Sundance Film Festival features highly anticipated feature-length and short horror films, and one of the most intriguing shorts this year is writer/director Joanna Fernandez’s familial fright-fare film The Things We Keep. We at Horror Fuel have had an advance look at this truly excellent short, and we can strongly suggest that you make sure to put this one on your Sundance “need-to-see” list. The Things We Keep will be available to watch both in person at the festival and online. Full details, including how to watch, are in the official press announcement that follows.
When Kate (Rebecca Holopter) receives word her estranged mother (Jenny O’Hara) is unable to take care of herself, she reluctantly returns to pack up her mom’s house and send her to a nursing home. Unfortunately, it’s a big task: her mother has been a hoarder for as long as Kate can remember. As she cleans, her mother warns: bad things will happen if you take away my things. Kate battles her mother’s dementia-driven hostility and uncovers disturbing items underneath the detritus. Specifically: a sinister-looking mold-like mark underneath the wallpaper. As Kate unravels the mystery of her mother’s obsession and illness, she discovers that the hoarding was self-preservation. There is evil in the house’s walls, and they must be covered at all costs. An allegorical tale of intergenerational trauma between mothers and daughters.
WHO: In attendance at Sundance: Joanna Fernandez, (Writer/Director); Rebecca Holopter (Cast, “Kate”); Yaxing Lin (Producer); Lilith Mo (Producer); Marie Lessel (Editor); and Andrea Riba, Sofia Riba, Hassan Al-Jahni, and Anne Cofell Saunders (Executive Producers).
Director/Writer Joanna Fernandez is a genre writer and director with a BFA from NYU and an MFA from USC, where she earned the Jeffrey Jones Award and Fox Fellowship. Her film SERAPHIM won the Jury Award at the 2023 Austin Film Festival, showcasing her focus on myth, morality, monsters, and scapegoats.
Fernandez says, “Fairytales and myths have long been a tool for people to deal with the horrors that plagued them. Horror, at its best, uses the genre to tackle human drama and conflict. I would like to express my truth using this lens and create a powerful narrative about the nature of intergenerational trauma and motherhood.”
WHEN: Sunday, January 26 at 11:55PM MST
WHERE: Library Center Theatre, 1255 Park Ave Park City Utah 84060
(Advance media press line RSVP essential; press check-in time: 10:25 PM)
Tuesday, January 28 at 10:20AM MST
Redstone Cinemas 3, 6030 Market St. Park City Utah 84098
Thursday, January 30 at 8:50PM MST
Redstone Cinemas 3, 6030 Market St. Park City Utah 84098
Friday, January 31 at 9:30PM MST
Broadway Centre Cinema 6, 111 E. Broadway Salt Lake City Utah 84111
Wednesday, January 29 at 7:00AM PST to Monday, February 3 at 3:55AM PST
Online
Ticketing options available here.
THE THINGS WE KEEP
Language: English; Genre: Horror; Running Time: 14:53
Aspect Ratio: 2:3.9; Sound Mix: 5.1 Surround
Camera: Red Gemini
Instagram: @joannafernandez77 and @thethingswekeep.mov
THE THINGS WE KEEP is an official selection of the Midnight Short Film Program section of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. For more information on the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, please visit Festival.Sundance.org.
