Based on actual events, Billy wakes up in the middle of the night to find a man at his door asking to come in – and he won’t take no for an answer.

Director’s statement

May my trauma be your entertainment. A Peculiar Thud is a short thriller based on a home invasion I experienced in the middle of the night. Unfortunately for me, the film contains far more real-life moments than fictional ones. It only takes one experience like this to remind you of the penetrability of your living space. How thin the glass of your windows, how faulty your locks… The film uses sound design to create the sense that the outside is always creeping in. It uses cinematography to make the familiar home seem foreign and unknowable. Beyond entertainment, I think the film explores more existential themes like: Are we ever truly safe in the places we think we are most protected?

As a queer filmmaker, I tried to interrogate the norms of violent masculinity with this film. A Peculiar Thud plays against gender/sex tropes of the horror genre by critiquing aggressive masculinity, condemning physical violence, and rejecting depictions of the female body as object of sexual desire. I aimed to represent the absurdity of phallocentric ideals of control, dominance, and dominion. As I worked through these “political” ideas, I never lost sight of the kernel that inspired me: the trauma of a stranger breaking into my home. In the end, I hope I’ve made a film that is as thoughtful as it is terrifying.