YouTube channel ALTER have today (28 June) exclusively released Lucy’s Tale. Directed by Chelsea Lupkin, this brilliantly unnerving short film follows high-schooler Lucy (Irina Bravo) as she goes through a confusing supernatural transformation.
Speaking to Close-up Culture in August, Lupkin explained: ‘When writing Lucy’s Tale, I explored the societal pressures of looking and behaving a certain way and thought of them as rules that my character should break in a fantastical way. So while Lucy was faced with entering her womanhood, she was ultimately also coming into her villain-hood, being supernaturally different than the other girls her age.’
She continued: ‘Frankly, I’ve always been a champion of fantastic stories, especially those about characters who had physical manifestations of their flaws or internal state of being. Body horror gave me an avenue to tackle the very real and relatable issue of puberty, which is a horror in and of itself.’
Lucy’s Tale is led by gripping performance from Irina Bravo. The Spanish born actress captures the awkwardness and discomfort of growing up with minimal dialogue to play with. Bravo told us: ‘The first scene in which Lucy is filling her bra with napkins is literally my 14-year-old self. I definitely freaked out when I realized my body was changing.’
She continued: ‘My mom passed away when I was very young and I never really had another female body around me to learn from and relate to. No one really talked to me about my body until I already knew everything there was to know about it. Puberty felt monstrous.’
Watch Lucy’s Tale on YouTube: