Eli Despres and Kim Roberts first non-documentary film was
shot on a very low budget. The set was a Colorado Rockies mountain vacation home
belonging to Kim’s family, and the woods surrounding it. A cast of 4, a crew of
10, and Eli and Kim spent 18 days in the isolated area, shooting mostly at
night, getting up at 6pm for breakfast, and hitting the hot tub at about 6am
before heading in for some sleep. James Morrison played the part of Ed.
The
plot is supposed to show the complex relationships between three girls just
after high school graduation, on the cusp of their going their separate ways for
college and/or employment. The girls are three disparate stereotypes: Ruthie,
the socially naïve brain who is headed for Yale, Debbie, the misfit with lesbian
longings who could manage to get into a decent college, and Katie, the hard
edged, tramp/druggie with no college prospects whatsoever. Debbie and Ruthie’s
relationship was explained as their growing up together, having the same
babysitter, etc., but how did either of them hook up with a *insert nasty word
of your choice here* like Katie? But, Katie was necessary to the plot as the
catalyst for everything that gets them in trouble…and boy oh boy, did they get
into trouble.
After a Katie instigated evening of beer and pot, and
telling the story of how Ruthie and Debbie’s former babysitter was sexually
assaulted and murdered in a cabin just a few miles away, the girls discover that
they are not alone in the woods…they found a dead fox in the freezer (it had
been shot) and a rifle in the bedroom. Ruthie’s parents, the owners of the
mountain retreat, did not own any guns. Eventually a stranger shows up at the
door, claiming to be looking for someone that, of course, doesn’t live there. He
bullies his way inside, trying to intimidate them into allowing him to collect
his things and ignore the fact that he’d ever been there. The girls freak out,
they have the rifle, and they force him to sit down at gunpoint. Since they’ve
already established that the cell phone doesn’t work in the area, Ruthie is
dispatched to drive the sixteen miles to the police station. Unfortunately she’s
so stoned she can’t get the car started and thinks the battery is dead.
They
tie the squatter, who they learn is named Ed, to the chair, leaving Ruthie
watching him with the rifle while Debbie and Katie head for the neighbor’s to
see if they have a regular phone. Katie breaks a window to get into the place,
but no such luck. They do, however, find a bottle of whiskey, which the two
proceed to drink, compounding the mess they’ve made of their minds with the beer
and pot. Debbie’s long repressed but painfully obvious desire for Kate rears its
ugly head and a long languorous and semi-passionate kiss ensues. Debbie thinks
this is great until Katie informs her that she’s "not like that". Debbie
suddenly has an attack of conscience about leaving Ruthie alone with the
potentially dangerous squatter and hightails it back to the cabin, Katie rushing
behind, offering Debbie the opportunity to "do it" with her anyway. It’s really
hard not to dislike the Katie character intensely.
Meanwhile, Ed has been busy. He realizes that Ruth is
suffering from low self-esteem and is terribly naïve, and charms her into
untying him. He probably would have just taken his stuff and left, but Debbie
and Katie burst in through the door at the crucial moment and he takes Ruthie
hostage. He collects their cash and driver’s licenses, tells them that he will
leave and not hurt them, but if they report him to the police he will come after
them when he gets out. He instinctively recognizes Katie as being the one who
will be the most trouble, has her tie the other two up then uses the rifle to
herd Katie upstairs so he can pack his stuff while keeping an eye on her. He
ties her to the bed there, and begins to pack, not otherwise touching her. For
someone with her psychological problems this is a slap in the face. While she is
working on the ropes, and as we can see succeeding, she goads him into
physically attacking her. Even now, when she’s called him all sorts of vile
names, he only grabs her face and basically tells her off. She gets free of the
ropes, knees him where it counts, grabs the rifle, and fires it, badly grazing
his neck.
