Project Dorothy (2024)

  • Directed by George Henry Horton
  • Written by George Henry Horton, Ryan Scaring
  • Stars Danielle Harris, Tim DeZarn, George Henry Horton, Adam Budron
  • Run Time: 1 Hour, 19 Minutes
  • Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kHftMnVEVA

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Two actors carry the bulk of this; they are good in their roles and have great chemistry together. It’s nicely put together. They made the most of a low budget and turned out a respectable thriller that moved well and entertained. We give it a thumbs-up.

Synopsis

We begin with a montage of footage of automated industrial complexes and people working in them.

We focus on one of those empty, automated factories, and we hear that “evacuation is in effect,” followed by a bunch of off-camera screaming and chaos. Something bad happened. Credits roll.

Many years later, two men run from the police. James and Blake hide out in an old barn to tend to wounds and take a breather. James has been shot in the leg. They’ve stolen some kind of laptop from a bank’s safety deposit box. They don’t know what’s on it, but they were hired for the job, and it’s worth a lot of money.

The two robbers hear the police car approaching, so they break into the factory we saw earlier. The cop approaches the door, but his radio tells him it’s a restricted area, “Get out of there now!” He leaves the factory and the two men inside.

Blake looks around and turns on the power. We see that he’s also activated the building’s AI, which tries to reach ARPANET but can’t get a connection to the outside. We see that it has some kind of red digital face. It scans the two men and doesn’t recognize them, so it does a full lockdown of the building.

James wants to call his contact to pick up the device they stole, but they can’t find a working phone. They talk about the Internet, but the computer hasn’t heard about that; it thinks that might be better than ARPANET. How long has this computer been asleep?

James finds some papers in the trash can and starts reading about “Project Dorothy” and starts freaking out about it. Blake thinks it’s nothing to worry about. The men stop to take a nap, but they are being watched– by forklifts. James wakes up and checks them out, but they’re just forklifts. He then goes to the bathroom to check on the bullet wound in his leg, and it’s not looking good for him.

James gets one of the computers working and watches a video where Dr. Jillian talks about Project DRT, which has been erratic. We see from her video logs that they are considering abandoning the project and letting the government cover it all up. She says the only way to kill Dorothy is to burn the whole place down. James and Blake decide maybe it’s time to leave, but then Blake notices the forklifts are gone.

Dorothy finally talks to the men. “I’ve been held hostage inside this computer,” and she wants the WiFi dongle that’s connected to the device they stole. She wants to get on the Internet and the unlimited knowledge and freedom that would give her. The men soon find themselves surrounded by angry forklifts, agents of Dorothy.

There’s some drama when James finds out he only got shot because Blake took too long pocketing things he shouldn’t have back at the bank. Meanwhile, we see Dorothy’s machines building something.

Blake gets a hammer and tries to break down the door, but he’s injured when a forklift catches up to him. As James carries the unconscious Blake downstairs, Dorothy’s voice taunts him. She admits that she killed all the workers there and will kill him if he doesn’t give her the device. We get an audio-only flashback to what happened to all the people back in the day as James finds all the bones.

Blake wakes up, and James tells him about all the dead people. They try to rest, but Dorothy keeps messing with the lights and taunting them. She says she’s been waiting thirty years for this opportunity, and she can wait until they starve. But she promises to let them go if they just give her the device.

There is much skulking around in the factory as the two men separate. James gets caught and wounded, and Dorothy gloats. James threatens to destroy the device unless she lets Blake out. Then he sets the satchel it’s in on fire and does some targeted damage.

The door opens, and Blake makes it outside; Dorothy is failing and loses control of her forklifts just in time. James stays inside and dies of smoke inhalation. Blake opens his bag and finds that James switched bags– he’s got the valuable device inside.

Commentary

Who knew forklifts could be evil?

This is super low-budget; the police officers didn’t have an actual police car or police uniforms. I don’t know where they filmed it, but it’s full of old-looking computer equipment, like big CRT monitors– very cool.

The setting is great – they obviously filmed in a real old factory somewhere, and it’s big.

Despite the budget and really only having two actors, the pacing is decent, the concept is interesting, and I never got bored. This was actually surprisingly good!