Step into the unsettling world of modern indie horror with filmmakers Chris Paicely and Miles August, the creative duo behind The Girl in the Street — the psychological horror short that made its global premiere on ALTAR.
In this episode of Plot Twist Radio, Chris and Miles discuss the origins of their chilling film, the moral questions at the center of the story, and how horror can expose the quiet fears hiding beneath everyday life. From masked strangers and suburban conformity to cult-like communities and psychological tension, this conversation dives deep into what makes modern horror so effective.
The duo also shares:
How they met and built their creative partnership
Their collaborative writing and directing process
The visual storytelling choices behind The Girl in the Street
Why horror works so well for exploring human behavior
Their upcoming sci-fi horror projects, including Silk
The journey from film festivals to a worldwide release on ALTAR
If you love psychological horror, indie filmmaking, suspense thrillers, and behind-the-scenes conversations about storytelling, this episode is for you.
Watch The Girl in the Street on ALTAR and follow Chris Paicely & Miles August / Swim Good Films for upcoming projects.
Where to find Chris and Miles:
#HorrorPodcast #IndieHorror #PsychologicalHorror #ALTAR #TheGirlInTheStreet #ChrisPaicely #MilesAugust #PlotTwistRadio #FilmmakingPodcast #HorrorMovies #IndieFilm #ThrillerFilms #Screenwriting #HorrorFans #CultHorror
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Welcome to Plot Twist Radio, the show where creativity,
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storytelling, and the unpredictable path of the
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creative life all collide. I'm your host, Aaron Egnatz.
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What would you do if doing the right thing might cost you
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everything? A stranger appears, bloody,
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desperate, screaming for help, and suddenly you're faced with a
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choice. Do you open the door or do you
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survive? Today's guests aren't just
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telling scary stories, they're asking the kind of questions
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that stay with you long after the screen goes dark.
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From the festival circuit to the global premiere on Altar, the
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filmmaking dual behind The Girl in the Street are redefining
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what modern horror can be. Chris Paisley and Miles August
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blend psychological tension, moral conflict, and striking
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visual storytelling to explore a terrifying question.
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Is being good actually enough? Chris Miles, welcome to the
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show. Thank you.
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Can you guys just take turns? Chris, you can go first
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introducing yourself for the listeners.
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Yeah, I'm Chris Paisley, writer, filmmaker, basically
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storyteller. Like just stop.
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Really like to, I'm deep into the horror genre, to sci-fi
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genre and so I'm excited to talk about the work that we've done
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and you know, just horror in general I think.
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Yeah, same. Well, not the same name, but I'm
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not exact same name. Now I know Miles August and I
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yeah, I kind of similarly writer, director, do some design
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music, a lot of things and yeah, all of the above and just a
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horror junkie like love tells stories.
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And yeah, yeah, I'm excited to talk about the that's.
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Very cool, and congratulations on the Altar premiere.
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What did it feel like to go from the festival circuit to a global
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platform like that? Yeah, it's it's kind of, it's
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kind of strange because up until this point, we've never had sort
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of a public online premiere to that extent.
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We've made some other short films and usually you kind of
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hit the festivals and see what happens and then you don't
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really know what to do with it. Like that was kind of the issue
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with our first film. We're like, OK, now what?
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You know, and the cool thing about The Girl in the Street was
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that I think it's just really validating to not only go on
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this festival journey, but to have a platform like that, reach
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out to us and sort of say we like what you're doing and we
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want to show it to people. And they're really cool, really
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cool to work with, very creative, friendly.
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And it's been a cool like first week like to, to get some good
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attention, get some good comments and feedback and
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conversation. Still kind of processing it
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honestly. You know, yeah, it's kind of
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overwhelming. Like we it's funny because we
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had like a lot of, you know, cool, like unique experiences at
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some of the festivals and like the film was always like
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received well at the festival. But it it's you know, it's a
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room full of people versus I don't know how many people, you
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know, online from just all over the place.
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Like there are different people in different countries.
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It was like a lot. I was like, wow, this is feels
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way grander than like what we've done up up until this point.
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But yeah, I'm still kind of processing it too.
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But I I do, I'm appreciative like of all the altar for one,
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just because they were like very like commutative.
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They like they were constantly, you know, letting us know,
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giving us updates on things. And I loved working with them.
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And yeah, just the feedback from like the audiences were it was
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awesome. I was like, oh wow, like I guess
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the film is good. Yeah.
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Well that's very cool and I love asking duos this.
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How did the two of you meet and get started working together?
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Yeah, a friend introduced us. He kind of thought that we might
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have mutual interests, and apparently he was right.
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And so this was over 10 years ago, you know, we just were
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always talking about films. We were, every time we saw each
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other, it'd be like, did you see this?
