- Directed by Eric Williford
- Written by Eric Williford
- Stars Jamie Bernadette, Victoria Vertuga, Torrey B. Lawrence
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2t4Z4AJxmE
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was a very well-made low-budget film, with a good story, skillful actors, and good direction. Things start bad and keep getting worse as weirdness piles on, and it never lets up, packing a lot into a short film so it moves well. We liked it a lot!
Spoilery Synopsis
A couple opens the trunk of their car, and the guy inside wants help. Dean thought he was dead, but Tasha says they can’t leave him in there. He can’t walk, so they carry him inside. While Tasha goes to get the guy a glass of water, Dean chooses a knife from the drawer.
Tasha wants to take the injured jogger to the hospital, but Dean wants to finish him off. “If we take him to the hospital, they’re going to ask what happened.” They argue back and forth for a while. Dean gets his way, and soon, the jogger is very, very dead. They argue about cleaning up the bloodstains in the foyer.
They put the guy in a wheelbarrow and take him out to the woods behind their house, still arguing about whether it was murder or putting him out of his misery. As they dig the hole, someone watches from the trees.
Dean says his parents could show up at the house at any moment, so he wants to go back home. Dean wants to get back to normal, and she argues that this is all too easy for him.
Suddenly, there’s a banging at the door; someone’s calling for help. A woman comes in, saying a man has been chasing her. She’s Briar. Tasha thinks they can re-balance their karma by helping the woman. She knows about them burying the body in the woods, and she says as much.
She warns them that things buried in the woods around here don’t always stay dead. Dean goes out to make sure the body is still there while Tasha and Briar talk about… journaling. Dean, on the other hand, finds the dead jogger shambling around in the fog. He cuts the man’s head off with his shovel this time.
Briar wants to take a bath, and Tasha notices scars on the strange woman’s back. She’s evasive about them. When Tasha gets a little too curious, Briar’s voice changes into something supernatural. Later, they talk about her getting away from the man who’s chasing her.
Tasha asks, “What do I have to do to get you to keep our secret?”
“Kill me,” Briar answers. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Dean comes back to the house and finds that Tasha has killed Briar. Suddenly, a car pulls up; it’s another stranger who says he’s looking for Briar. He’s weird and nosy. He wants to use their bathroom, but that’s where they shoved Briar’s body. He’s Uncle Stevie. On the way out, he warns, “If you happen to see Briar, whatever you do, don’t kill her.”
Since the buried dead don’t stay dead, Dean grabs a hacksaw and a garbage bag; the pieces won’t go anywhere. The two work together to dismember Briar. When Tasha shows Dean Briar’s scars, they’re gone. Tasha vomits up some black stuff and passes out.
Dean goes outside to bury the second body as Tasha reads Briar’s journal. She hallucinates Briar crawling into bed with her. “I’m here to help you with your husband problem. You know what you have to do.”
Dean finishes burying the still-moving body parts. He comes inside and tells Tasha to hurry up and get ready to go. She comes out of the bathroom, and she’s carved circles into her back and painted them on the walls– in poop. She wants to eat.
Dean makes the worst-looking frozen pizza ever, and Tasha doesn’t eat it. “You’re trying to poison me.” She accuses Dean of trying to kill her now. He soon finds Tasha biting chunks out of her own arm. They argue because she doesn’t love Dean; she doesn’t even like him anymore.
Now, Tasha wants Dean to kill her. When he won’t do it, she stabs him before walking into the woods. She eventually comes to an RV with Uncle Stevie inside. She now wants him to kill her, but he also refuses. “If I kill you, that thing inside you jumps into me.”
Tasha jumps on Uncle Stevie, and they fight until she bites him in the neck, killing him. Dean staggers in, not dead. “Briar warned me about the hunger.” They fight, and she stabs Dean through the neck. She goes back into the house and gets all cleaned up.
Finally, she beats on some people’s door and asks for help from the person who’s chasing her. She says her name is Briar.
Commentary
It’s a low-budget film that’s really well-written and acted. The three main leads all do well here, and the situation just gets weirder and weirder as it progresses. It’s definitely a psychological thriller more than anything, as these two normal people basically go insane through events that just get worse and worse.
It’s good.