- Directed by Levi Austin Morris
- Written by Levi Austin Morris
- Stars Allison Lobel, Levi Austin Morris, Lisagaye Tomlinson
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 48 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6VYnvpLNio
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is a fever dream of memory and hallucination. Or is it more than that? The cast and cinematography are great, and the script is good. It goes on a little too long, but the ending wraps things up nicely.
Synopsis
Haley works in her garden as Nicky watches out the window; he’s acting strangely so she goes inside to check on him. Later, she finds him dead on the basement floor– wait! Nope, that was a dream. Except Haley can’t really wake up, since she has sleep paralysis. As she lays there unable to move, something nasty opens the door…
Morning comes, and everything is fine. We see she has a bottle of pills on her nightstand. She has breakfast with Nicky and ignores calls from her mother. She’s not just avoiding her mother, she’s avoiding all her friends as well except for Nicky, whom I immediately suspected isn’t real (Kevin suspected that too!). She mentions she needs to be more consistent in taking her medications, and then has some kind of breakdown, hearing voices. She admits to her mother that she’s stopped going to her therapist and taking her medications. Her mother says, “I lost Nicky the same day you did.” Yep, called it.
Haley takes a pill, and her apartment turns gray, a nice portrayal of the way the medication makes her feel. She sleeps until morning without a problem, but she’s clearly depressed the entire time. She throws the pills in the trash before bed.
Nicky comes by the following day, and he’s all hung over. She takes her brother to his room and puts him to bed. She imagines him in two places at once, but one of them is very dead. She wakes up with sleep paralysis again, but Nicky comes in and talks her through it. She opens her eyes, and there’s a monster there…
The next morning, she digs out the pills and takes one. She then calls the therapist and leaves a message. We flash back to her and Nicky talking about him quitting his job after having sex with his boss. Their father still beats Nicky, even though he’s 30.
Haley calls Anissa, a psychic, and tells her about Nicky, who died eight months ago, and sets up an appointment for tomorrow morning. After hanging up the phone, Anissa pulls out the big book of “Demons” from her shelf.
Haley finds Nicky creeping down in her basement. There is much crying and angst between Haley and Nicky.
Anissa finally comes over and detects some spirit energy in the house. She tells her own life story and explains a legend about an old hag collecting souls, but Haley doesn’t think that’s who is haunting her. They do a kind of seance, and it’s a rough one.
Haley goes to bed, and Anissa sits up, watching over her. Anissa’s outnumbered, and the demons get her. Haley wakes up in the basement and runs into Nicky. It’s not Nicky though, it’s the demon, accusing her of letting Nicky die. Haley accepts that Nicky’s death was not her fault; he was on drugs and overdosed. With her realization of his innocence, all the demons vanish.
Commentary
It’s got great cinematography; it all looks good. The music is also surprisingly good for an indie film. Allison Lobel, as Haley, is perfect in the part. She nails it, as does everyone else in the film. The ending is very creepy.
Around the point where Anissa arrived, the “demons” went from all being in her head to being an actual supernatural force; all the stuff about hallucinations was forgotten.
My only complaint is that it’s so long; it feels like the story could have been told just as effectively in half the time. We probably could have cut back on the first half when it all looks like she has hallucinations. The ending saved it, but it was a long time getting there.