Synopsis
When a woman takes a new drug meant to enhance assertiveness by blocking empathy, she ends up locked in a deadly power struggle with her dismissive husband.
Mousy Hana is thrilled to discover a new pill that temporarily disables the empathy center of the brain so that people who have always had trouble putting themselves first can finally get a chance to succeed in life and love. Her husband, Aleksi, calls all the shots in their marriage, largely by criticizing and manipulating her into feeling sorry for him. With the help of the drug, Hana hopes to assert herself and improve their relationship.
At first, the pill seems to be paying off: she’s able to stand up for herself and meet her needs. But there’s a downside: when the drug wears off, all of her guilt comes rushing back. In order to avoid these attacks, Hana increases her dosage and, as a result, begins to lose her humanity.
Into the Uncanny Valley is a psychological horror/thriller with a touch of dark comedy that explores the cost of choosing to live without empathy – a trait traditionally associated with the feminine – in order to succeed in a man’s world.
LIZ FANIA WERNER
DIRECTOR / WRITER
Liz Fania Werner was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. She grew up watching the X-files and reruns of the Twilight Zone with her family and has had a passion for genre storytelling ever since, in particular stories about powerful – and sometimes dangerous – women. Liz earned an MFA with distinction from the University of Southern California’s Writing for Screen and Television program where she was one of two students in her class to win an Annenberg Fellowship. Her Masters script was awarded distinction by the USC faculty and her short screenplay “Assassination of a Mathematician” won a budget of $30,000 and was produced by USC’s Peter Stark Program. She went on to work as a staff writer on the one-hour drama series RPM Miami (described by Variety as “’Fast and the Furious’ meets ‘Desperate Housewives’”) which aired on the Mun2 network, a member of the NBC/Universal family, and to pen a feature adaptation of Babylon Sisters, a novel by Oprah Book Club selected author Pearl Cleage. She has also collaborated with screenwriter Joel Wyman (Fringe, The Mexican) and developed a horror feature project for DMG Entertainment (Looper, Iron Man 3). Most recently, Liz completed a biopic about WNBA player Abby Bishop for Sentient Entertainment and her feature script, Kin, won the PAGE Award Silver Prize in the Horror-Thriller category. Liz lives in Los Angeles where she is currently working with co-director Carlos Montaner on the feature film version of Into the Uncanny Valley.
