Acclaimed cinematographer Kelsey Taylor takes her feature writing and directing debut with the mystery-drama thriller “TO KILL A WOLF,” screening under the “Festival Circuit Favorites” Feb 9 &10 at 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival
By Oliver Carnay
“TO KILL A WOLF” will be screening at the 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Sunday 2/9 – 5:00 PM at the Film Center, Auditorium 1, and on Monday 2/10 at 9:00 PM at the Film Center, Auditorium 4. Tickets are available online at www.sbiff.org
“To Kill A Wolf” is a modern reimagining of Red Riding Hood told through the nuanced lens of teenage sexual grooming. Tonally, it’s like a book of Grimm’s fairy tales found in a seedy roadside motel. While this film draws from the fairytale for inspiration, it stays grounded in a dark reality. “I want to capture the wonder, the mystique of a fairytale but keep it grounded in a very real world where everyone lives in the gray,” says debuting writer/director Kelsey Taylor. The film is a drama/mystery and has been described as a “haunting modern fairytale” and “Oregon-noir”. The script was a 2018 Quarterfinalist in the Academy Nicholl Fellowship Screenwriting Competition and her script, “The Bod Things,” was a 2022 semifinalist.
Taylor loves fairy tales and is fascinated by the stories that people pass down from one generation to the next “that tells what is fair, what to fear, and how to live .. which brings me to the inspiration for TO KILL A WOLF.” said Taylor, whose latest achievement was winning the Best Director Award for Narrative Feature at the Bend International Film Festival.
“In developing the story, I found myself wondering, what kind of story inspired a tale like Red Riding Hood. What was the original, complicated truth, that inspired a simple tale of a girl who strays from the path. From this story, we know we must do as our mother says, stay on the path, don’t talk to strangers .. but in the real world the path is not as clearcut. Mothers abandon their children, strangers may be our only salvation, and we must question the intentions of those that come to our rescue. This is a story of abandonment, abuse, redemption and the strange way love ties it all together.”
“My hope for my directorial debut is to find a dark resonance with audiences who have been affected by abusive relationships and conversely, to expose some hard truths for those who haven’t. I hope the film encourages conversations that make victims feel less alone and reassures impressionable young people that sometimes they might find themselves in places they never intended to go.”
TO KILL A WOLF stars Ivan Martin (The Woodsman), Maddison Brown (Dani), Michael Esper (Carey), and Kaitlin Doubleday (Jolene).
Writer/Director Kelsey Taylor earned the degree in Film Production and minors in both Film Studies and Music. A former cinematographer and camera assistant, who has built a strong foundation for visual storytelling before her transition into directing. Her breakthrough sci-fi short film “Alien: Specimen,” was created through an initiative with 20th Century and has accumulated over 7 million viewers. She was also a DGA commercial director who has worked with brands like Volkswagen, Walmart, and Verizon, among others. Southwest Airlines tapped Kelsey to direct their branded short film, “Alone in Tombstone,” a modern Western that further proved Kelsey’s ability to work in any genre. Most recently, Film Independent selected Kelsey as one of six fellows in their 2024 Episodic Directing Intensive.
TO KILL A WOLF premiered in competition at the 2024 Edinburgh International Film Festival and has since screened at the Austin Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, Bend Film Festival, and will be coming to theaters in 2025 with an Oscar qualifying theatrical run in 10 of the top US markets sponsored by REGAL cinemas as the top prize at Film Fest Knox 2024.