“The Second Circle”

Cast & Crew:

Starring Jamie Alvey as Franny, Cedric Gegel as Paul, and Douglas Dean Mitchell as John.

Produced by Jamie Alvey, Emily Fabrizio, Petra Mulligan, Deaton Gabbard, Callie Kirk, Riley Norris, and Susanna Shaefer for Love and Horror Productions.

With crew including Shay McCleavy (cinematographer/colorist), Petra Mulligan (production designer/special effects supervisor/storyboard artist), Emily Fabrizio (costumer), Callie Kirk (hair and make up artist), John Mulligan (editor/assistant director), Riley Norris (unit production manager/2nd assistant director), Charles Bruin (gaffer/key grip), Abby Morton (special effects assistant), Ethan Wold (sound mixer), and Deaton Gabbard (casting director).

With original music by Justin Miller of Queen Aster.

Director’s Statement:

As a late diagnosed autistic woman with ADHD and PTSD, the simple tenants of humanity such as emotion, desire, and agency have always come at a cost. I have often felt that, to be wholly embraced by others, I need to dilute myself. As a result, repression becomes a default. Art, literature, film, and the like were some of my few escapes, where I could properly transfer the emotions that consumed me and left me in great physical pain. A lot of my life was spent in dizzying isolation and dysregulation. To quote Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, “I sought and longed for something I could not quite name.” It was in this project that I found it. I found myself, community, and a future. 

In the past, every emotion, every bit of my innate humanity was either questioned and cruelly misconstrued by those around me, and I was forced to suppress my thoughts and desires out of shame or guilt. Life became a game of rigorous double standards where many others were allowed to experience the free range of emotion, and I was expected to deny myself any modicum of feeling, whether it be positive or negative. I am still unlearning the idea that my feelings are a burden, that I must conceal them beneath a thick layer of neurotypical pastiche. When the mask slipped, I was often painted as too intense or too much, and in response, I shrank myself for survival. I started to deny myself the humanity and dignity that is imbued to me—and you as well—simply by the fact of our existence in the world so we can have a seat at the table, so we can feel love and acceptance. It was with “The Second Circle” I made the conscious choice to not only flip that table but to build a new one.

In the wake of past personal tragedies, I was not given the proper room and the empathy to process what I’ve lived through in a safe and affirming way. Taking up space, living with a sense of authenticity, and communicating sincerely grew more mysterious as I withered away, trying to please the gods of social capital and prove my worth to them. I masked, I toed a nebulous line of conformity for the supposed comfort of others and your own apparent peace. 

I subsequently started to part off infinitesimal pieces of myself. Interpersonal and communication skills that once came easy through years of practice were lost. I was in a state of trauma fueled regression. I prayed that I could be loved and accepted in any capacity, while diminishing what makes me inherently beautiful and magnetic. I thought this was the key. However, even rationing yourself off in such small quantities starts to add up because it is an everyday occurrence, a sacrifice that is still deemed as not enough. So, I tried harder, I scrabbled, and I begged. I was an ouroboros at that point, eating myself. Even now, it’s difficult not to make a meal of myself. 

In the spirit of artistic rebellion and personal reclamation of myself, my emotions and my femme autistic identity, this short film is me taking control of my own life and narrative because emotionally autobiographical content is important in an age where general empathy is readily quashed and the feminine neurodivergent perspective is thoroughly obscured. “The Second Circle” is directly influenced by my experiences with alexithymia, the phenomenon where neurodivergent individuals have difficulty naming and identifying emotions, and the issues I have faced when it comes to worthiness, romance, shame, guilt, social acceptance, emotional abuse, and trauma. 

To add an extra layer of richness and give a nod to my lifelong dedication to literature and art, the short is also influenced by the story of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, the two lovers depicted in the second circle of hell in Dante’s Inferno. There’s a universality to Francesca and Paolo’s story that transcends time. The duo were forced to hide their emotions and love beneath the veneer of social respectability until their untimely deaths. They wore their masks, much like I have had to wear mine. Spending most of my existence undiagnosed led to a fraught love life full of almosts and missed connections. Romantic love became a forbidden idea in my mind, something that existed for others but not for me. Even though much of this narrative is connected to my perspective as an autistic woman, there is a sense of commonality between all neurotypes at play. After all, who hasn’t wanted someone that they couldn’t have? Someone that you crave, not in a selfish or possessive way, but as an act of ultimate surrender. Intimacy often isn’t attached to grand gestures in this tenuous space. It’s engrained in the heartbeat that picks up under the weight of your touch, in the attention to the small facets of your personality, and in the mutual respect and the want to understand one another intrinsically. There are moments where you can only marvel at the idea of them and that you were allowed to exist in this life with them. The minutiae of being lays bare the longing, the desire that sticks in your throat, vocal cords congealed with thick shame. You long to just be with them—no matter the cost, no matter the risk, no matter the barriers. Putting a name to your love and feelings, the fact you see the shape of God Himself in the lines of another person is a bravery I haven’t mustered in my life so far. In the end, I want to believe in a space where even in the worst of situations, the most hopeless and bleak, that love can prevail. Even if that space may literally be hell.

“The Second Circle” is sheer joyous artistic synthesis for not only myself but my cast and crew as well. It’s a world that was lovingly rendered and lived in for months as we prepped to shoot this offbeat tale that marries horror and romance. There are parts of us all in this project, a testament to artistic collaboration and the importance of assembling a team that all believe in the art they’re creating. Creation in itself is life affirming and freeing, surrounding yourself with good people makes it even more so. In these cases the mistakes and accidents along the way become more like blessings, learning experiences, and opportunities to refine yourself and your craft. You grow in yourself, in your craft, and in your love for humanity. 

