Dark at the Top of the Stairs - A supernatural horror/thriller from filmmakers Wyatt Weed and Gayle Gallagher.
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About the Film
About the Film
Dark at the Top of the Stairs is a slow-burn psychological thriller set in an isolated house, where one man confronts his past—and his sanity. Nominated for four festival awards, including a win for Best Sound Design, this suspenseful, atmospheric indie gem is a gripping experience for fans of eerie, character-driven horror.
SYNOPSIS
When a man returns to his childhood home to settle his late brother’s affairs, grief and his own brain tumor diagnosis weigh on him. As strange occurrences escalate, he’s forced to question—are the ghosts real, or is his mind unraveling?
Feature Film • Psychological Thriller / Horror • 1hr 28 mins • USA • English
AWARDS & FESTIVALS
AWARDS & FESTIVALS
Award Winner & Four-Time Nominee
Dark at the Top of the Stairs received four nominations at the Always Late TV Movie Awards, including:
WINNER — Best Sound Design in a Feature Film
Nominee — Best Actor in a Feature Film — Wyatt Weed
Nominee — Best Feature Horror / Thriller
Nominee — Best Feature Film
Official Selection — Hysteria Fest
The film screened at Hysteria Fest in St. Louis in June 2024.
Cast
Cast
Wyatt Weed — The Man, The Brother, The Father
Jason Contini — Cliff
Alycia Gray — Laura
Featuring
Dorcas Dooley · Courtney Turek · Nicholas J. Hearne · Nikki Serenity · Lance Tilford
Laura Candice · Ericka Madkins · Arlo Zahner
Filmmakers
Filmmakers
Gayle Gallagher & Wyatt Weed
A Pirate Pictures Production
About the Film
About the Film
THE STORY BEHIND THE FILM
THE STORY BEHIND THE FILM
Dark at the Top of the Stairs grew directly out of the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic. After other creative projects came to a halt, husband and wife filmmakers Wyatt Weed and Gayle Gallagher found themselves living in a 130-year-old house in Alton, Illinois—a town with a reputation for being one of the most haunted in America. The old house made its share of unexplained noises, and Weed posed a question: Could the two of them make an entire feature film, by themselves, without ever leaving home?
What began as an experiment became an unusual filmmaking opportunity. With unlimited access to their location, equipment and actor, Weed and Gallagher could work in a way traditional productions rarely allow. If moving equipment from the basement to the attic wore out half of their two-person crew, they could simply stop for the day and pick up again tomorrow. Without the usual pressures of location availability, crew schedules or limited shooting days, they were able to let the film evolve over time.
Gallagher jokes that when Weed first suggested making a feature with just the two of them, her response was, “Well, this will either end in a feature film or a divorce.”
They got the feature film.
A FILM WITHIN THE FILM
A FILM WITHIN THE FILM
One recurring presence in Dark at the Top of the Stairs is an old television program the Man remembers watching with his father and brother as a child. When licensing an existing vintage program proved prohibitively expensive, the filmmakers came up with another solution: make their own.
What began as a handful of scenes created simply to play on the television grew into a complete short film, with its own cast, crew and distinctly different visual style. Only pieces of the program (From Hell Beyond) appear within Dark at the Top of the Stairs, but the entire short was produced and will accompany the feature as a traditional theatrical-style short when the film is released.
Distribution / Press Inquiries:
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