From Within (film)
Encyclopedia
From Within is a horror film directed by Phedon Papamichael Jr. and written by Brad Keene. Filming took place in Maryland in fall 2007. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival
in April-May 2008.
) is a student who instead investigates the mystery of the suicides and befriends Aidan (Thomas Dekker
), a non-believer. Lindsay discovers that something evil is behind the suicides and that she is next to die.
) sitting with her boyfriend Sean as he reads from a black book. He finishes reading, and kisses Natalie passionately. Natalie believes he wants to have sex with her - until he pulls out a gun and commits suicide.
In the main town high school girl, Lindsay, is shopping with her mother, Trish, for new church clothes. As they argue, Natalie bursts into the shop covered in blood and mumbling about a girl following her. Lindsay watches over her and notices the black book she holds. When Lindsay goes to fetch Natalie's father, the door to the back room slams shut on Natalie. Natalie's father knocks down the door, only to find Natalie dying, with a pair of scissors lodged into her neck.
That night Natalie's father is haunted by a ghostly figure and is found the following day, hanged in the same room Natalie died in, by his niece Molly.
On Monday at school Lindsay's boyfriend, Dylan, who is the son of the local pastor, is found publicly attacking Aidan Spindle, a newly-returned local misfit. Dylan blames Aidan's family for the recent deaths. Following the fight, Lindsay helps Aidan with his minor wounds and drives him home. It turns out that Aidan's brother is Sean, the young man who killed himself at the start of the film but whose death has been overshadowed by Natalie's.
The same night Molly starts seeing a ghost that looks exactly like herself which slits Molly's wrists. The following day, Lindsay's best friend Claire drives past Molly's body, and immediately begins to hear voices. Later the same day, a duplicate of Claire is seen in the toilets while Claire is using the facilities.
Simultaneously, Lindsay becomes aware of the religious fervor Dylan is stirring up against Aidan among the townsfolk and goes to warn him of the danger. On entering his house, she meets his cousin, Sadie who had traveled down from New York for Aidan's brother Sean's funeral.
Meanwhile, Claire encounters and unsuccessfully tries to evade her doppelganger. It finally catches up with her as she is driving and her car explodes in front of Lindsay's mother Trish.
Aidan takes Lindsay to a stream running underneath a bridge, and confirms that his mother practiced a form witchcraft, which may be the cause of the suicides. He tells her to leave Grovetown.
Lindsay arrives home that night and is abducted by Dylan and Roy, Trish's lover, with Trish's consent. She is taken to the local church to be "purified". Returning home that night, Trish is jubilant about "being saved" but is later haunted by doppelgangers of herself on the television. After being stalked throughout the house, Trish's doppelganger compels her to drink bleach, believing it to be whiskey.
Lindsay finds Trish's body and she rushes to Aidan's house, frantic in her belief that a curse has gotten inside of her and will demand her death. Aidan admits that victims of the curse see themselves, but swears that all victims commit suicide because they are compelled to, not because something takes over them. Aidan supplies Lindsay with an oil on her skin that will slow the progress of the curse. Aidan realizes that the black book is the key to lock up what Sean had unlocked.
Lindsay suggests the church as the new location of the book and Lindsay and Aidan break in. Dylan, Roy, Pastor Joe and Paul, another member of Joe's congregation, realize that Aidan retrieved the book. Back at Aidan's house Sadie pulls a gun on Aidan and Lindsay; she wants the book and explains that Sean deliberately killed himself in order for the curse to start.
They manage to rescue the book just as Sadie attempts to burn it. Paul, Roy and Dylan burst into the home. Aidan and Lindsay escape to the woods, Dylan and Paul following as Roy guards Sadie. While running, Aidan and Lindsay split, intending to meet up at the pier.
Back at the home Roy he tells Sadie how he became a religious man and then with gasoline and sets her alight, claiming that he is doing God's will. In the woods, Lindsay makes it to the pier, but her doppelganger ghost is hot on her tail. She stops at the edge of the platform and starts reciting a prayer, when she falls into the water.
Meanwhile Dylan continues to hunt Aidan but he is surprised from behind by Aidan. Aidan puts Sadie's gun to Dylan's head when Lindsay's screams for help draw him away. Lindsay panics in the water as her doppelganger emerges from the water behind her. Lindsay quickly climbs out of the water alive, then blood drips onto her back, the ghost's eye is bleeding as Lindsay sits up. The ghost grabs the rope and hands it to Lindsay, who starts to wrap it around her own neck, and almost strangling herself.
Aidan rushes to her and stops her, they continue with dispelling the curse. He merges his own blood with Sean's on the book, when he says to Lindsay that a sacrifice started the curse so a sacrifice must end it. Aidan passionately kisses her and tells her to burn the book, before seemingly shooting himself.
Dylan and Paul then show up, Dylan believing Lindsay to be a devil worshiper he pulls his gun on her. Lindsay stands, Sadie's gun in her hands as she begs Dylan to walk away. Paul quickly runs off. Not long after the cops arrive, but they find that Aidan's sacrifice doesn't count; Dylan had actually shot him in the chest as Aidan was pointing the gun at his own head.
In the woods, Lindsay tries to burn the book, but to no avail as the curse is still around, the ghost creates a gust of wind blowing the fire out before claiming Lindsay.
was hired to direct From Within, a thriller based on a script by Brad Keene. The film was financed through a European equity fund. Production began in July-August 2007 in Maryland. The writer described the film: "I wanted to write something that was scary and high concept and dealt with personal issues, namely religious beliefs and how they play a part in who we are and the way we lead our lives." Papamichael desired to make From Within in the tradition of The Shining
(1980) and Rosemary's Baby
(1968). For From Within, filming took place in Perry Point, Maryland
, a defunct estate with homes that would be torn down after the completion of production. The film entered post-production in August 2007.
in February 2008, but not being complete in time, From Within ultimately had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival
that runs between April and May 2008. The film entered the festival "riding a considerable wave of buzz and expectation", but The Hollywood Reporter
reported that it played to "mediocre reception". From Within later won awards at the Solstice Film Festival in June 2008, for Best Feature Film, Best Original Score, Best Actor (Thomas Dekker) and Best Actress (Elizabeth Rice). It was chosen for the Official Selection at the London FrightFest Film Festival
and the Fantasia Festival
in Montreal.
The film was released on January 9, 2009 as part of the third After Dark Films
8 Films to Die For
series.
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
in April-May 2008.
Premise
When a series of suicides start happening in Grovetown, the townspeople turn a blind eye and cling to their beliefs. Lindsay (Elizabeth RiceElizabeth Rice
Elizabeth Ellen Rice is an American actress.-Awards and nominations:She won the Grand Jury Award in the 2008 Solstice Film Festival for Best Actress for From Within .-Filmography:...
) is a student who instead investigates the mystery of the suicides and befriends Aidan (Thomas Dekker
Thomas Dekker (actor)
Thomas Alexander Dekker is an American film and television actor and a musician. He is also a singer and has written and produced two albums. He is best known for his roles as John Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Nick Szalinski on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, and Zach...
), a non-believer. Lindsay discovers that something evil is behind the suicides and that she is next to die.
Plot
The film begins with a teenage girl, Natalie (Rumer WillisRumer Willis
Rumer Glenn Willis is an American actress, the oldest daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore and the stepdaughter of Emma Heming and Ashton Kutcher.-Personal life:...
) sitting with her boyfriend Sean as he reads from a black book. He finishes reading, and kisses Natalie passionately. Natalie believes he wants to have sex with her - until he pulls out a gun and commits suicide.
In the main town high school girl, Lindsay, is shopping with her mother, Trish, for new church clothes. As they argue, Natalie bursts into the shop covered in blood and mumbling about a girl following her. Lindsay watches over her and notices the black book she holds. When Lindsay goes to fetch Natalie's father, the door to the back room slams shut on Natalie. Natalie's father knocks down the door, only to find Natalie dying, with a pair of scissors lodged into her neck.
That night Natalie's father is haunted by a ghostly figure and is found the following day, hanged in the same room Natalie died in, by his niece Molly.
On Monday at school Lindsay's boyfriend, Dylan, who is the son of the local pastor, is found publicly attacking Aidan Spindle, a newly-returned local misfit. Dylan blames Aidan's family for the recent deaths. Following the fight, Lindsay helps Aidan with his minor wounds and drives him home. It turns out that Aidan's brother is Sean, the young man who killed himself at the start of the film but whose death has been overshadowed by Natalie's.
The same night Molly starts seeing a ghost that looks exactly like herself which slits Molly's wrists. The following day, Lindsay's best friend Claire drives past Molly's body, and immediately begins to hear voices. Later the same day, a duplicate of Claire is seen in the toilets while Claire is using the facilities.
Simultaneously, Lindsay becomes aware of the religious fervor Dylan is stirring up against Aidan among the townsfolk and goes to warn him of the danger. On entering his house, she meets his cousin, Sadie who had traveled down from New York for Aidan's brother Sean's funeral.
