Las Vegas Filmmaker Mary Patel-Gallagher Turns Fear, Trauma and a Demonic Cat Into Mouser

A locally produced psychological horror feature that won the Audience Award at Indie Vegas, picked up a screenwriting prize in Marina del Rey, and has now reached the hardest stage of all — distribution.

Las Vegas filmmaker Mary Patel-Gallagher is taking audiences into a fractured psychological world with Mouser, a locally produced horror feature that has already earned festival recognition and secured distribution through Breaking Glass Pictures.

Filmed in Las Vegas through Gallagher’s Jet Set Pictures, Mouser has now begun its commercial rollout on Fandango at Home, with wider distribution expected to follow.

Written, directed and produced by Gallagher, the film follows Eleanor, played by Romina Valenti, a young woman whose reality begins to unravel after meeting Ian, played by Gavin O’Fearraigh, at a party. Following a night of drinking, Eleanor begins encountering a bizarre and increasingly sinister talking cat named Mouser.

Horror That Turns Psychological

What begins as an unusual horror premise quickly becomes something more psychological.

Gallagher uses Mouser to explore fear, unresolved trauma, temptation and the ways the mind can distort reality. The film deliberately leaves audiences questioning whether Mouser is supernatural, a manifestation of Eleanor’s deteriorating mental state or something existing somewhere between the two.

One of the more unexpected influences behind the character is Bert Lahr’s Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz. Gallagher envisioned Mouser with a similar oversized theatricality — flamboyant and occasionally absurd while still carrying an underlying sense of danger.

That uncertainty carries into the film’s visual language.

Nyles Flagg served as both Director of Photography and Editor on Mouser, giving him a significant role in shaping the project from production through post. Through cinematography, lighting and the edit, dreams, hallucinations and reality are allowed to bleed together rather than being clearly separated for the audience.

The result is a film designed to place viewers inside Eleanor’s confusion instead of simply observing it.

Valenti leads a cast that includes O’Fearraigh as Ian and Stephen A. Moeller as Mouser, alongside Anastasia Lutz, Emma Cat, Michel Biel, Chris Fisher, David Singleton, Maria Abreu, Eugene Gallagher and Mark McGarry.

Mouser marks Gallagher’s second narrative feature and continues her relationship with Breaking Glass Pictures, which also distributed her 2023 supernatural horror film Holistay. O’Fearraigh also appeared in Holistay, making him a returning collaborator.

Gallagher’s filmmaking career extends beyond horror. Her earlier work includes the political documentary Electile Dysfunction: Inside the Business of American Campaigns, before she moved further into narrative filmmaking through Jet Set Pictures.

From Indie Vegas to Distribution

For Mouser, Las Vegas played an important role both on screen and in the film’s journey after production.

The movie screened during opening night of the 2026 Indie Vegas Film Festival at Regal Aliante and went on to win the Audience Award for Best Feature.

From there, Mouser continued onto the festival circuit, including the Marina del Rey Film Festival, where Gallagher received Best Original Screenplay for a Feature Film.

The project then reached one of the most difficult stages for any independent feature: distribution.

Breaking Glass Pictures picked up the film, and Mouser has now launched on Fandango at Home as the first stage of a wider release expected to expand to additional platforms.

What It Means for Nevada

That progression makes the project particularly relevant to Southern Nevada’s growing independent-film community.

Mouser was developed and filmed in Las Vegas, completed locally, tested in front of festival audiences and ultimately moved into commercial distribution. It is the kind of progression local filmmakers continue working toward as the region builds a stronger production ecosystem alongside the larger studio projects arriving in Nevada.

For Gallagher and her team, the film also shows that building that ecosystem does not only mean attracting productions from Hollywood. It means creating original projects here and finding a path for them to reach audiences beyond Las Vegas.

In this case, that path begins with a woman questioning her reality and a flamboyant, deeply unsettling cat named Mouser.

Mouser is currently available on Fandango at Home, with wider distribution coming soon.