Horror Web Series BFFs Explores Female Bonding & More

Written By Ashlee Blackwell
Nostalgia seems to be the scent and flavor of my generation. We're not quite millennials and Gen-Xer's were our slightly older peers that were model road maps for branding our unique identities. While remembering when television went off the air and 7-digit phone numbers, we were also on the fringes of a new age of technology: that AOL dial-up sound, internet message boards keeping us up all night, (almost) everyone having cable TV, and remembering where we were when Diana Ross Black mothered Lil' Kim on the MTV VMA stage. I'm gonna guess that 1987 was that year you postmodern, in-limbo generationals like myself began to vividly remember your first experiences with going to see movies, starting grade school, and creating your first social bubble...

Which is why if you're reading this, there's a new horror web series on the horizon this Fall that should stop you in your tracks with just this tweet:


A bloodier response to Stranger Things with two female leads, Sasha Lennox as Wrenn Starr and Sterling James playing Celeste Michaels, BFFs teaser trailer captures a youthful spirit that I don't see much in current television shows or films. It has a grounded vibe fueled by its two tweenagers, free to explore the gritty textures of the outdoors and its potential for creative, improvised ingenuity.  The twist is, BFFs also lays bare nightmares coming true; those debilitating what-if's that probably invented the helicopter parent.

When Wren's mother is arrested, she's forced to move in with her uncle. Next door lives Celeste, another girl around the same age who's coping with her mother's bout with cancer. Naturally, the two grow close. On Halloween night, they decide to sneak out of their homes on a trick or treating expedition; a night that changes "both of the girls lives forever." Lennox (Wrenn) reflects on BFFs as being a show that strays from the conventional, squeaky image of the pre-teen girl that is currently mass marketed. She loves that BFFs has a lot of action and a lot of blood.

BFFs is currently shooting in Boston and is scheduled to be released October 2017 after its web series festival run. The show will be told in 21, ten-minute episodes a season that will show Wrenn and Celeste bonding over horror movies and secrets. The remixed bond between these young girls "who don't talk about boys, are strong, fiery, who fight the monsters in their lives together," are "a refreshing take on the final girl/ female savior trope in horror films."

The show is filmed using an all female crew, with 75% of the cast being female. Creator Shay Revolver is the Black woman heading the project with Clodagh Power (DP/Stunt Coordinator), Zoe Salvucci (AC), Jeanne Scout Moran (Script Supervisor/Assistant Editor), Maria Delehanty (Makeup/Special FX Makeup).

Additional cast includes Gail Shalan as Miriam Michaels and Jeffrey Paredes as Uncle Nick.

BFFs is produced by Not Another Manic Pixie Picture Productions
Ashlee Blackwell
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