In the midst of it all, I have felt more human and connected to myself, others, and my art than I have in the past two years. It is a gift to see the lives this screenplay has taken on as it has flourished and metamorphosed and taken on greater and deeper meanings to all involved. There is a moment on set that sticks out as a testament to this statement, one that shook the foundations of my self-belief and taught me the power of collaboration in motion. One particular scene in the short, the flashback where Paul (Cedric Gegel) confronts his brother John (Douglas Dean Mitchell) over Franny (played by yours truly pulling triple duty) in the stable that leads to Paul and Franny’s murders, was greatly altered from the script. Petra Mulligan, our intrepid production designer and SFX supervisor, was not confident that we could pull off the planned scene as effectively as she would like. It was then that we set to work completely refashioning the scene within the matter of minutes on the day of its shoot. What took place was a flurry of ideas bounced back and forth between Petra, cinematographer Shay McCleavy, and me. It took us less than twenty minutes to devise a new framework with the same idea, and yes, it was better than anything I could have devised alone.  

When we brought Cedric and Doug up to date on the changes is when the scene took on a new sense of depth. Doug teamed with Petra to discuss mining the use of fake blood to give John’s brutality its full effect, while Cedric suggested that the scene open up with Paul confronting John over Franny. It was Cedric’s words that led me to much needed personal reflection in the weeks after wrap. He said, “I think he [Paul] would fight for her [Franny].” Up until that moment, a lot of Paul’s role in the flashbacks had been largely inert with his agency and autonomy coming through in the back half of the short. I searched my soul for the answer as to why I crafted the sequence in such a way that was surely more than a little frustrating to Cedric. He’s an actor after all, not an inactor. The answer was simple: no one had ever fought for me in that way, and thus, I could not fathom a scene where Franny was actively fought for. Franny’s emotional experience was so tied to my own that it blinded me. With that little suggestion, Cedric infused a bit of life into a dead man in a way I could not have imagined and made me realize that I should have been fought for in the past. It was that uncomfortable truth that led me to new depth. It was the perspective I needed to push myself into a new phase artistically and personally. 

The gratitude I have for the stable scene and for that small moment with Cedric is something I still cannot fully express, though I hope one day to find the proper words to do so. It is through this project and instances like this that I have come to realize I myself am far from damned, and I can only hope my colleagues here feel the same for they are the balm to wounds they didn’t inflict as they carefully—often unknowingly—pick up and hand me fragments of my existence I thought I had lost. In the scheme of it all, they have inspired me to be better and strive for more. They are the constant reminders of my humanity and my worth—something I had long forgotten along the road to this fictitious hell that reflects a real sense of loss and personal immolation. Even with the ebb and flow of my emotions and ruminative thoughts that feast on any speck of positivity within me, they still believe I am brilliant, stating it like an inalienable fact. They see me more clearly than I see me. Remember, perspectives matter in that way.

The great Zora Neale Hurston once said, “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.” This is me refusing to be silent any longer. We cannot choke on our own tongues for the comfort of people committed to misunderstanding us. Discomfort can be positive if you allow it to be and lead to necessary advancement and conversations surrounding humanity and neurodivergence. So, I implore you to take up space, scream if you must, release yourself from self and societally imposed shame. Believe in a future where you can feel the heat of the love you’ve long dreamed of, a future where you are fought for, where you are brilliant, and where all you’ve always wanted lies mere feet in front of you. Your feelings and experiences matter. Our feelings and experiences matter. This isn’t just about me. This is about us. If you are not afforded the territory to thrive and simply be as you are, you must make it and find those that are committed to holding that space with you. Nothing is created in a vacuum, and sometimes the best you can offer others is leading by example and doing the damn thing yourself. Find your people. Make the short. Hell, make the feature. Fuck the system. Create better from your own ashes. 

Jamie Alvey

Writer, Director, Executive Producer

Press:

• Casting Announcement and Press Release via Daily Dead
• Good Times Behind the Scenes Sneak Peek via Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer

Award Nominations/Finalists:

• Hollywood Just4Shorts Film and Screenplay Competition September 2025 Finalist (for Screenplay only)
• HorrorHound Fall 2025 Best Concept in a Short Script (for Screenplay only)
• HorrorHound Fall 2025 Best Plot in a Short Script (for Screenplay only)
• HorrorHound Fall 2025 Best Characters in a Short Script (for Screenplay only)
• HorrorHound Fall 2025 Best Dialogue in a Short Script (for Screenplay only)
• HorrorHound Fall 2025 Best Writing in a Short Script Nominee (for Screenplay only)
• HorrorHound Fall 2025 Best Short Script Nominee (for Screenplay only)
• IndieBoom Horror Short Screenplay Competition 2025 Finalist (for Screenplay only)
• Coverfly’s The Red List Top 20 Highest Rated Horror Short Screenplays July 2025 (for Screenplay only)
• Filmmatic Short Screenplay Awards 2025 Quarterfinalist (for Screenplay only)
• HorrorHound Fall 2025 Script Competition Finalist (for Screenplay only)
• HollyShorts Screenplay Contest 2025 Quarterfinalist (for Screenplay only)
• Inroads Screenwriting Fellowship 2025 Quarterfinalist (for Screenplay only)

Still Gallery:

Poster Gallery:

SFX/Costume Test Gallery:

Test Shoot Gallery:

Behind the Scenes Gallery:

Jamie’s 35mm Film Behind the Scenes Gallery: