Watch Trailer For ‘Attachment Theory’, First Short Film Directed By Katherine Jackson; Daughter Of Peter Jackson & Fran Walsh Prowls AI For Scares

If you are a fan of The Lord of the Rings , you might recognize Katherine Jackson from her cameos starting at 4 years old in The Fellowship of the Ring . The daughter of Oscar winners Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, Jackson grew up in the family business, working all kinds of movie jobs. She waited until she was 28 to get behind the camera, and her directorial debut will premiere Sunday night at the HollyShorts Film Festival.

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Titled Attachment Theory , the 24-minute short film drama she wrote and directed is about an agoraphobic woman who comes to rely on an AI machine for delivery of her anti-anxiety medicine during a global pandemic. Motivated by the desire to receive a 5-star rating, the machine engages in aberrant behavior that becomes downright scary.

“The film came to me during the pandemic when we were all isolating and we became more dependent on technology,” Jackson told Deadline. “I watched a lot of people suffer with their mental health, anxiety, depression and agoraphobia. This was the worst case scenario of developing a dependency on that technology.”

Jackson’s low-budget style and subject matter is closer to the early films in the Jackson family canon than the ones in Middle-earth. Short films like Attachment Theory often are done as proof of concept for feature transfers, but Jackson said she hasn’t quite cracked a longer version, and anyway she is already on to other things.

“I see it as a calling card to make a low-budget horror feature, and I have one in mind that is a thriller with a sci-fi element,” Jackson said. Growing up in Wellington, New Zealand in the family film factory was, she said, “a magical childhood, how could it not be when you grow up around Hobbits, wizards, Elves and Orcs?” But given the success of her parents, staking her own claim was daunting and it wasn’t until the pandemic abated that she felt the drive and the confidence to assert herself. With some specific rules regarding mom and dad.

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“They were not allowed on the set, I banned them both from visiting,” Jackson said. “I had a clear vision in my mind of what I wanted. My dad at his core is a director, and his impulse to contribute with an opinion. Those opinions would have been constructive and would have made my film better, I’m sure. But I believe the only way you learn is by making mistakes, that it is better to follow your gut. Even if you get it wrong, you’ll learn more than if somebody is telling you what to do. This whole short film was a learning experience for me.”

She did show them the script when she wrote it, and took suggestions as much as she has given them for the films her parents made.

“They’ve been nothing but supportive,” she said. “I’ve chatted with them enough when dad showed me early cuts of things he has done, and mom some scripts she’s done. They’ve asked me for feedback. But we have different styles. There have been ideas I’ve pitched to my dad and he’s said, I don’t quite get that. I ran the draft of this past them, my mom understood the AI element straight away, but it took my dad a moment for it to click with him. But you have to make it for yourself and if it resonates with you, that’s what you’ve got to follow.”

Here is the trailer, and the film will have a qualifying theatrical run in San Francisco this fall:

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