Happily Never After

Logline: After overdosing and blacking out, a lonely woman awakens in a surreal reality where her household devices come to life, blurring comedy, madness, and the unsettling intimacy of AI.

Synopsis: After overdosing and blacking out, a woman awakens to find her household devices, including her coffeemaker, vibrator, toothbrush, Siri, and more, speaking to her and each other. Blending surreal comedy and absurdist horror, Happily Never After asks whether technology can ease our loneliness or only intensify it, reminding us that even in solitude, we are never truly alone.

Director’s Statement:

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a deep, meaningful conversation with a vibrator? Well, I have.

Happily Never After begins with a distraught woman who overdoses on Lorazepam while drinking and slips into a hallucination, when she wakes, her world is transformed: her household devices, including her toothbrush, coffeemaker, facial mask, vibrator, Siri, and even her vacuum, are speaking to her, and to each other.

At its core, the film asks: what happens when the technology designed to serve us begins to feel like company? Can machines ease our loneliness, or do they simply amplify it? The film explores themes of madness, intimacy, and the blurring of realities.

Stylistically, I leaned into surreal comedy, making the film feel like a live-action cartoon: ridiculous, unsettling, and tender. The production itself was its own experiment. I recorded stand-up comedian friends as the voices, then programmed the devices to respond in real time, forcing me to act opposite machines instead of actors.

I want audiences to laugh, but also to leave questioning what it means to live in a world where we are never really alone, even when we are lonely.