Screen Rant chats with writer-director Addison Heimann about how his real-life struggles served as an inspiration for the film.

Hitting theaters July 29th, prior to its digital and demand release, Hypochondriac is an LGTBQ+ horror film created by Addison Heimann. His directorial and screenwriting debut follows the story of Will (Zach Villa, American Horror Story and Destroyer) who attempts to leave his past behind and build a future with his boyfriend, Luke (Devon Graye, I See You and Nope).

However, moving on becomes especially difficult when Will's mother contacts him after a decade of silence. With the lines of fiction and reality blurring, Will fears that he too is losing himself to a mental illness. Viewers follow Will's descent into darkness as he's haunted by images of his past and fighting to keep himself afloat.

RELATED: 10 Horror Movies That Nailed Jump Scares, According To Reddit

Screen Rant chats with writer-director Addison Heimann about how his own struggles served as an inspiration for the film.

Screen Rant: This is your feature screenwriting and directing debut. How are you feeling with the release coming up?

Addison Heimann: Good! It's kind of funny, because, like, I knew that July was gonna be crazy. And then I'm finding myself in the center of it. And I just feel like I'm just constantly in the eye of the storm because I'm too busy to acknowledge the fact that I'm anxious, which is good, that like, my anxiety comes from being alone. And I'm not alone right now. So cool.

But I'm excited. I don't know. I hope people like it. And if they don't, I hope they don't tell me. You know what I mean? I made this movie for people who were suffering from mental illness. And I will say that, like, every time I screen this movie, someone comes up to me afterwards and thanks me because of that reason, and I changed one person. And if ultimately that's it, then the entire process was worth it, you know?

Screen Rant: Yeah. I was actually going to ask you about that. Because this is a horror film, but it's psychological. Personally, I've always enjoyed these the most because they feel the most real. What inspired you to write this kind of horror film?

Addison Heimann: I had a mental breakdown. Basically, the very small short version of it is I lost functioning of my arm for six months after an injury at work that caused me to not be able to text...eat food with a fork...and so I was just on the couch for a lot of it. And I convinced myself I was dying of ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. And my mom, who's bipolar, was leaving me voicemails constantly telling me not to trust my friends.

So that confluence of events caused me to just kind of split open and crack. And from there, I started writing on pillows with ice packs, because I was in pain, but wanted to write something about this and ultimately decided on an emotional retelling of what it's like to break down. You mentioned the psychological aspects of it, and, to me, it's not important what's real and not real. It's important that it's real to him, and that he's in danger from himself and from his mind and from his monster.

And so like every scene he's in constant danger, because at any moment, you know, he could die, he could kill himself, because he doesn't know what's actually happening in reality. And that, to me, felt scarier than making it independent of his psychiatry in this instance of the storytelling.

Screen Rant: I really love the way that you did it—especially the way that you filmed it. You have a lot of different fade-ins and effects, and there's a theme of repetition going on in there, as well. I remember there were a few times that I even asked myself, "did I hear that before?" So were you trying to make the audience question themselves a little bit throughout?

Addison Heimann: Oh, yeah. The whole time. You know, it's funny. Like, there have been people who have been like, "Was the boyfriend even real?" And I'm like, "I'll never tell." But also, like, ultimately, you know, this is the beautiful thing about movies, especially movies like this is it's like, once it's out, it's no longer mine. But we definitely—there's this video game—it's super niche called "Eternal Darkness" on Nintendo GameCube. Anyway, the point of it being is that like, it's kind of like a horror-esque video game where there's an insanity meter.

And every time you get damaged or go through things, the insanity meter goes up. And so the entire time we were going to the movie, I told my cast and my crew, that there's two insanity meters. There's what I want the audience to think is real and not real and what's actually real and not real. And we're constantly going between different gauges between those two insanity meters. So, we have a slew of things to kind of tell that story. We have painting baseline on the lens to make it a little blurry.

We have the Lensbaby, which makes things like completely blurry behind, like, surroundings. We have, you know, handheld, which puts you like right in the center of it whenever you're following him. And then we have the post effects like the mirroring...the fracturing...the Jekyll and Hyde, I call it. You know, because in this kind of illness and bipolar illness, there's Jekyll and there's Hyde and Jekyll has no recollection of what happens when he's Hyde. So every time we're going through those horrific moments and they fracture it's like the two personas.

So, like, using all those little moments—and then we have the audible repetitions and the visual repetitions, you know, the kind of VHS things to represent the past, but also like you're viewing it almost through a VHS lens because it happened a while ago, you know, it's antiquated because we don't remember things the same way. And then, you know, hearing the same vocal repetitions, like, "You are no longer welcome in my domain," and "Do not trust Luke," and you'd be shocked at how the mind could affect the body.