Meanwhile, Claire encounters and unsuccessfully tries to evade her doppelganger. It finally catches up with her as she is driving and her car explodes in front of Lindsay's mother Trish.
Aidan takes Lindsay to a stream running underneath a bridge, and confirms that his mother practiced a form witchcraft, which may be the cause of the suicides. He tells her to leave Grovetown.
Lindsay arrives home that night and is abducted by Dylan and Roy, Trish's lover, with Trish's consent. She is taken to the local church to be "purified". Returning home that night, Trish is jubilant about "being saved" but is later haunted by doppelgangers of herself on the television. After being stalked throughout the house, Trish's doppelganger compels her to drink bleach, believing it to be whiskey.
Lindsay finds Trish's body and she rushes to Aidan's house, frantic in her belief that a curse has gotten inside of her and will demand her death. Aidan admits that victims of the curse see themselves, but swears that all victims commit suicide because they are compelled to, not because something takes over them. Aidan supplies Lindsay with an oil on her skin that will slow the progress of the curse. Aidan realizes that the black book is the key to lock up what Sean had unlocked.
Lindsay suggests the church as the new location of the book and Lindsay and Aidan break in. Dylan, Roy, Pastor Joe and Paul, another member of Joe's congregation, realize that Aidan retrieved the book. Back at Aidan's house Sadie pulls a gun on Aidan and Lindsay; she wants the book and explains that Sean deliberately killed himself in order for the curse to start.
They manage to rescue the book just as Sadie attempts to burn it. Paul, Roy and Dylan burst into the home. Aidan and Lindsay escape to the woods, Dylan and Paul following as Roy guards Sadie. While running, Aidan and Lindsay split, intending to meet up at the pier.
Back at the home Roy he tells Sadie how he became a religious man and then with gasoline and sets her alight, claiming that he is doing God's will. In the woods, Lindsay makes it to the pier, but her doppelganger ghost is hot on her tail. She stops at the edge of the platform and starts reciting a prayer, when she falls into the water.
Meanwhile Dylan continues to hunt Aidan but he is surprised from behind by Aidan. Aidan puts Sadie's gun to Dylan's head when Lindsay's screams for help draw him away. Lindsay panics in the water as her doppelganger emerges from the water behind her. Lindsay quickly climbs out of the water alive, then blood drips onto her back, the ghost's eye is bleeding as Lindsay sits up. The ghost grabs the rope and hands it to Lindsay, who starts to wrap it around her own neck, and almost strangling herself.
Aidan rushes to her and stops her, they continue with dispelling the curse. He merges his own blood with Sean's on the book, when he says to Lindsay that a sacrifice started the curse so a sacrifice must end it. Aidan passionately kisses her and tells her to burn the book, before seemingly shooting himself.
Dylan and Paul then show up, Dylan believing Lindsay to be a devil worshiper he pulls his gun on her. Lindsay stands, Sadie's gun in her hands as she begs Dylan to walk away. Paul quickly runs off. Not long after the cops arrive, but they find that Aidan's sacrifice doesn't count; Dylan had actually shot him in the chest as Aidan was pointing the gun at his own head.
In the woods, Lindsay tries to burn the book, but to no avail as the curse is still around, the ghost creates a gust of wind blowing the fire out before claiming Lindsay.
Cast
- Elizabeth RiceElizabeth RiceElizabeth Ellen Rice is an American actress.-Awards and nominations:She won the Grand Jury Award in the 2008 Solstice Film Festival for Best Actress for From Within .-Filmography:...
as Lindsay, the film's central character. - Thomas DekkerThomas Dekker (actor)Thomas Alexander Dekker is an American film and television actor and a musician. He is also a singer and has written and produced two albums. He is best known for his roles as John Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Nick Szalinski on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, and Zach...
as Aidan, a supposed Devil worshipper - Kelly BlatzKelly BlatzKelly Steven Blatz is an American actor and singer.Blatz made his acting debut in The Oakley Seven . He had a brief role in the horror film Simon Says and appears in the 2008 remake of Prom Night. Blatz played a role in the independent feature film April Showers...
as Dylan, Lindsay's religious boyfriend - Laura AllenLaura Allen-Personal life:Allen was born in Portland, Oregon, the daughter of Julie and David Allen. She grew up on Bainbridge Island, Washington as the middle child of three sisters: older Jennifer and younger Lindsay. She attended Wellesley College as a Sociology major and graduated in 1996...
as Trish, Lindsay's religion-obsessed stepmother. - Adam GoldbergAdam GoldbergAdam Charles Goldberg is an American actor, director, producer, and musician.-Early life:Goldberg was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Donna and Earl Goldberg, a former lifeguard. His father is Jewish and his mother is a "lapsed" Roman Catholic of Irish, French, and German descent...
