Bozeman Magazine

🎬 FILMED IN MONTANA

The Ellen Theatre welcomes Director Michael Schilf who will introduce his movie and participate in a post-screening Q & A.

Michael Schilf is an award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of Lunar Door, an independent production company committed to producing stories that engage, provoke, and endure. A graduate of USC's School of Cinematic Arts, Michael started his career working on advertising campaigns for brands including Nike, American Express, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. In 2010, he co-founded The Script Lab, building it into an industry-leading screenwriting resource reaching millions of creators worldwide before its acquisition in 2014. He currently teaches college level screenwriting, literature, and argumentation.

As writer and director, his work includes the short crime thriller The Fixer and his debut horror feature The Wolf and the Lamb, with a 2026 theatrical and digital release through Samuel Goldwyn Films. As producer, his credits include the sports documentaries Tracing the Divide and Ice Cross: Life on the Edge as well as the coming-of-age drama The Fall.

The father of three adult children, Michael lives in Los Angeles with his wife Letty and three huskies — Tuesday, Solo, and Wynter — who have strong opinions about everything.

About the movie: In an 1870s Montana Territory mining camp, widowed schoolteacher Jo Beckett's world unravels when her son Henry vanishes — and returns as something monstrous. As Jo grapples with Henry's blood lust and a string of brutal murders shakes the town, she suspects the evil haunting them is closer than anyone dares to believe. To save what remains of her world, Jo confronts a darkness that hides in plain sight — and destroy it with faith and fire.

Screenplay by Michael Schilf and Miah Smith