Jessie Holder Tourtellotte

In a sleepy mountain town, Cindy witnesses the murder of her parents by a blood-thirsty green figure in a red Santa suit. Twenty years later, the Christmas-hating monster begins to terrorize the town once more. Cindy finds new purpose in stopping the creature and saving the holiday.

The postpartum depression comedy, currently in production in Chicago, is loosely inspired by the writer-director’s experience becoming a mother. Lapkus will play Joanna, a “total nut” who is wearing new motherhood so awkwardly that she remarks candidly “I’m not really a mom, I just have a baby, you know?” This new mom is also an artist who isn’t making any art, and feels truly terrible at taking care of her newborn, as she stumbles through her days. She can’t get her old job back, her old friends have moved on without her, her husband thinks he’s a better mother than she is, she’s terribly sleep deprived, and her baby won’t look at her. On her desperate search for a friend, she tumbles into an unlikely bond with an estranged aunt-in-law she never knew.