Tingle Monsters Trailer from Alexandra Serio on Vimeo.
“Alexandra Serio has a unique vision” -Unseen Films
“Tingle Monsters underlying message is sure to get under the skin and fester like a gangrenous wound” –Horror Buzz
“An uncomfortable watch, Tingle Monsters leaves a lasting impression prompting every viewer to take a sobering look at just one fraction of the female experience, in all its grisly glory” –Screen Queens
“Like Isa Mazzei’s CAM, Tingle Monsters has an authentic, well-informed voice in Serio that I can’t wait to hear more from in the future” – BiffBamPop
“Serio doesn’t hold your hand by giving you a completely hopeful conclusion with a typical final girl and a sense of strong optimism. Instead… she begs the question when are we going to create a safe space for women” – Nightmarish Conjurings
“Using a current hot internet trend and the toxic environment that bullying males create online for women and girls, Serio has crafted a 10-minute short that delivers in both the social message and fright-fare departments.” -Gruesome Magazine
Official Selection Sweeping the Film Festival Circuit Including:
Cleveland International Film Festival 2020*
Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival 2020*
Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2020
Montclair FIlm Festival 2020
Oxford Film Festival 2020
Filmquest 2019
*Oscar-qualifying festivals
Tingle Monsters is a short film starring, written and directed by Alexandra Serio. After sweeping the film festival circuit and being screened at Cinequest, Final Girls Berlin and the Cleveland International Film Festival and accepted into Oxford FIlm Festival, FilmQuest, Montclair Film Festival and more, this short film is poised for National release.
The film features an ASMR vlogger with a devoted fan base who returns from an extended absence with a livestream that spirals out of control. Through this context Serio explores her belief that violence against women truly starts with words.
Using the vehicle of an ASMR livestream, Tingle Monsters sh
“I firmly believe that through gender parity and telling women-driven narratives we can begin to change the world. But we must start by taking a sobering look at where we currently are. Tingle Monsters aims to do that.” -Alexandra Serio
The most common form of stalking is unwanted phone calls, text, and internet messages. The unconventional format of the film plays on this. Shot in screenlife format with no extra score or sound design, the film is designed to transport viewers into a scenario they are already familiar with—the harassment of women on the internet—ultimately inviting the audience to examine the link between what we say and think about women and their real-world treatment.
In 2014, Alexandra Serio founded Nameless Network, a production and media company that makes educational content for the smartphone generation. For Tingle Monsters, Serio was heavily inspired by her own experience making female-driven content and seeing the abusive comments that the female hosts received. They were attacked for everything from their voice to the way the looked.
Serio also drew inspiration from an Amanda Hess piece called Why Aren’t Women Welcome on the Internet for Pacific Standard. In the piece, Amanda shares her own experience with online threats of rape, death, and stalking. Says Hess, “None of this makes me exceptional. It just makes me a woman with an Internet connection.”
