Driven by bright colors, canned laughter and a perfectly set dinner table, ‘The Mrs. Wolf Show’ invites audiences into a world that feels comfortingly familiar before pulling the rug out from under them. The new 11-minute horror-comedy short twists the nostalgic language of 1950s television into something far more sinister.

Drew Highlands wrote, directed and edited the film. The project stars Annette Toutonghi, Timothy McCuen Piggee, James Schilling and Joey Porter.

‘The Mrs. Wolf Show’ follows Eugene, an unsuspecting salesman who arrives at the idyllic home of Mrs. Wolf – a seemingly charming housewife whose warm smile hides something monstrous. What begins as a playful sitcom homage soon fractures into a surreal nightmare. The glossy façade gives way to a chilling confrontation with violence, complicity and the masks people wear to appear normal.

‘The Mrs. Wolf Show’ is making its World Premiere this weekend at the Boston Underground Film Festival. The movie’s second screening is taking place tonight at the Coolidge Theater in Brookline, Massachusetts. The horror comedy is included in the I Hate It Here shorts program, which begins at 11:59pm ET. The film had its initial screening yesterday, Friday, March 20, during the I Hate It Here program’s premiere showing.

Highlands generously took the time yesterday to talk about making ‘The Mrs. Wolf Show’ during an exclusive interview over Zoom from Boston. Among other things, the filmmaker discussed his collaborative directing process; work with actors; and the challenges of bringing a stylized, genre-blending short to life and premiering it at a major festival.

Film Factual (FF): You wrote the script for the new horror comedy short, ‘The Mrs. Wolf Show.’ What was your inspiration in penning the screenplay? How did you approach creating the story?

Drew Highlands (DH): The inspiration originally came from when I was a kid. I would watch the old sitcoms when they were on, like ‘Gilligan’s Island’ and ‘I Love Lucy.’ I also liked and watched a lot of the monsters.

So I’ve always loved that era of television and the laugh tracks. There was just something about the multi-cam black and white set-up.

So when I came up with the idea of ‘Mrs. Wolf,’ I started thinking about the evolution of TV, film and technology, as well as the desensitization of violence through it.

There are old episodes of ‘The Honeymooners,’ when the main character, Ralph Kramden, says “One day Alice, to the moon!” The whole audience would laugh.

But at the same time, he’s literally saying he’s going to beat his wife. The audience would just chuckle at that.

Then our first widespread exposure to real violence came during the Vietnam War. Then today, when we all have our devices, we’re seeing these real pleas for help. But we’ve just seen it so much that we almost just gloss over it.

So we’re like, “Oh yes, this real thing happened. I also have to order Uber Eats and feed myself.”

So the idea came from this world of ‘I Love Lucy,’ in which we’re all very comfortable. We all know it, so it’s familiar.

But then we’re really pulling out the rug from the audience. We’re like, “For what’s happening to our character and the salesman in the story, it’s a real plea for help of what he’s going through.” So those were the two ideas I was working with in my head when writing.

FF: Besides writing the film, you also served as the director. How did you approach scribing and helming the movie?

DH: Well, I super lucked out. I work with an amazing collaborative team. They also worked on my first film, ‘In the Water.’

They’re very supportive and understood the script. They were like, “We can do this. We can make this happen.” I think for the first script I wrote, and my overall first short, it was very contained. The coming-of-age story shot in one room.

But for this short, I was like, “We’re going to do a multi-camera set-up. We’re going to build this massive 40-foot by 35-foot set, and then build it all in.” So it was quite the undertaking for the producers, and they’re just the best.

So transitioning into directing it, there were two actors who I’m in love with in Seattle, Annette Toutonghi and Timothy Piggee. Timothy was actually my professor in college when I studied theater. So he’s just dear to my heart. So when I was writing the script, I was writing with them in mind.

So in working with them, I knew I needed two actors who could perform live, like it was a theater production. They’re legends of the American theater, as they’re brilliant actors. So they were so comfortable with the multi-cam set-up because it was almost like a stage production for them.

