About me: BLOOD RIVER
By Adam Mason and Simon Boyes ---
Clark and Summer are happily married. Clark is a no-nonsense, conservative, straight down the line American working a good job in some office somewhere.
His beautiful wife Summer is a fun-loving, good time girl grown up who still occasionally dreams of being an actress. Problem is, it hasn’t really happened for her and now she’s four months pregnant, which makes things even harder.
It’s the summer of 1969 and out in the desert it’s as hot as hell.
We first meet Summer and Clark as they are driving across California on their way to Arizona to tell Summer’s parents the good news about the pregnancy.
Stopping at a desolate roadside motel for the night, Summer and Clark meet the enigmatic drifter Joseph.
A man who seems mysteriously intrigued by Clark.
The following morning, as they drive across the seemingly never ending and desolate desert landscape - they have a blow out. It’s a nasty one that sends the car into a massive, near fatal crash.
They crawl out of it, hurt but alive, Summer terrified for the well being of her unborn child.
Clark realizes that they are likely to die out here. The chance of a passing car out here is minimal at best.
The nearest place on the map is the uninviting sounding town of Blood River. A good ten miles away. After a dangerous and difficult hike across an incredibly hostile landscape they arrive, praying for a phone, medical attention and a long cool drink of water. What they find instead is a Ghost town full of abandoned houses and buildings carpeted in sand.
All hope is lost.
Panicked and stranded, Summer and Clark desperately try to think of what to do next when they suddenly become aware of a mysterious stranger heading their way. Walking in from out of a mirage created by the sweltering heat they realize that it is Joseph, the drifter from the shit-hole motel.
Joseph brings food and water and a bottle of Jack. He’s friendly and funny and talks endlessly of freedom for the human spirit. He’s a bastion of the old hippy movement and Summer is instantly drawn in by his simple
charms. Clark, on the other hand, takes an instant dislike to Joseph, and the power he seems to hold over Summer.
The group becomes desperate and in a bid for freedom, Joseph and Clark set off on the long walk back to Joseph’s car with a mind to fixing it. After some discussion, Summer stays behind due to her pregnant condition with Josephs hand gun for protection.
As they walk through the blistering desert heat, Clark becomes more and more suspicious of the mysterious Joseph.
Meanwhile, an inquisitive and curious Summer explores Blood River, uncovering its horrific secret and the real identity of Joseph.
Arriving at the Joseph’s car, Clark is shocked to find it completely undamaged by its supposed ‘crash’. Clark finally discovers that Joseph is not all he appears to be.
As the inevitable confrontation builds Joseph is
suddenly gone. Disappeared literally into thin air.
Back in the heart of Blood River, Summer finds herself alone with Joseph, who now had a mad twinkle in his blue eyes, and bloody vengeance on his mind.
In a desperate attempt to get Josephs car started, Clark breaks into the trunk, and finds something so
horrific he almost looses his mind at the very sight.
A now hysterical Clark makes his way back to Blood River on foot, as the truth slowly dawns on him and he realizes that his wife is now alone with Joseph, and that this town is a place where secrets simply cannot
remain hidden.
The clash between Joseph and Clark reaches fever pitch and drives our characters ever closer to a violent, destructive and shocking conclusion that will chill you to the bone.
Blood River is a twisted, manipulative trip into a world of extremes where people are rarely who they seem, where everyone has a secret and where few,
if any, will survive.
Who I'd like to meet: Produced by Timothy Cavanaugh, Lee Librado, Mary Church, Patrick Ewald and
Adam Mason
Co- Producer Shaked Berenson
Executive Producers James Mancuso, Andrzej Sekula and Eric Aulabaugh