Now, we’re back to poor Ed, tied up downstairs yet again,
this time bleeding copiously from a neck wound. Katie, the druggie tramp from
hell, lies to the other girls, telling them that he tried to rape her without
provocation. She emphasizes this to the smitten Debbie hoping to gain her
support for the evil she has in mind. Katie plays on the scenario of the murder
eight years ago, pointing out the similarities (the murderer made one of the
girls tie up the other and then took the untied one upstairs and raped her
before murdering them both), and that the killer was known to be a white male
who would now be about Ed’s age and that he hadn’t been caught. She convinces
the others, or at least Debbie, that Ed is the fugitive.
After taking her aside, Kate convinces Debbie that they
should kill Ed because the most the police will be able to pin on him now is
attempted kidnapping and trespassing and that he’ll come after them after
serving his time. If they kill him, they’ll always be safe from him. Meanwhile,
Ed is telling Ruth about himself, desperately, he’s got an inkling that she’s
the only one with a grip on reality and is trying to humanize himself in her
head so that she’ll be moved to intervene before things go too far. Kate and
Debbie can hear them talking and make caustic comments. They send Ruthie to the
car, supposedly to collect Katie’s cigarettes, then untie Ed and force him out
the back of the house into the woods. Ruthie can’t find the pack, but tries the
car again, realizes it wasn’t in park, and puts it in the right gear, so of
course it starts right up. She runs back to the house and discovers the others
gone, and the cigarettes under a coat on the sofa. Realizing what is going on
she runs after the others.
Ed nearly escapes, twice. He knows what they’re planning
and he’s desperate. For a while I thought that when Ruthie ran up to them,
Debbie and Katie would accidentally shoot her thinking she was Ed, but that did
not happen. However, Eli and Kim did mention in the Q&A session after the film
that this was their original intent. They had certainly set the scene for it.
After catching up with them, an argument ensues and Ruth
pleads with Debbie and Katie not to do this that she wouldn’t be able to live
with it. Ed tries to escape again, and falls into a ravine, and ends up dead on
the bottom. The girls make a pact to never reveal what has happened, remove all
evidence that they ever met him or that he was ever in the cabin, and head back
for civilization. After a bit of gloomy introspection, or what we certainly hope
is introspection, they shove the experience aside and start talking about a
party being thrown by another girl the following weekend.
Q&A
During the Q&A, few good questions were actually asked. One
of them was whether or not Ed was the killer. While the writer/directors stated
that they did have an answer to that, they chose not to share it. Ali Humiston,
who played Kate, says that her character had doubts about it after he was dead.
James said that he’d decided for himself whether Ed was the fugitive or not, but
didn’t share what he’d decided either. Personally, I don’t think he was. He’d
have had to have been either phenomenally stupid or both brilliant and
incredibly arrogant to have stuck around the area afterward, and he didn’t come
across as either. Another question asked was how the actors got involved with
the project. The three girls basically said they’d auditioned and got the part.
Ali said that was a boring answer, but the only one she had. She showed the most
personality of the three and was the least like her character (thank god for
that), though we discovered in the bathroom later that the tattoo on her back
was real. James decided to make a boring question more interesting. He claimed
to have gone to Kim and Eli four years ago and to have asked them to write him a
role where he got to work alone with three beautiful young women. That got a
good laugh from everyone, and the girls actually blushed.
If you have a chance to see it, do. It’s yet another
interesting side of James.
"As the lone supporting
character, it can be argued that James Morrison has the film’s most pivotal
role, and he adeptly shows off the conflicting sides of the potentially
dangerous stranger." Warren Curry for Entertainment Insider
View The Trailer
The
plot is supposed to show the complex relationships between three girls just
after high school graduation, on the cusp of their going their separate ways for
college and/or employment. The girls are three disparate stereotypes: Ruthie,
the socially naïve brain who is headed for Yale, Debbie, the misfit with lesbian
longings who could manage to get into a decent college, and Katie, the hard
edged, tramp/druggie with no college prospects whatsoever. Debbie and Ruthie’s
relationship was explained as their growing up together, having the same
babysitter, etc., but how did either of them hook up with a *insert nasty word
of your choice here* like Katie? But, Katie was necessary to the plot as the
catalyst for everything that gets them in trouble…and boy oh boy, did they get
into trouble.
