten Island native, has really carved out a signature style to her work. Fast cut trippy dream-like images juxtaposed with long takes that instill uneasy feelings, is just one example of what you might see in Awake. Her and DP Bobby Carnevale have great looks and techniques that lend to the fear a viewer will feel. From lighting ideas, to handheld camera movements, to beautifully orchestrated steadicam shots, it’s all artfully done with purpose and always enhances the story. Since Lucille has an acting background, she is able to work the talent from her experiences and hone in on performances. This is always a plus, to be an actor and a director!
The movie Awake is also a collaboration with Brian Bonz & Mike Rizzo as well. Rizz is the editor and Bonz did all the music composing. The horror genre is something the two have always been huge fans of, but just never had the opportunity to work on it professionally. Lucille discovered the team through mutual friends and since then, fun horror/thriller work has been happening.