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You see that? And we kind of do our little
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mini review. And that kind of evolved into a
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podcast that we did with a friend of ours where we sort of
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talked about films and did a couple of kind of different
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approaches to like podcasting about films.
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And I think that itch that we really needed to scratch was to
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make something together. And so we kind of stopped and
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started quite a bit and then we finally like really got going.
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I think it was in 2021, we we started work on our first short
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film together. And so since then it's just
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been, I mean, that's the we worked to get, we worked
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together really well. And I think a lot of a lot of it
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ties back to just we, we both like a lot of the same things.
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And so it's really easy to work with somebody when you're kind
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of working towards the same conclusion.
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Like we, we, we both want the audience to feel this, this type
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of way. And, and with that in mind,
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we're, we're really good. I think about, even if we like
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disagree about something, we can kind of get past it because
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we'll see what kind of lean back into what, what are we trying to
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accomplish? And then we'll kind of go in
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that direction. So it's been, it's been out,
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it's been a great like probably like past, I guess five years of
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of really just doing film stuff together.
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I feel like we've been in college like the last couple of
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years, we've definitely like learned a lot and like just kind
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of and things we just sort of naturally have like I don't know
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if we ever sat down and decided we're going to do horror stuff.
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We just kind of did horror stuff.
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Like maybe that was a conversation.
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I don't know. But I know like we just
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generally, to Chris's point, like tend to gravitate to some
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of the same things and just we circle around a lot of same
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things. And we have this weird thing
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that happens now where he'll text me something and I'll have
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thought of the thing that he was texting me or vice versa, where
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we we are kind of, I think in each other's heads or something
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right now. So it is a cool process of like
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having someone to bounce ideas and work collaboratively with.
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I feel like we get the best version because we're taking
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both of our strengths and like, you know, kind of molding them
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together to get it, get it the best outcome.
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That is awesome that you guys can work so well together.
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So tell me a little bit about the girl in the street.
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Yeah, I'll let you start. OK.
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Yeah, Yeah, we're to start. So like we were in South by
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Southwest actually like 2, was it 2 years ago?
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I can't remember now, like about two years ago.
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And Chris had this idea and we kind of pitch ideas to each
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other constantly. And he kind of was working
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through some of the elements, like I think even before we got
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down there. And he was kind of telling me
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little tidbits of the story. And we were getting ready to
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shoot another short just before that.
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And when he explained the story to me, I'm like, oh, yeah,
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that's. Yeah, it was, yeah.
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I like that. Like, write it, let's do it.
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And he, I think he wrote it while he was still down there
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because I left a little bit earlier from South by Southwest
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US. And then he kind of was down
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there and wrote the script, came back with a script.
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And then the next thing I knew we were, we were going from one
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meeting to like just talking to our producers to actually being
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like, oh, OK, I guess, I guess we're doing this right now.
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But yeah, like the story, you know, it, it, it's in keeping
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with a lot of the things that we tend to gravitate to, which is
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obviously horror and sort of thriller and and some suspense.
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But it is dealing with like sort of normal, mundane, you know,
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life and sort of the obviously it's to the extreme, like I hope
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this is not happening to anybody.
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But it, it kind of sort of started around just small things
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that we were, you know, identifying in our own lives.
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And just the, the, the context of like going into a new
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location or being a part of suburbia or, or whatever sort of
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like thing you have to acclimate into.
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So kind of like start there. And then we it, it sort of
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flourished into like what it is now where it.
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Yeah, I don't know. I get it.
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That's kind of like how most of our ideas I feel like start.
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Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of it. It, it was a lot of like, you
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know, part of the impetus behind it was the idea around a mask, a
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character in a mask. And Miles had shot, like this
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kind of short documentary about this mask maker named David Nez,
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who is based in Chicago. And he told Miles, like, you
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know, he was be interested in making a mask for us if we ever
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had a need for it. And that was kind of why my gear
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started turning around this story and what the story could
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be. And it started out as, like,
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this guy in a house, girl shows up in the street.
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I was thinking, like, what's the creepiest thing that could
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happen? And I looked out my window and I
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was like, somebody was just standing out there screaming.
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I don't know. That'd be kind of kind of
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creepy, right? And, and then, but then I really
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wanted to subvert the idea that, oh, it's like the strangers or
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something, and then just trying to break in and kill you or
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whatever. I was like, man, what, what
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would it look like if there was more to this?
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There was some lore and there was some history and there was
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some kind of ritual and like it, it, it sort of evolved into
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that. And then we started injecting
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ourselves into it like, well, what is, you know, what does it
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mean to go somewhere new and become someone else?
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And what, what, how, how much of yourself do you have to give up
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to become a part of a new community?
