It’s a romantic evening to be eaten alive as Marceline embarks on her date with Harold, a cannibal. As they spend their night together, Marceline tries to navigate “first date chat” and the reality of what’s about to go down. The closer reality hits, the more Marceline grapples with her life-long struggles of vulnerability, calling into question what she wants more than ever.

Director Vision

In this story, being vulnerable can be scary, like getting eaten by another person kind of scary. Writing “Eat Your Heart Out” started with continuing to question the “what if?” of Marceline’s circumstances. The improv saying of, “If X is true, then what else is true?” became integral to shaping the world of a cannibal date. After long talks with the actors we reshaped the script a little bit and spent time rehearsing scenes as if it was a stage play. Our actors primarily worked in the theater, and shooting on film meant we only had a certain number of takes we could get, so preparation was everything. But working with a set number of 16mm rolls gave us the limits to push our creativity in the rehearsals. It provided the sandbox to play in when it came time to shoot. This story takes a few twists and turns, but at the core of it, my team and I wanted to deal with themes of love and inward growth. However cannibalistic that growth may get.