The Haze
a short film by Currie Lee
On the hottest day of the summer, Elizabeth finds herself in a bit of trouble that only her estranged ex, Cal, can help her with. As they deliberate over what to do with the mysterious doppelgänger tied up in her basement, old cycles resurface and Cal desperately wants to break free. The Haze is a surreal horror short film about the shadows we create out of codependency, shame, and desire.
Characters
ELIZABETH
CAL
Thematic Elements
CODEPENDENCY: This story centers around a deeply fraught dynamic between Elizabeth and Cal, two people bound by unresolved emotional cycles. Their interactions are loaded with past intimacy, resentment, and the inability to fully separate. The doubles serve as physical manifestations of their toxic, repetitive patterns.
FRAGMENTATION OF IDENTITY: The doubles represent splintered aspects of Elizabeth’s psyche: her shame, her performativity, her capacity for violence, her longing. By externalizing these fractured selves, the film explores how identity becomes distorted through trauma and relational collapse.
EMOTIONAL REPRESSION: The characters’ inability to communicate directly creates a feeling that must be externalized, often through surreal or monstrous means. The doubles are not just fragments; they are emotional truths given form, born from everything the characters cannot articulate.
Visual Language
ENVIRONMENT: an emphasis on the lush, cavernous, dreamy quality of Baltimore summer. overgrowth, winding canopied roads. dilapidated architecture overtaken with nature.
MOVEMENT: slow, steady shots. track, dolly, and zoom. very little handheld. everything will feel fluid and deliberate.
FRAMING: many scenes shot through thresholds or other environmental frames. this is to create a sense of voyeurism, the audience is participating in Elizabeth’s surveillance.inversely, the layered compositions reference theatre flats (painted backdrops that are often positioned at the wings to give the scenery depth), what we see is an echo of Elizabeth’s carefully presented life.
LIGHTING: soft, naturalistic lighting, maintaining skin tone. during emotionally charged scenes colors of the environment and lighting heighten the character’s emotions. blues to indicate innocence, yellows to indicate danger, greens to indicate falsehoods or manipulation.
Cast & Crew
Film in its very nature is a collaborative venture. This project can only come to life with the support of my professional network. Funding will enable the hiring of the film’s cast & crew members.
CLARE LEFEBURE, ELIZABETH
PETER MCNALLY, CAL
DANNY SIEBENHAAR, CINEMATOGRAPHER
MEI LIN LAU MANN, PRODUCER, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
JOANNA TILLMAN, PRODUCER
Social Media
Follow the journey through production of The Haze on instagram and tiktok!
Bibliography
Oathout, Taylor. “Family Annihilators: The Psychological Profiles of Murderous Fathers,” University of Albany Scholars Archive, May 2020.
Mellody, Pia. Facing Codependence: An Insightful Approach to Healing from Childhood Abuses, Overcoming Love Addiction, and Breaking Free from Toxic Emotions. San Francisco, CA: Perennial Library, 2003.