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You know, a friend of mine moved to like a suburban town.
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And the first year they were there, they put up Christmas
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lights. And the neighbors knocked on the
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door and got on them because they had the wrong color
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Christmas lights, because the whole neighborhood had to have
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the same color Christmas lights to have this, this effect they
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were going for. And I was like, man, like
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there's so many little things that you have to end in the next
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year. They, you know, the correct
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color. And it's like, man, what does it
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mean to, to become a part of a cult?
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It, it couldn't be as simple as that, right?
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Like the, the cult of Christmas lights.
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And so like there's, there's layers to the story that I think
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we, we wanted to play with. And you can only do so much in a
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short film, But we thought it'd be interesting to just kind of
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tease out how, how, what is Malachi's fate, You know, if
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he's going to this place and and who will be he be on the other
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side of it. So, yeah, I mean, that's kind of
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the, I guess we didn't walk through the plot of it, but I
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don't know if we should. I wasn't sure.
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You can if you want, absolutely. You can tell as much or as
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little as you want. I mean, I guess I'll just say
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that the Cliff Notes version, without giving away where it
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goes too much, is just that Malachi gets a job and is moving
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to this this new place, and he's leaving behind his sister, who
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is sick. And the guilt of that decision
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weighs on him and the story. And when he arrives there, he's
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faced with kind of a moral quandary when this woman in the
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street shows up wearing a mask and screaming.
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And there's a question around, well, should he go out and help
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her? Your first thought may be no,
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because it's a horror movie. But in reality, like if you saw
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someone who seemed like they were in distress and no one else
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was helping, what what does that do to you?
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So that's that's I'll just leave it there.
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That's very good. So how did, how did the writing
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process work for you? Because, you know, I I'm used to
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writing novels and I've heard that screen writing is much
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different. Well, I mean, it is and it
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isn't, I would say because, and maybe I have it on orthodox
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writing approach. I think Miles and I, when we
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write together, like our scripts don't don't really fully look
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like I guess Hollywood scripts. There's there's a bit of prose
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in there like we're not afraid because and then maybe it's
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because we know we're going to direct it.
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So it's not like we have to make it this perfect spec script for
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some other director to be able to interpret.
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It's like we know what we're trying to say.
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And so a lot of times there is things in there which a no, no,
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in script screen writing, for example, is you're not supposed
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to communicate anything you can't see.
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But sometimes we do that because it's just like, OK, this
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character is feeling some type of way.
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I just want the actor to know that.
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And I, I want us as we film this thing to remember that and I'll
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just put it in the script. So there's that.
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But then I think 1 standpoint is for me is to just write the
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whole thing out, which is what I did with this.
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I think I wrote it in one night. The first draft is not what we
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ended up shooting, but it was enough for me to send to Miles
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and then to get his feedback and to start workshopping it.
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And so, you know, the 20th version is probably what we
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shot. And then, and then on top of
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that, we were still rewriting things on the way to go shoot
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it. Like we were on the phone with
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Whitney, who played the titular girl in the street, and she had
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questions. And we're kind of working
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through, oh, what if we said this instead?
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You know what I mean? So the writing process, I guess
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technically kind of never ends because even after we shot it
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all and we're editing it, there were things we changed.
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And you could argue, well, that's kind of a rewrite, you
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know? So it was definitely an
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interesting process. I can imagine Miles, your
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background is so visual and multidisciplinary.
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How did that influence the tone and the look of the film?
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So that that's kind of actually what the team is, I guess like
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we, we do write a lot of stuff together, like collaboratively.
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But my thing is, how is this going to look?
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And I think, I would guess like maybe my, I'm sorry, my dog is
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like doing a lot. I think my background maybe as a
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designer probably makes me more obsessive over those things
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where I am very nitpicky about the most mundane things.
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But I mean, it's and that's maybe the the distinction
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between like you were saying as a writer versus what we're doing
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as film makers is it is a visual medium and we can put things
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down on paper. But ultimately, like it has to
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be able to translate to something visual and you could
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have a great story on paper and it not look like anything, you
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know, when you put a camera in front of it.
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So I do think that me being so I guess fastidious about like
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everything being in a particular place, because I think there is
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that's that's another part of our voices coming through is how
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we present this idea that's on paper and sort of learning like
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what our visual like language is.
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So there was a lot of that and there's probably more than maybe
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any other film that we shot. I was really kind of like, hey,
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I think we need to do this with the camera or we need to move in
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order to communicate this. And there was a lot of that of
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us going back and forth trying to figure out like what voice do
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we want to use to tell this story?
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And it changes with every story. But this one in particular, I
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think we, this is probably the most I feel like we've really
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directed like scenes like to really get across some type of
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like feeling like moving the camera.
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Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Very cool.
