Human
The emotional stakes live in small moments: coffee, paperwork, phone calls, familiar jokes, and the things families put off saying.
DEATHBOX
When an adult daughter helps her aging stepfather create a “death box” of everything she’ll need after he dies, their practical task list becomes a funny, tender reckoning with the fear of losing him and a reminder to live while they still can.
- Format
- Feature Film
- Genre
- Dramedy
- Status
- In Development
- Setting
- St. Louis, Missouri
The Story
What we prepare for.
What we avoid.
What matters now.
Anna is capable, busy, and accustomed to taking care of what needs to be done. Her father is practical, stubborn, funny, and determined to make things easier for everyone else, even when the subject is his own death.
What begins as a series of practical conversations about paperwork, possessions, passwords, and plans slowly becomes something more intimate: a way for a daughter and father to talk about mortality without making mortality the only thing in the room.
Deathbox is a warm family dramedy about anticipatory grief, ordinary rituals, imperfect relationships, and the strange humor that can exist alongside love and fear.
Creative Approach
Warm. Grounded. Funny in the places life actually is.
Funny
Humor is not used to escape grief. It is part of how these characters love one another and survive what they cannot control.
Present
At its heart, the film asks a simple question: how do we stop preparing for someone’s absence long enough to appreciate their presence?
Creative Team
Written and produced by Shannon Laine.
Deathbox is currently in development under Skopos Films. The production package and creative team are being assembled as the feature moves toward production.
Project inquiries