as Roy, Trish's lover - Rumer WillisRumer WillisRumer Glenn Willis is an American actress, the oldest daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore and the stepdaughter of Emma Heming and Ashton Kutcher.-Personal life:...
as Natalie, girlfriend to Sean - Margo HarshmanMargo HarshmanMargo Cathleen Harshman is an American actress who played Tawny Dean on the Disney Channel series Even Stevens.- Personal life :...
as Sadie, Aidan and Sean's cousin - Brittany RobertsonBrittany RobertsonBrittany Leanna "Britt" Robertson is an American actress. She is mostly known for playing the roles of Cara Burns in Dan In Real Life, Samantha in Swingtown, Trixie Stone in The Tenth Circle, Lux Cassidy in Life Unexpected, and Marnie Cooper in Scream 4...
as Claire, Lindsay's best friend - Jared HarrisJared HarrisJared Francis Harris is a British character actor, well known for playing the obnoxious Mac McGrath in the Adam Sandler film Mr. Deeds, and for his portrayal of Lane Pryce on the AMC series Mad Men.- Personal life :...
as Bernard - Steven CulpSteven CulpSteven Bradford Culp is an American film and television actor, best known for his roles as Rex Van de Kamp in the television series Desperate Housewives and CIA Agent Clayton Webb in JAG.-Early life:...
as Pastor Joe, Dylan's father - Amanda Babin as Molly, Natalie's cousin
- Michelle Babin as Evil Molly, a form the entity takes on when targeting Molly
- Shiloh FernandezShiloh FernandezShiloh Thomas Fernandez is an American actor best known for his roles in Jericho, Deadgirl and United States of Tara, as well as portraying Peter in the film Red Riding Hood.-Early life:...
as Sean, Natalie's boyfriend and Aidan's brother - Mark A. Cummins as Classroom Teacher
Production
In July 2007, director Phedon PapamichaelPhedon Papamichael
Phedon Papamichael is a cinematographer and film director.Born in Athens, Greece, Papamichael came to the United States at age six when his father went to work as a production designer for John Cassavetes. He studied photography and art at the University of Munich, graduating with a degree in Fine...
was hired to direct From Within, a thriller based on a script by Brad Keene. The film was financed through a European equity fund. Production began in July-August 2007 in Maryland. The writer described the film: "I wanted to write something that was scary and high concept and dealt with personal issues, namely religious beliefs and how they play a part in who we are and the way we lead our lives." Papamichael desired to make From Within in the tradition of The Shining
The Shining (film)
The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. A writer, Jack Torrance, takes a job as an...
(1980) and Rosemary's Baby
Rosemary's Baby (film)
Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the bestselling 1967 novel Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin...
(1968). For From Within, filming took place in Perry Point, Maryland
Perry Point, Maryland
Perry Point is an unincorporated community in Cecil County, Maryland, United States....
, a defunct estate with homes that would be torn down after the completion of production. The film entered post-production in August 2007.
Release
Filmmakers originally planned to finish production in time to release the film for the Sundance Film FestivalSundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
in February 2008, but not being complete in time, From Within ultimately had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
that runs between April and May 2008. The film entered the festival "riding a considerable wave of buzz and expectation", but The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
reported that it played to "mediocre reception". From Within later won awards at the Solstice Film Festival in June 2008, for Best Feature Film, Best Original Score, Best Actor (Thomas Dekker) and Best Actress (Elizabeth Rice). It was chosen for the Official Selection at the London FrightFest Film Festival
London FrightFest Film Festival
FrightFest is an annual film festival held in central London over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The first event was held in the year 2000....
and the Fantasia Festival
Fantasia Festival
Fantasia International Film Festival is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996...
in Montreal.
The film was released on January 9, 2009 as part of the third After Dark Films
After Dark Films
After Dark Films is a horror film production company and distributor founded by Courtney Solomon.-History:The company is the organizer for the annual independent horror film festival After Dark Horrorfest, also known as 8 Films to Die For, which is currently in its fourth year...
8 Films to Die For
8 Films to Die For
After Dark Horrorfest is an annual horror film festival featuring eight independent horror movies, sometimes with "secret" bonus films, all distributed by After Dark Films in the USA...
series.
External links
- Photographs at Baltimore Sun
- Review at FangoriaFangoriaFangoria is an American magazine devoted to horror and exploitation films, which has a number of associated brands:* Fangoria Comics* Fangoria Films* Fangoria RadioFangoria may also refer to:* Fangoria , a Spanish electro pop band...