Claire is ending her night shift at a convenience store. She expects her boyfriend will be arriving to drive he home, but instead someone else, who identifies himself as Duke, is driving her boyfriend's truck. After an unsettling ride home during which Duke makes increasingly overt sexual comments about her, Claire closes herself into the safety of her house. Duke appears at her door, however, claiming she has dropped an earring. Claire refuses to let him in, and he drops the earring on her front porch and apparently leaves. Claire spends several moments crouched in the doorway retrieving the earring, but upon successfully recapturing it and pulling the door closed, finds her back door has swung open. Duke has entered the house from the rear. He brutally murders her. Claire awakens at the convenience store again, and all seems well. She decides that she has had a nightmare. As her shift ends, her boyfriend arrives, and she goes home and to school. However, unsettling hints begin to appear. The sequence of events once again leads to a moment where Claire is being murdered, and she again awakens in the convenience store. As each sequence leads towards her death, she hears from time to time people who she trusts talking just out of earshot about how she is "catching on." Finally, she comprehends the clues: she realizes that not only has Duke been killed by the local police, but also that she herself is missing and presumed dead, as is her boyfriend Jimmy. In the end, it is revealed that Duke Desmond's soul has been occupying Claire's physical body the entire time and he is in Hell reliving the brutal murder of Claire over and over again as eternal punishment. Just before the end credits, Claire again awakens in the convenience store.
Cast
Lauren Currie Lewis as Claire Parker
Cody Darbe as Jimmy
Chris Ferry as Duke Desmond
Maureen Olander as Claire's Mother
John P. Miller as Detective Miller
Jessica DeLong as Jen
Sam Dahler as Sam
John Briley as the Custodian
Joseph M. Colombo as the Professor
Music
Composer Evan Wilson provided the original score for the movie. Additional music is provided by Devola, a group from the Ohio area where the film was shot.
Production
According to the directors' commentary the film was shot entirely with digital video, accounting for the greatly reduced budget of the film. Additionally the credits reveal that the cast served many "crew" roles, with Lauren Lewis responsible for hair and makeup. There has been no apparent theatrical release of the film, but it is available in DVD release.
Home media
Released on DVD as Gruesome in Australia and in the UK.
