Mind-bending paranoia overtakes Monica when she joins her fiancé Claire on an artists' retreat in the middle of nowhere. The couple isn't prepared for the chilling consequences when confronted with a mysterious groundskeeper sending them spiraling towards her psychotic break.

When playwright Claire is invited to set her latest work at a rural theatre company, her fiance Monica tags along for a much-needed vacation. Upon encountering Mutty, an enigmatic groundskeeper with a gross lack of social boundaries, Monica's hopes for respite, her future with Claire, and her very sanity are thrown into jeopardy.—Ben Umstead

From the bucolic hinterlands of rural Massachusetts comes a disquieting new dramedy from "Dipso" director Teddy Collatos. Shot for a pittance in only six days, "Tormenting the Hen" is a caustic satire of city mice in the world of country mice, where well-meaning cosmopolites clash with strange townsfolk in country homes, black-box theaters, backyards, and local pubs. Invited by a dippy, well-meaning curator type (Josephine Decker), playwright Claire (Dameka Hayes) is spirited away to an artists' retreat to present her latest work, a political one-act about race, resentment, and masculinity. Accompanied by her fiance, Monica (Carolina Monnerat), the weekend begins in earnest as a welcome getaway for the harried pair, until an unexpected visit from town weirdo Mutty (Matt Shaw) casts a threatening pall on their romantic idyll. While Claire plays babysitter to a duo of difficult performers - Joel (Brian H. Brooks) and Adam (David Malinsky) - Monica attempts to maintain her sanity despite her lover's decreasing attentions and her neighbor's increasing proximity. Each woman struggles to preserve her autonomy in an increasingly hostile milieu, building to a soul-shaking climax that offers no easy answers for character and viewer alike.—Caroline Golum