Joe Swanberg and Lucas Jade Zumann Join Female-led Chicago Indie Short

22 Apr 2026

Slightly American Productions has announced the an upcoming collaboration between Chicago’s indie veterans and the DePaul MFA program. The Werewolf Problem is a SAG-AFTRA signatory short film written and directed by Charlotte Geissler. Filming is scheduled to take place April 24–26, 2026, across Chicago, with locations including Montrose Harbor near the Montrose Bird Sanctuary and the Lakeview neighborhood.

Funded and produced by Slightly American Productions alongside Executive Producer Morgan Reesh, the film is expected to wrap production in late April, with a projected completion timeline of late summer to early fall 2026. Following completion, the team plans to submit the film to a full circuit of local, national, and international film festivals.

After her sister’s sudden death, thirteen-year-old Eileen becomes convinced a werewolf is responsible. Armed with a camcorder and a knife, she stalks the streets of Chicago, chasing a creature that may, or may not, exist. As the night deepens, the hunt turns inward, and the werewolf reveals itself as a voice fed by grief, guilt, and the lure of self-destruction. To survive, Eileen must stop chasing the monster before it consumes her.

“I hope audiences connect with the relationship between our two main characters, Eileen and Leo. Their familial bond, especially under the horrific circumstances they find themselves in, feels very special to me: raw, fragile, and deeply human. At its core, the film is about how people hold onto each other when something unexplainable enters their lives, and I think that kind of connection is something many viewers will recognize and feel,” Geissler said.

“Eileen is a thirteen-year-old girl with an adventurous spirit. She’s wild, unpredictable, and a bit of a troublemaker in the best way. She experiences the world through a vivid and intuitive lens, one that allows her to believe in things others might dismiss: including the possibility that a werewolf took her sister. Her belief isn’t just fantasy; it’s her way of making sense of something she otherwise can’t explain. Her imagination is both her strength and her shield,” Geissler explained.

“This film is one of my most personal projects. I’ve been fascinated by the idea of werewolves for a long time – not just as monsters, but as emotional explanations people have created throughout history to make sense of grief and loss. I’m deeply interested in how humans turn to the mystical when reality becomes too difficult to understand. We always want reasons. We want answers. And sometimes we invent them when none exist, ” Geissler said.

“At the same time, this project is an important step for me in further exploring my craft as a horror filmmaker. I’m drawn to horror as a space where emotional truths can surface in unexpected ways, and The Werewolf Problem allows me to work within the genre while staying grounded in something intimate and human. It’s a film about grief, imagination, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive what we can’t explain.”