Horror Short Film "Changeling" | ALTER

So everybody of lower or common status at that time in Ireland was starving. The woman herself is not getting enough nutrients to produce enough milk for the baby to eat. That's why you see blood oozing from her breast under her nightgown. On top of the starvation they faced she falls into a postpartum depression & she follows the old tale of if you had a baby that was ill you laid it out in the wood in a tree area known as a fairy hole & if the child dies by morning the "wee folk" meaning the fairies would come & take the baby back w/them & often times they'd say the fairies would leave another child in its place aka the changeling. A very interesting film indeed.

Postpartum depression, starvation, always being cold… there are a lot of issues here that could absolutely instigate psychosis. Or, the Lore is REAL.. loved it. Thank you Alter and everyone involved.

No sound is worse than a screaming baby! I made sure that I'll never have one, it would drive me crazy in no time. Parents are underrated, especially mothers. Motherhood is a real full-time JOB! Those who care for babies deserve medals, praise and MONEY! We all should respect carers more.

It's a very sad and realistic story with a perfect mystical atmosphere. I mean, how many real life cases like this were in human history? Especially in those times when medicine was not able to diagnose the postpartum depression.

I searched for short horrors, and this one did not disappoint. Except there are no ghosts and ghouls involved, rather the horrors of the human mind reaching breaking point. It was deep and moving. Well done.

He was sharing food with another man, while his baby was screaming from hunger and the wife was going mad from starvation. A story about a man whose neglect and absence toward his wife and baby, caused him to lose everything in the end.

WOW!! This was a very, very good representation of Post partum psychosis. It's very sad when left untreated. He just kept leaving her alone because he had to go and make money. Sad but happens even still way too often...

My daughter got Covid, she’s 8 months. I threw up multiple times , due to anxiety , because I was so tired because I also had Covid. But I didn’t want to go to sleep. I felt guilty. I was scared she wouldn’t wake up and I wouldn’t know cuz I was asleep. I am diagnosed with PPD. The guilt is so toxic it tastes disgusting. I love her so much though and we both made it through.

He chose to give food to other men, chose to lie and spend money on alcohol whilst his wife and child starved, chose to leave her alone to look after the baby whilst he was out drinking with the lads, consistently failed his family which resulted in the death of his child and his wife losing her sanity. Yet regardless of all of this, she would have been the one punished back in the day, burned alive as a witch. He would have been pitied, supported by his community, no blame would have been put on him. I wish I could say times have changed. Excellent film, well done guys.

Hi everyone, we are the filmmakers Marie Clare and Ryan. This self funded passion project was filmed during Lockdown 2020. We acted as the entire crew as well as the lead roles. Ask us anything and we will try our hardest to answer. - Ryan

I'm a mom of 3 and pregnant. I could be completely wrong but this cry sounds a lot like a hunger cry to me. I am only 10 minutes onto it though . I want so bad to take the baby and let momma have a break go for a walk get some fresh air momma I'll help you. Okay just finished it and a combination of lack of sleep food and help from her husband sent her crazy. I don't know if she killed the baby or if it starved to death but she was clearly crazy by the end.

Stuff like that makes me grateful to be alive today but the message about post partum depression is still very relevant

Postpartum or not, being a new mom can be very hard when you have absolutely no support.

Oison started looking like a baby version of Golem.

Man i felt like clicking off a few times because of the crying but I understand the art so i had to keep watching lol

As a new mother that just stopped breastfeeding this was extremely painful to watch. I just wanted to reach through the screen and feed that poor angle. Absolutely devastating story but such a beautiful piece of art you created. Your short film touched me deeper than any full length horror movie ive seen. Please never stop creating.

Really well shot but I can't help but think how miserable it must have been to live this kind of life

This is almost the exact reverse of one of the biggest instances of a reported changeling abduction. In Ireland, the fear of the Faye folk was rampant. Any woman who spent too long in the woods or acted in a strange manner would be questioned as a possible changeling or enchanted by the Faye. In a well known instance, a husband noticed that his wife's personality changed after having a child. He then accused her of being enchanted and to have replaced their child with a changeling. The husband tested the child by holding it over a fire closely to see if it would change back to it's original form. The wife herself was tortured and set on fire by the husband. It's an old Irish tale of madness. The series LORE portrayed a live-action retelling of the story. It seems like the writer was looking to portray the mirror opposite in this film. Just my 2 cents.

Excellent dramatization of the despair and madness that poverty can bring into people's lives. We can all fall prey to the superstitions of 'tradition' and 'religion' when the world is falling apart around us; a desperation compelling us to make sense out of the chaos. Yet those tropes can bring us farther away from reality in the end. Thanks for making this gem! ❣️🙏🏾❣️ -----------

I absolutely adore Irish legends,especially the spooky ones!