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So you guys have a new project called Silk, correct?
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What can you tell us about that? Yeah, So Silk is actually I
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guess the seed to girl in the street.
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Like it kind of is how we got to girl in the street honestly.
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Like I, I wrote Silk like maybe some months before we actually
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like started working on a girl in the street.
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And this is the film that we were actually getting to shoot
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when we were coming back from South by Southwest.
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We had like a team sort of put together and everything.
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So we I wrote that like a, it was maybe a four or five page
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script. And it's kind of a very weird,
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more surreal, kind of honestly say kind of disjointed story
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where it's meant to feel kind of like you're in this sort of
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weird dream like situation. But we wrote that and then we
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shot it before a girl in the street.
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And it's more sci-fi than I would say horror.
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And it kind of just surrounds like a character who sees a
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strange commercial and that commercial is trying to sell her
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something that she buys that is not good for her, like in the
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worst way. But yeah, that that kind of came
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before and I say it was the C because it gave us our crew that
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we ended up using to shoot a girl in the street.
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There was ARDP producer who was not a producer on Silk, but she
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ended up becoming our producer gaffers and a lot of the rest of
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the team that they had, people that they worked with end up
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becoming our crew later on. So it kind of introduced us to
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like our ongoing team right now. Yeah, cool.
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So what is up next for you guys? Well, Silk is actually available
00:17:05
now that to to watch on our our YouTube channel.
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So anybody who's watched to go on the street if they want to
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see more Silk is available. And that that I think in terms
00:17:18
of shorts is the last short we're going to do for a while.
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We're actually working on a feature, working through the
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script on a feature. We have a script written for
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another one. We have like maybe 3 to 4
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projects that are kind of all in different stages of light.
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This is ready to go. This is sort of in process and
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they're all kind of different budget levels and we're all sort
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of thinking about, OK, what could we do now versus what can
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we do next year. But the big thing for us is
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like, what we noticed is that our shorts are, you know, we're
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forcing them to be shorts, you know, like the girl on the
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street when some of the big comments were like, this should
00:17:58
be a feature film. This should be longer.
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I wish there were more. And a big part of it is like,
00:18:01
it's not a traditional short because there's like all these
00:18:04
different scenes and locations and kind of so this character
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development that usually you don't get in a short, Usually a
00:18:09
short is like a sequence or a scene.
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And so we know there are sensibilities toward making
00:18:14
something longer. And so we're like, well, let's
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just do it. Like, let's stop acting like you
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have to make 17 shorts before you can make a feature.
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Let's just make the next thing we do a feature.
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And so we're working on something that I'll just say is
00:18:27
like we've kind of called it it's it's part of the sort of 1
00:18:31
crazy night category of of films.
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And so starts off as a date and turns into something else.
00:18:39
It's all I can say right now, but definitely still in our bag
00:18:43
of kind of sci-fi horror stuff. And right now we're in early
00:18:48
stages of what we're hoping to shoot it later this year.
00:18:51
And then that'll be probably the next thing folks see from us
00:18:55
would be my guess, unless we tomorrow up and decide we're
00:18:58
going to make another short I guess.
00:18:59
But right now, as of right now, this moment in time and 4:25
00:19:04
Central Time, that is what's on. That's what's in the cards.
00:19:08
Very cool, so where can the audience find you guys?
00:19:11
You said YouTube but do you guys have socials too?
00:19:14
Yeah, if you actually go to our Instagram, which is just swim
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good, just as wym good. Both of our names are our tags,
00:19:24
I mean are in the bio. So if you go to our Instagram,
00:19:29
you'll be able to follow both both of us And I don't think the
00:19:33
link I may need to update. I can add like the girl on the
00:19:36
street link in there to watch. But if not, if you go to alter,
00:19:40
you can watch girl on the street on altar is still pretty new, so
00:19:43
it should be kind of at the top of their page.
00:19:47
But yeah, if you go on, yeah, our Instagram and kind of follow
00:19:50
us from there and should be able to follow us everywhere, girls
00:19:53
from there. Yeah, swim good.
00:19:54
If you look up some good on YouTube too, you can find our
00:19:56
channel and you'll see the you can watch silk on there.
00:20:00
Girl in the Street is cross posted to both Alter and our
00:20:02
channel so you could could watch it on either.
00:20:05
Yeah, those are the Instagram and YouTube are kind of the best
00:20:09
places to find this. And if you're really like Intel
00:20:12
old school Internet, you can just go to our website and those
00:20:15
still exist, which is swimgood.com, so.
00:20:20
Very cool, and I'll make sure that those are LinkedIn the show
00:20:22
notes for everyone. Thank you both for joining me.
00:20:25
This has been great. Thank you for having us, this is
00:20:27
awesome.