Genre
Synopsis
Something’s happening to the girls on Denton Street.
It’s the summer of 1980 in Cleveland, Ohio, a time of recession and uncertainty—abandoned metal factories loom over the city skyline like empty gravestones, the men of those factories wandering the streets like the undead; and at the shore of the Cuyahoga River, one strong spark threatens set the polluted water on fire. Trapped in the metal prison of the city, 18-year-old PHOEBE SHAW and her best friend JACQUELINE are on the verge of graduating high school, but their futures look as bleak as the rust-colored clouds that veil the promise of the sun.
That is, until things take a turn to the worst when Jacqueline and two other girls from Denton Street start to change.
One by one, their fingernails turn to broken glass.
One by one, their copper bones protrude from their flesh like corroded metal.
One by one, they slowly turn into the very thing that’s broken their families—remnants of the closed down metal factories.
But how?
And why?
As rumors spread about the grotesque transformations, soon everyone from nosy tourists to clinic doctors and government men arrive at Denton Street, eager to catch sight of the “the Rotting Girls”. But even with all the onlookers, nobody can explain what’s happening—except the Rotting Girls themselves. Phoebe, growing more detached from Jacqueline by the day, catches wind of their whispers and realize these girls in metamorphosis know more than they’re telling—a deadly secret that will tear all the souls on Denton Street apart.
As Phoebe struggles to unravel the mystery of the Rotting Girls—and her own unwitting role in their transformations—she races against time before she loses everything she’s held dear: her best friend, her home, and even her own body.
Director Identity
Bio
Jessica Landry is a Métis screenwriter, director, producer, and Bram Stoker Award-winning author. Her original horror feature, MY ONLY SUNSHINE, was accepted into Whistler Film Festival’s Screenwriters Lab in 2020 and Blood in the Snow’s Horror Development Lab in 2023.In 2021, she was accepted into the CFC/Netflix Project Development Accelerator; as well as TIFF’s inaugural Series Accelerator program (September 2022) and NSI’s Series Incubator program (November 2021). Her drama/sci-fi feature, ANOMALY, was chosen to participate in Whistler Film
Festival’s Producers Lab (2024) and Women in the Director’s Chair CAM program (2024-25), and her production company, Familiar Films, was chosen for the Canada-France Co-Production
Lab at SeriesMania (2024).
Jessica has several projects in development, including GHOST LANDS, an Indigenous-led paranormal documentary; WE SHALL BE MONSTERS, a factual series about the history of women in horror; an original horror series, ANATOMY OF A SÉANCE; and THE NIGHT BELONGS TO US, a feature adaptation of her Shirley Jackson Award-nominated novella. Her original slasher feature, KILLER BODY COUNT, is currently streaming on Tubi, and she’s written several drama and thriller MOWs including LIST OF A LIFETIME, which was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award and Hollywood Critics’ Association Award. Jessica also worked as a story editor for the CBC sitcom, STRAYS; co-wrote and co-exec produced the feature doc, TRUE STORY, for the History Channel; has written on FAMILY FIRST, a sitcom in development with Eagle Vision; and wrote and directed several episodes of the factual series, 7TH GEN, for APTN. She’s directed several original shorts, including TESTAMENT (drama; on its festival run) and I FALL TO PIECES (dark comedy; in post). Jessica is currently adapting the novel APRIL RAINTREE as a limited series, recently signed a two-picture development deal, and has other projects in various stages of development.
