Film Fatales

The Rotting Girls

Scripted Feature Development

It’s 1980 in Cleveland, where once-thriving factories have closed, leaving a graveyard of rust and decay in its wake. For 18-year-old Phoebe Shaw, life already feels like a slow collapse counting down the days before she graduates and leaves the city behind—that is, until the girls on her street begin to change into something born of the rotting city itself. As her best friend becomes afflicted with this strange ransformation, Phoebe realizes the horror isn’t just around her, it’s inside her, and she may be the key to stopping it.

ABOUT
BIO

Genre

Coming of Age Drama Horror LGBTQ+ People of Color Women

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

Indigenous Of Indigenous Descent Woman Parent she/her

Bio

Jessica Landry is a Metis director, producer, Canadian Screen Award-nominated screenwriter, and Bram Stoker Award-winning author. Her projects have been developed through TIFF’s Series Accelerator, Women in the Director’s Chair, NSI’s Series Incubator, the CFC/Netflix Project Development Accelerator, and Whistler Film Festival’s Screenwriters and Producers Labs, among others.In 2026, Jessica was selected for The Hollywood Reporter’s Women In Entertainment Mentorship Program.

Jessica has a wide array of completed projects and those in development, including GHOST LANDS, an Indigenous-led paranormal documentary special with Blue Ant Media, which she created, wrote, directed, and produced, and that aired on T+E and Haunt TV in October 2025; GRAVE GOODS, a horror feature in development with Jessica writing and producing; ANATOMY OF A SÉANCE, a horror series; and THE NIGHT BELONGS TO US, a feature adaptation of her Shirley Jackson Award-nominated novella, which she will write and produce. 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. Jessica also worked as a story editor for the CBC sitcom, STRAYS; co-wrote and co-executive produced the feature documentary, TRUE STORY, for the History Channel; wrote and directed several episodes of the factual series, 7TH GEN and RABBIT SOUP, both for APTN; co-directed the first season of APTN’s reality dating series, REZERVATIONS FOR TWO; and has written several original MOWs with Neshama Entertainment, Vortex Productions, and Reel One Entertainment. She’s directed several original shorts, including TESTAMENT (drama) and I FALL TO PIECES (dark comedy; premiered at the Whistler Film Festival 2025).

She also released her debut collection of short stories, THE NIGHT BELONGS TO US, in 2023; co-edited the Bram Stoker Award-, British Fantasy Award-, and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated anthology THERE IS NO DEATH, THERE ARE NO DEAD; and had an original story in the anthology ALIENS VS PREDATORS: ULTIMATE PREY.

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The Rotting Girls

Genre

Synopsis

Director Identity

Bio

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