And also, the little chihuahua or Pomeranian that you see appearing at every doctor—when you're in this, it's like, everything seems like you're in this repetitive spiral motion downwards. So when I got to telling this emotional retelling, I was like, "So what are these things they remember?" And what's so f--king annoying and funny that we can bring back to remind ourselves that we're kind of in an otherworld, even though it seems like we're in the same world, and all those things that I just long-windedly explained, are the things that I included in the movie. So thank you for going with me on that journey. But yeah, so that's ultimately the style that we used.

Screen Rant: I absolutely love the style. It really does give you—nowhere near on the same scale of what the protagonist is going through—but it kind of gives you an idea of it when you're also questioning yourself. I love that aspect and how you were able to incorporate all of that in there.

Yeah. And ultimately, I feel like we did a good job. I don't want to be like, "I think we did a good job. I think I can pat myself on the shoulder." I'm hesitant to because I have to stay humble. And ultimately, my brain is like, "F*ck you. I hate you." Not all the time! But like I said before, people come up to me and they're like, "That felt exactly like what my breakdown was like."

And I'm like, "That's awesome. Not that you had a mental breakdown, but that we were accurately able to present something that feels like that." And—not just me, obviously—we don't make movies in a vacuum. I have experts in every field constantly on my shoulder being like, "We do this, we should do this, we should do this." And with all of us together, it was really gratifying and satisfying to see our work being responded to the way it has been so far.

Screen Rant: Well, I definitely think you should pat yourself on the shoulder because that was honestly...like I said, there are so many things that I really loved about this film. You know, there are all different kinds of horror movies. And one thing that I personally find difficult to do is really connect to the protagonist and feel invested in the protagonist in a horror film. But this one, from the get-go, Will was extremely easy to like. So what was it like crafting his character?

Addison Heimann: Yeah, well, that was the thing. Honestly, I also had trouble when the writing tried to make him likable, because it's very dangerous in, I think, psychological breakdowns when it almost feels like it happens to them and they don't have like ownership or investigatory properties during their mental breakdown. And so honestly, it's just like, it's so stupid how much it works within this stupid book called "Save the Cat," where, basically, the whole thing is just like, "Write a scene in which a dude saves a cat."

And my version of it was saving his coworker and pulling her out of a panic attack. Right before, you just see him dancing to "Domino," by Jessie J. "Domino," I think lifts you up out of that six minutes of past horror and puts you in a good mood. And by the time you see that, and you see 18 years later, all that trauma and he's now here, I think ultimately that makes you almost breathe a sigh of relief. You need that sigh of relief before it starts going the other direction again. And, also, it's a testament to Zach, and his incredible ability.

He brought so much to the character, brought so much of me to the character, which again, annoying, but it's fine. Because it was so accurate. But you know, to see him there and to see him play like that—there's like an energy that exudes from him. And then when we got to the loving scenes with the boyfriend, played by Devon Graye, it was like, "Oh, we want to hold on to you— because you guys are so good—that to watch you suffer is really painful." But yeah, thanks for saying that. But it's funny how a simple scene of you watching somebody else just exude empathy can immediately connect you and you'll watch them do whatever for the rest of the movie.

Screen Rant: From that very first moment, I was like, "I want this guy to be okay. He needs to be okay."

Addison Heimann: Well thank you! That means you want me to be okay, I think?

Addison Heimann: It's funny, I always say, you know, no spoilers, but basically I always say, before every Q&A and before anybody watches this, "Look, it's about my mental breakdown, but I'm okay. I'm here. You see me. Don't worry. Yes, we're gonna suffer, but, also, I'm also here.

"There are answers. I don't have them. But there are answers and I know how to get to a certain point." So I do want people to leave with a small sense of hope, even if it's just a kernel because I wanted to make a queer horror movie in which there were positive aspects and negative aspects, but ultimately, the hope that life can still exist, even with this illness.

Will has a loving boyfriend and a good life, but when his mentally ill mother reemerges after a 10-year absence, he descends into a dark spiral of madness, haunted by the manifestation of his childhood trauma.

Check out our other interviews with Hypochondriac stars Paget Brewster and Zach Villa.

MORE: Where To Spot The Walking Dead's Christian Serratos In American Horror Story

Hypochondriac is available in theaters on July 29 and demand and digital on August 4.

Rachel Foertsch is a production intern and lover of all things television. She is currently a Writer, Interviewer, and Hiring Manager at Screen Rant. Previously, Rachel has written for outlets such as TV Fanatic, where she conducted onscreen celebrity interviews and wrote reviews that are featured on Rotten Tomatoes. You can follow her Twitter, realrayrays for more content.