The Horrors of House-Hunting in Supernatural Short The Maiden

Howard Gorman |

Apr 19, 2016

Estate agents already have their work cut out for them, but what if the premises they are trying to seal a deal on are inhabited by a supernatural squatter of sorts? That’s the very premise of Michael Chaves’ The Maiden, a short which you can – and really ought to – watch now in its entirety.

Despite being very much a homegrown production, The Maiden has all the trappings of a Hollywood feature film, much akin to output coming from the likes of James Wan or anything released under the Blumhouse banner; and Chaves has every intention of adapting the short into a long-form feature, with a treatment already in the works.

With the short now online for all to enjoy, Chaves provided Dread Central with a few exclusives for our readers:

– A never-before-seen alternate poster
– The script / board / final comparison
– The Maiden pitch book

Aside from all this exclusive bounty, we can also reveal that The Maiden has been selected to screen as part of the FANT Bilbao official selection this year (full short and feature film line-up to be revealed soon).

On receiving the news, Chaves commented, “I am so honored to be selected for FANT Bilbao. Some of my favorite films and shorts have gone through there in previous years. Online it’s hard for short films to get noticed; film festivals, especially genre festivals, are more important now than they’ve ever been. I want to thank Howard Gorman and Eugenio Puerto (FANT’s Festival Programmer) for being champions of genre filmmaking.”

Tristan Nyby, the film’s director of photography, went on to say, “It was an incredible experience to shoot The Maiden with Michael and the rest of the cast and crew. To have it recognized and championed by FANT is an honor.”

Obviously, a short of this nature is always best enjoyed on the big screen, but for those unable to get over to FANT, fear not! You can still enjoy The Maiden in its entirety, along with the aforementioned goodies, after the jump…

From the Press Release:
Directed by Michael Chaves, The Maiden is a dark tale of real estate, demonic houses, and Photoshop tutorials.

In The Maiden a real estate agent is pushed to the edge as she struggles to close on a mysterious estate. As she goes about her business, she begins to discover that this house is not as deserted as it seems – and a very powerful and evil presence is working against her. The closer she gets to the sale, the more dangerous things get. Can she close on the house before it’s too late?

Chaves came up with the idea a couple years ago after the real estate bust. “I was fascinated by the crash and how corrupt everything about it was,” he said. “I’ve always loved haunted house stories, but I wanted some kind of a twist. I started wondering, ‘What happens before the young family moves in? As a real estate agent, how could you sell something like that?’”

The film was shot on location in Los Angeles at the famous Beckett Mansion. “Hopefully the short looks big, but in reality it was a really small, family run production.” Chaves enlisted his high school best friend, Tristan Nyby, to shoot it. Michael’s wife, Dina Buglione, did the casting. His next-door neighbor David Moore and Lynda Pribyl produced. Chaves said, “My mom was even going to do craft service, but she couldn’t get off work.”

Director of photography Nyby says, “We wanted to anchor it in reality, so we shot primarily with natural light. Especially for a thriller/horror, the power is in believing this is real. The house had such an amazing structure that it shaped the light really beautifully.”

In the meantime, Chaves has been developing a feature treatment of The Maiden. “I love the idea of this house as a character, its relationship, and then the eventual supernatural showdown with a real estate agent.”

Michael Chaves is a commercial director who has worked with clients such as Sony, AT&T, Ford, Vodafone, Miller Light, and Disney.

[vimeo 163109217 w=800 h=450]