After Jen’s guilt gets the best of her, she begins to experience grima, or the sensation you get from nails on a chalkboard. She must confront what she did or be consumed by her guilt.
Grima is a haunting psychological horror that turns the spine-crawling sensation of nails on a chalkboard into a chilling metaphor for guilt. After Jen’s conscience begins to fracture, she becomes consumed by grima — a visceral, physical reaction to her own remorse. As the sound grows louder and reality slips further away, she must face the truth about what she’s done or risk being completely overtaken by it.
As part of Film Shortage’s Halloween Week, Grima stands out for its unsettling blend of sensory horror and psychological depth. Richie Harrington uses discomfort itself as the monster, crafting a tense and claustrophobic experience that lingers long after the final scene. A reminder that sometimes, the real horror lies not in what we see — but in what we hear inside our own minds.
The film is built around the idea of grima, that nails-on-a-chalkboard sensation. What drew you to exploring this specific, very visceral concept as the heart of your story?
So I have really bad OCD and one of my intrusive thoughts I’ve gotten almost my whole life is nails scraping down a chalkboard. I’d get hit with that thought and be unable to shake it. It drives me crazy! I did some research and found out that there’s a Spanish word (grima) that describes that specific sensation and that a lot of other people with OCD or misophonia experience it too. It’s one of my biggest fears and I thought that’s what you should explore with a horror film.
Guilt is such a strong theme in Grima. How did you approach connecting that inner emotional state with a physical, sensory horror experience?
Yeah I always had the visceral idea of nails on a chalkboard, but I knew I needed to connect it to something deeper to have a good story. I was raised Catholic and again had terrible OCD so guilt has always been present in my life and I thought there’s so many different ways people respond to guilt that it would make for an interesting and fun theme to explore.
The body horror elements are both unsettling and memorable. How did you strike the balance between being disturbing while still keeping the audience engaged in Jen’s story?
I was nervous as hell people wouldn’t want to watch this! I know I’m weird and like body horror movies, but someone told me to explore what scares you the most because other people might feel the same way. So many people who have watched this have reached out and said “I couldn’t watch that part because that’s also my biggest fear”, so there’s this cool human connection element to it. And yeah the balance really hung on Monroe Cline’s performance. She’s the best, but I think people care about her and want to know why this is happening to her character. Then the other element is the editing. I’ve worked with my editor Yanni on 4 shorts and we went back and forth on how much to show and he was an expert at knowing when to cut.
The setting plays a huge role in amplifying the tension. Can you tell us about the location choices and how they shaped the atmosphere of the film?
I still to this day have dreams/nightmares I’m back in high school and they’re terrifying and feel so real. I know other people experience the same thing. Jolene my production designer and her art team crushed it, but I knew I wanted to make the classroom feel sort of anachronistic which would be the first clue it’s a dream. I also went to Catholic school, so I wanted the class to feel this uneasy, strict, old school class with chalkboards, notebooks, and uniforms. We shot at Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles and shot on a Sunday when class wasn’t in session so we got lucky!
Sound design is crucial to creating those skin-crawling moments. What was your process in designing the audio to really make audiences squirm?
Yeah I knew sound would make or break this film. My production sound recorder Bun was a friend I met at a film festival who was amazing. And then my sound designer Christopher Woll was incredible. A friend of a friend had recommended Chris to my old roommate for his last web series and my roommate was like you have to use him for anything you do in the future, and he was right. I can’t recommend anyone more than Chris. We really bonded over our love for cinema, and he just went to work and nailed everything I was envisioning.
I also have to shoutout my composer, Brendan. We grew up together – I’ve known him since 1st grade. I actually struggle a lot with articulating what I want musically, so I always appreciate his patience and talent to keep working and improving the score. We used Mica Levi’s score for Under the Skin as our temp track and Brendan came up with his unique sound to set the tone for the film.
I will also say it was an excruciating experience for me hearing the nails on a chalkboard sound a thousand times during editing. I wish I didn’t have to go through that, but that’s on me.
The film takes an unexpected narrative path that separates it from traditional horror tropes. Was that a deliberate choice from the beginning, or something that developed through writing and editing?
This was always kind of how I envisioned the short. I knew I wanted to leave it open ended and really serve as the proof of concept for the feature. It’s risky, but I have a lot more story to tell and wanted to showcase what I could do as a filmmaker and make people want more. This was always sort of how I envisioned the cold open to the feature to be.
Body horror often requires heavy collaboration between special effects, performance, and cinematography. Can you talk about how your team brought those elements together?
Yeah I had the best makeup team. I’ve worked with Crista for almost 9 years now on tons of different projects and she brought Carolina in, and they both just did such an amazing job. I love practical effects, so Crista was one of the first people I talked to in the early stages of development to make sure she had what she needed. I wanted to go as practical as possible but also knew I’d need some VFX help, so I worked with Andrew Jordan who I’ve done a ton of projects with as well. His work is so good you can’t even always see it. Monroe and Brissa really sold their performances too, without that you don’t buy that their face is burning or that their nails and skin are breaking. Working with the DP Larry was one of the best parts of the process because we’d done a bunch of shoots I’d produced but never directed with him. He actually stayed at my apartment the weekend we shot the short so we walked through every shot and used our storyboards, lighting diagrams, and shot lists to really nail down exactly what we needed and still had to improvise a bit on the day. I couldn’t have done it without these guys.
The ending leaves viewers with a lot to process. Did you always know where you wanted to land with Jen’s journey, or did the conclusion evolve during production?
I always knew I wanted the open ended ending just so that people would hopefully want more with the feature. I think a good film asks the questions but doesn’t always give the answer. I wanted to take the audience on a journey making them feel uneasy and on the edge of their seats, go through a crazy visceral moment, calm back down, but then end on an unsettling feeling. I always wanted people to keep asking oh what did they do to Mirabel? What’s going to happen to Jen in the feature? Will she be consumed by guilt or learn to manage it?
Horror can often be cathartic. Do you see Grima as more of a cautionary tale, a psychological dive, or a raw sensory experiment?
All of the above. I think for me it was an exploration of my biggest fears, a way to understand guilt, and an attempt at nailing my execution as a director. I’ve made a bunch of other short films over the years some good and some not so good, but I really wanted this one to make people feel either unsettled or afraid. Hopefully some people will watch it and also reflect on the things they feel guilty about, in a healthy way.
What are the books, podcasts or even YouTube Channel that you recommend young filmmakers to get their hands on?
Books: Directing Actors, The Conversations, Hits Flops and Other Illusions
Podcasts: Nofilmschool, Script Notes
YouTube channels: FilmRiot, Scott Peters, Luc ForsythAnd then also non film stuff! Have interests in other things to then make movies about!
Can you share with us some of your favorite short films you’ve seen lately?
Anything Jim Cummings he’s one of my favorite filmmakers just always finding a way to tell a good entertaining and inventive story. His last two were Is Now A Good Time? and The Last Brunch.
I recently watched OCD starring Steven Ogg. It’s directed by by Luca Pizzoleo. He’s a filmmaker to watch. Lastly, My Kind of People by Joe Picozzi. Joe has made two other incredible shorts that I can’t recommend enough: I want to beat up Clark Peters and Computer Love
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