***This short film comes with a photosensitivity warning as it uses flashing lights and imagery in certain scenes.***

"Your Husband Was a Good Man" came from a place of profound grief and trauma that I still have trouble articulating to this very day. I drew inspiration from my own complicated emotional state and the collective trauma Americans were experiencing day in and day out due to mass gun violence in our schools, particularly the harrowing event that took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX. Part deep exploration of the broken systems in America that destroy the increasingly nebulous idea of the “American Dream” that they sell the weary masses and part study of love and devotion so strong it corrupts everything including itself, this short is a twist on the familiar trope of a loved one who comes back “wrong” after occult resurrection. With this particular film there are no easy answers to even more difficult questions. Lines of morality are blurred to the point that the people blurring them can no longer recognize the original line of morality they began with. At its core “Your Husband Was a Good Man” is an exercise in horror, the power of horror narratives, and raw artistic vulnerability in some of the most difficult times.

The bereaved wife of a teacher who died prematurely resorts to ritualistic magic to resurrect her beloved husband. The results have unintended bloody consequences.

Young widow Orla Cassidy was once a vibrant speech pathologist married to and planning a family with her college sweetheart, Will Cassidy. Orla and Will had promising lives ahead of them, that is until Will, a beloved high school history teacher, is tragically killed protecting his students during a school shooting. 

Pregnant and grieving, the once sensible Orla starts to dabble in spiritualism and the occult, unsure of what to do with her life as a widow. Due to her rocky relationship with her parents, Orla clings to Will’s twin sister, Whitney for support. 

The short picks up a year after Will’s death with Orla as an exhausted mother to young daughter Willa while coping with unhealed wounds and post-partum depression. After much research and deliberation, Orla desperately performs an occult ritual to bring her departed husband back to life. 

Miraculously, the ritual works, and Will returns to Orla, reborn from the grave. The blissful reunion is complicated by Will’s inability to ingest regular food and his growing desire to consume raw meat. The ensuing complications and secrets Orla has kept from her reanimated husband threaten to ruin their momentary happiness.  


About the Project

Deaton Gabbard as Will Cassidy, Jamie Alvey as Orla Cassidy, Waylon O’Bryan as Willa Cassidy, Belinda Thomson as Roxye, Sawyer Haming as Jogger, and Teagen Windham as Newscaster.

Jamie Alvey (Writer/director/producer/sound designer), Bino Bannan (cinematographer/colorist), Christopher McKinney (assistant camera), Sawyer Haming (2nd assistant camera), Lindsey Kibler (1st assistant director), Daniel Rusiecki (2nd assistant director), Riley Norris (Unit Production Manager/producer), Emily Fabrizio (costuming/production designer/producer), Petra Mulligan (special effects), Teagen Windham (assistant production designer), Callie Kirk (makeup artist/producer), Ethan Hall (sound mixer), Carmela Shorkey (script supervisor), Marvin Watts (gaffer), Mason Perry (key grip), Samuel White (swing g&e), John Mulligan (editor/sound designer), Miss Machina (composer), and Brooklyn Kirk (Production Assistant).

Your Husband Was a Good Man

Short Film

Events

Events

Images

Details

Credits

Explore More

Your Husband Was a Good Man

Short Film

Events

Events

Images

Details

Credits

Producer

Director

Writer

Explore More