ARM/Cinema 25 Pictures Inc.

The Elliot estate was once a thriving plantation, but by the 19th century, the family has crumbled under the weight of its own excesses. If sordid sexuality and insanity don't claim their lives, a malevolent force lurking on the land certainly will. Is it a supernatural entity, or simply the poverty-stricken locals seeking revenge? In between the killings, which are regarded with mild interest at best by the surviving members of the family, dysfunctional relationships play out in slow motion. There is an unhappy marriage, affairs with servants, homosexual trysts... Marj Dusay and Ryan Foley star in this award-winning chiller from auteur Andrew Repasky McElhinney.

Based on the 1928 novella written by Georges Bataille, the film takes place in a seemingly abandoned house where a group of people engage in bizarre wordless acts. Just as the book does, the film spans several vignettes.

Tom Collier (Christian Pedersan) shocks his moneyed father Rufus (James Laster), lawyer Owen Arthur (Konya Hood), and nosy neighbor Grace Macomber (Anne Bailis) by suddenly announcing his engagement to poor but eminently respectable socialite Cecelia Henry (Kristina Valada-Viars). A fragmented whirligig of romantic intrigue, Animal Husbandry is a word-for-word production of a 1931 play, performed in modern dress.