What if an app could haunt you?
Earlier this month, Neal Edelstein, the producer of the movies "The Ring" and "Mulholland Drive," launched his latest production, "Haunting Melissa," exclusively for iOS users.
Released by Hooked Digital Media – a new technology and film company Edelstein co-founded, "Haunting Melissa" is an episodic series about a young girl who believes the ghost of her mother is haunting her.
At first glance, the production is immediately reminiscent of the "Blair Witch Project" with its shaky camera movement and its eagerness to break down the fourth wall with the characters directly addressing the viewer.
Yet, what makes "Haunting Melissa" even more chilling is the creativity with which it's delivered. Edelstein said he wanted to find a new way to tell stories, so he started exploring possibilities with Apple products.
"The motivation came from picking up the iPad for the first time," he said. Edelstein began by exploring push notification technology, which he refers to as "the beauty" of iOS.
The app, i.e. the story, haunts you with its push notifications. Melissa seems to want to give you more of her story, according to Edelstein, and it comes to you at random times, night and day.
"Your channel is sitting there waiting for content to be pushed to it," he said. "That's the beauty of this. That's why the app technology and the Apple devices are so uniquely positioned to be able to do this."
And it's all in the name of fun and creativity.
"Text messaging is entertainment now," said Edelstein. "Posting to Twitter, Facebook or whatever your social media go-to source is – that's entertainment, so why not deliver high-quality film content directly to people's devices and change the expectation?"
Needless to say, what Edelstein is doing here has never been done before.
"As a film producer, I'm always looking for ways to tell stories," he said.
In the spirit (pun intended) of telling stories in new, engaging ways, "Haunting Melissa" is sui generis in that it's not strictly linear. The story can change. Even a scene in a chapter you have already watched can alter with additions and deletions. You just have to keep a sharp eye for it, Edelstein said.
Edelstein refers to this not-so-linear storytelling as "Dynamic Story Elements."
"I was able to leverage the technology and create some software that seamlessly adds or subtracts things," he said. "So not only are you watching this linear story, but it's organically changing."
That means the next development can be a mere five minute sliver of the story, or 10 minutes, he said. Nobody knows, and Edelstein's not giving anything away.
"It's not going to be a fixed time and it's not going to be a fixed amount," he said excitedly. "There's a lot of surprises."
The "Haunting Melissa" app is available for free now on the Apple Store. (Sorry, loyal Android users. The app is exclusively for Apple aficionados.)
Currently, chapters one and two are available to stream. Chapter two is only available if you share the app with your friends on Facebook. Otherwise, it's $1.99 per chapter or $6.99 for an all-access pass whenever the rest of the chapters are made available.
Edelstein said a sequel and/or prequel is already in production. Viewers can expect the release of the new chapters later this year.
You can find more information as well as conversations about "Haunting Melissa" on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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