Set against the tapestry of America's loathing of independent women, when writer Izzy wins a rural house in an obscure essay contest, she leaves her friends and city life, but discovers a new life haunted, literally, by the women who came before her.
RETREAT is a feminist horror thriller inspired by the themes from the award-winning short films 3 DAYS and SCAM, written by Julie Sharbutt. In RETREAT, Izzy Bowers, a funny, broke, struggling writer, suffers an attack that rattles her. In the following days she wins a house in an essay contest, and decides it's time to pack up her happy but frustrating life and start over someplace quiet. Her neighbors are aloof and strange, except for the unnervingly charming Scott, but she's determined to settle in. When visions of women, including her own friends, start appearing in terrifying guises, she stumbles into the mystery of those who came to this house before her, while desperately trying to avoid the same fate.
Julie Sharbutt is a writer, director and actor who uses Genre and Comedy to tell character-driven contemporary stories. Her most recent work includes writing, directing and producing the award winning horror short film SCAM, which screened across the world at Fantaspoa, Woodstock, Final Girls Berlin, Cannes Film Festival American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase and more, and writing the short film BOTTLECAP optioned and produced by Director Barbara Brown. She co-wrote the short film CUPIDS which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for a 2022 NAACP Image Award. Her short horror film 3 DAYS is on ALTER with over a million views, and her debut comedy feature film MOVED is on Apple. Other recent works include feature screenplays EXCELLENT FANCY (2023 Writers Lab Finalist, 2022 WScripted Cannes Screenplay List), CROW FLIES (2023 Austin Film Festival SemiFinalist), and original pilots SPORTS BRA, SALVAGED, SECRETARY OF ARTS, PLAYERS and others. Julie is a 2018 Warner Bros Discovery OneFifty New Storytellers alumni, where she developed her feature comedy screenplay COOL NEW TOWN as an episodic series. Prior to directing, Julie was a TV, film and theater actor in New York. She also performed improv at UCB and The PIT, and her humor writing can be seen in The New Yorker and McSweeneys. MFA in Acting from NYU, BA from Vanderbilt, member of Film Fatales, Women in Film, and Alliance of Women Directors. Current mentor in Vanderbilt University’s Vandy In Hollywood summer program, and longtime West Coast Board Member of the NYU Grad Acting Alumni Association. She loves hiking, volunteering, and ghost stories.
