Monica La Vella

Screenwriter and Producer

Toronto, Canada

Member Since:
September 2021

Last online:
> 2 weeks ago

Invites sent:
1

About Monica

Before her inciting incident (the pandemic), Monica was an entrepreneur as the founder and event producer of one of Canada's longest-running plant-based food festivals. But writing has always been a part of her life. It was only natural for her to feel that pull into the unknown, and she used the pandemic as an opportunity to follow a new path.

With less than six months of self-learning the basics of screenwriting via Stage 32, Monica came in as a quarterfinalist in the Killer Shorts contest with her horror short The Watch (Feb 2022), leaving her in the top 10% of over 1500 submissions. At that same time, she and her husband, Louie La Vella, produced two short films based on her scripts Mindful Meditation and Science of a Seance, both of which were selected for 20+ film festivals throughout the world (2022) and have had a total of over 20k views on YouTube.

Within a year of learning to be a screenwriter, she wrote four feature horror scripts, one tv pilot, and one rom-com.

CURRENT (FEATURE FILM) PROJECTS
• post-production of 'Zoom' horror feature INVITED (release date in 2024)
• development of elevated horror feature DEMONIC EXPERIMENT
• development of creature feature THE HUNTER'S CABIN
• script & development of elevated horror features: THE SPRING and PRACTICE HOUSE

https://imdb.me/monicalavella

Unique traits: An ambitious over-achiever, but not a perfectionist.

Gender:
Female

Certifications

Photos

Loglines

Demonic Experiment Budget: $1M - $5M | Horror A priest on the brink of losing his faith returns to his hometown in an attempt to save his former love from an uncontrollable demon. Worlds collide when a desperate young man interferes with the fate of this demon as he willingly becomes possessed by the entity for a short film contest.
Invited Thriller ⋄ Horror When a reluctant mother attends her daughter’s Zoom elopement, she and the rest of the family in attendance quickly realize the groom is part of a cult with deadly intentions.
Hunter's Cabin Budget: $100K - $1M | Horror After an impulse gas station robbery to pay for her child's life-saving surgery, a mother and her Lyft driver are on the run and find shelter in an abandoned hunter's cabin where a creature resides and terrorizes the pair.
Practice House Budget: $1M - $5M | Horror To practice the right of exorcism, a group of priests lures unsuspecting people into a rental home known to cause possession so that they may obtain real-world training.
The Spring Budget: $100K - $1M | Thriller ⋄ Horror When three vloggers, desperate to stay relevant, investigate a local legend, they get trapped in a protected forest where they find a fountain of youth that trades beauty for time.

Credits

Science of a Seance (2022)
Short by 105ive Films (Drama and Horror) Writer, Producer A skeptical woman is irritated when her brother drags her to a medium in hopes of connecting with their dead mother.
Mindful Meditation (2022)
Short by 105ive Films (Horror) Writer, Actress, Producer A woman connects with an entity during a guided meditation.
Invited (2022)
Film by 105ive Films Writer, Producer When a reluctant mother attends her daughter’s Zoom elopement, she and the rest of the family in attendance quickly realize the groom is part of a cult with deadly intentions.
Demonic Experiment
Film (Horror) Writer A priest on the brink of losing his faith returns to his hometown in an attempt to save his former love from an uncontrollable demon. Worlds collide when a desperate young man interferes with the fate of this demon as he willingly becomes possessed by the entity for a short film contest.
The Spring
Film Writer When three vloggers, desperate to stay relevant, investigate a local legend, they get trapped in a protected forest where they find a fountain of youth that trades beauty for time.
Hunter's Cabin
Writer After an impulse gas station robbery to pay for her child's life-saving surgery, a mother and her Lyft driver are on the run and find shelter in an abandoned hunter's cabin where a creature resides and terrorizes the pair.

View all 6 credits

Awards

Killer Shorts Horror Short Screenplay Competition (script) - Quarter-Finalist
(2022)
New Creator Film Award (horror short) - Winner
(2022)
Top Shorts (horror short) - Semi-Finalist
(2022)
13 Horror Festival (horror short) - Finalist
(2022)
Cyprus Horror Society (horror short) - Honorable Mention
(2022)
Thrills and Chills Film Awards (horror short) - Honorable Mention
(2022)