So for the directing part of it, it was really just finding those moments with them. But they’re so good, they did it naturally. It was finding those beats where the laugh track was going to exist. That can be kind of hard for an actor to be like, oh, there will be a laugh track here, so we have to hold. So when we were filming it, it was just this pause of the actors trying to contain that momentum.

So the directing process was amazing. It was great being with such an awesome crew. Then, of course, there were the moments when things got very real for our character, Eugene. It was a bit intense shooting that.

But once again, Timothy is such a great actor. So it was honestly just him just going for it.

FF: Speaking about the actors, how did you collaborate with them to build their characters? Did you have any rehearsal time before the shoot?

DH: Yes, it’s very important to rehearse. But it’s hard to do that on this type of film. We’re talking about an indie short film here, so we’re working with a negative budget, essentially.

But we did have time to rehearse. We had two rehearsals before we started shooting. They’re such good actors. It was really just me figuring out the blocking with the camera.

But the actors just came in and knew the characters. They also know that world of growing up seeing that. So they got it right away. They understood that Mrs. Wolf is like ‘I Love Lucy,’ and Timothy is like the guest actor who comes in with the jokes and setups. So they really got that. So the rehearsal was just us blocking and figuring it out.

FF: While you were rehearsing with the actors, how did you work with them to balance the humor with the genre elements?

DH: I think that jumping into the real world was very drastic. So for both Timothy and Annette, it was a bit of a challenge, but also very rewarding.

We filmed the short over the course of a three-day shoot. So we filmed one day of the sitcom world upstairs. We filmed the torture world in the basement on the middle day. We then went back upstairs for the third act.

It was really nice to do that because they got to have that day of the comedy in the sitcom world. Then on the second day, we really dove into the serious stuff. It’s a small scene downstairs; it’s only about two minutes in the final film. But it took a whole day to film because it takes a lot to ask two actors to do that.

So it was really us in there, working to make the situation work. The producing team and I were realizing, “There’s no way we can put the basement scene in the same day as upstairs. It won’t work for the actors, and it won’t work for what we need. You really need to allow that time to get there.”

FF: Besides writing and directing ‘The Mrs. Wolf Show,’ you also served as one of the editors. How did you put the final version of the horror comedy together?

DH: I just love editing because it’s so much fun. But it’s also important to know where you’re going to go with the edit in pre-production. That way, you have a roadmap of where you want the story to go.

So really, the post-production process was really just me, cutting it together, pretty much like how we had planned it out in pre-production. I then gave it to my producers.

You have to have someone look at your work and be honest with you. I trust them wholeheartedly. So getting their notes on the tweaks helped build this concise like 11-minute short that tells the story.

So, editing for me was just going in there and following the map we had built. We then started on the fun part, which is laying on the grain effects. Then you get to work with sound.

While the audience might not initially really notice those elements, those pieces do help build the world of a 1950s sitcom. What we set out to do in our heads is what we saw on screen, and that’s just so exciting.

FF: ‘The Mrs. Wolf Show‘ is making its world premiere at the Boston Underground Film Festival this weekend. What does that mean to you to be able to bring the short to the festival and share it with audiences there?

DH: It’s so exciting. I’ve known of the Boston Underground Film Festival for a while. What they program is really unique. It’s also exciting for someone who’s starting out in shorts, and hopefully going to make a feature someday.

When you’re there and seeing these features that are playing, it’s amazing. Bob Odenkirk’s new film, ‘Normal,’ was the Opening Night screening. ‘Obsession,’ which is this really exciting horror film that everyone’s raving about, (played) in the features section (last night).

Then your film’s there, too, with them. Other short filmmakers who are like me are also playing. We’re not making any money off of this, but we love doing this. So for us to be at Boston, where they’re like, “We see your work at the same level of this,” is so exciting.

I feel like I’m on the right path. To be here and have an audience who loves horror and genre, and also has something to say, is really exciting. I left LA yesterday at 5 am (PT), and I arrived here at 6 pm (ET). When I got in, I was really tired. But then I got to go to the theater and meet everyone, including the programmers and the staff. They have such a heart and love of bringing filmmakers and audiences in. So it’s just