Grip of the Kelpie Mother
Martina Silcock & Claire Leona Apps, Happy Outlier Pictures
Language: English
Based On: Original Screenplay
Project Type: Feature Film (Scripted)
Genre: Mystery
Stage of Development: Seeking cast and financing
Estimated Length (minutes): 115
Director: Claire Leona Apps
Director Bio:
Claire Leona Apps is a British-Canadian award-winning writer and director raised in Hong Kong and educated at Imperial College and the London Film School. Working across film, audio, and prose, With a folk-horror, noir eye, she crafts films with a striking visual language, shaping moral perception and questioning how the audience assigns fault to her characters.
Her debut feature, And Then I Was French (2018), is a psychological thriller that subverts the romcom into a whimsical yet violent take on obsession. Her other writing/directing credits include the Arts Council commissioned Girl Blue Running Shoe, Gweipo, Ruminate, and Ages of Man, the latter screening at 15+ international festivals and winning numerous awards. Her fiction shorts have aired on the BBC, been shown at the Great North Museum, and premiered at festivals including St. Louis, Cork, East End, Florida, and North East International. Her work spans documentary and music video, and she has worked with outstanding actors such as Francesca Annis and Rebecca Hall.
Her Audible Original fiction podcast Aqua Tofana (12×30-minute episodes, 2027) reimagines the 17th-century poisoner Giulia Tofana as the matriarch of a death-dealing sisterhood. Half prose, half audio play, the series is in talks for a TV adaptation and audiobook edition. Her short fiction has appeared in For Page & Screen Magazine, The Basilisk Tree, and Permafrost (print).
She is currently in development on Grip of the Kelpie Mother, winner of the Bold Voice Award at The Writers Lab Canada 2026. A BAFTA Talent and Stowe Story Labs Scholar (2023), she is also the Founder of Dog Eared Studios, a creative hub and production space in Central London.
Proposed or Confirmed Talent:
Canadian Producer - Melani Wood. Proposed cast: Mackenzie Davis, Olivia Colman, Jacob Tremblay
Total Budget: 5m
Percent Confirmed: 0 - not including applicable tax incentives
Currency: CAD
List names of confirmed partners:
Nova Scotia Producer - Melani Wood/Small Engines Film Production Inc. Eligible for Nova Scotia Tax Incentive. Seeking clarity on ability to use Screen Nova Scotia Content Creator Fund. Speaking with BFI about additional UK funding.
What is this project seeking?
Financing, Distribution, Sales Agent, Canadian Agency Info
Logline:
Haunted by tragedy, Ines, an outsider in the remote town of Glenbray, uncovers a body on a Cape Breton beach. Determined to reunite him with his mother, she must confront the town's generational trauma - and her own - before the shape-shifting spirit of a kelpie lures her into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Synopsis:
The residents of the fictional coastal town of Glenbray, Cape Breton, are nestled in beauty yet haunted by history. Only the mothers know of the shape-shifting Kelpie, a sea monster with an equine head and aquatic body that seduces inhabitants to a watery grave. Yet, these creatures are never blamed for the town’s misfortunes.
In 2006, new mother Lisa, clutching her toddler Adam, hears the three fateful whistles from the Ocean Pass coal mine and watches in horror as hundreds of dead miners float to the surface of the Gulf of St. Lawrence after the mine explodes.
Back in the present, Ines, a Torontonian data analyst for the same mining company, arrives at her ex’s summer house in Glenbray to recover from a traumatic stillbirth, grappling with her love for a son who will never be. Her solitude is interrupted when she discovers a body washed ashore: the corpse of a mysterious man with cryptic numbers in his pocket and a necklace bearing a kelpie pendant.
Along with OQicer Tanner Gilchrist, the gruQ yet compassionate detective on the case, and Audrey, her talkative, witty neighbour from a Founding Family, Ines works to identify the body and decipher its connection to the Ocean Pass mine explosion. As Ines tumbles deeper into conspiracies, she avoids dealing with her own grief. Unbeknownst to the others, Ines, plagued with guilt over her failed pregnancy, is haunted by the Kelpie. Whether in her dreams or reality, Ines resists the monster as it shifts forms: sometimes taking the shape of her new lover, OQicer Gilchrist, and often appearing as the mysterious dead man.
Meanwhile, back in 2006, Lisa struggles to keep her family together as her husband, Darren, spirals into erratic behaviour born from paranoia from working in the mine. Exhausted, Lisa repeatedly sacrifices her own needs to manage Darren’s volatility and protect her toddler, Adam.
In the present, Ines uncovers that the corpse belongs to Adam, Lisa’s son, who is now a troubled adult. As a disenfranchised young man, fueled by the manosphere, Adam had concocted a theory that Ocean Pass hid the truth behind his father Darren’s death in the mining disaster. He often turned his anger on his mother. It’s revealed that weeks earlier, it was Adam’s unchecked rage and threats to his girlfriend that ultimately led Lisa to poison her own child, leading to Ines's discovery of his body on the beach.
Culminating in a decaying house, Ines discovers Glenbray’s secret: there was never a conspiracy. The industrial exploitation happened in plain sight: Adam’s father did not die in the disaster but simply abandoned his family. Ines meets Lisa near death from guilt and disease. Lisa begs Ines to take her to her Kelpie, believing her son has now become the monster that the men cannot see. Ines complies, bringing her to the water to be taken by the beast, before finally driving the Cabot Trail as she begins to believe in a guilt-free tomorrow.
Contact Information: martina@happyoutlier.com
