A Winning Recipe for Halloween: Popcorn, trick or treat candy and THE SCARAPIST
From Writer, Director, and Actress Jeanne Marie Spicuzza (Naked 1999, Field Day 2004) comes the Horror/Thriller film The Scarapist, the film is based on a true story about an abusive hypnotherapist located in Los Angeles. Helping bring the film to life, Actors Katy Colloton (Jingle Dead II 2014, Roomies 2014), R. Michael Gull (Victim 2008, New Day 2009), and Kyle Walsh (The Dark Knight 2011, Workaholics 2016) lead the cast. Lasting roughly eighty-one minutes, the film had a successful festival run through 2015, garnering some awards on the festival circuit, including the Verein Deutscher Und Filmemacher Award for Best Film at this year’s Berlinale European Film Market. The Scarapist is now available on VOD on all major providers including iTunes and Amazon. Trending at number #1 back in August of this year on Everyflix.com.
Lana (Spicuzza), a writer who is currently having problems performing with her career and family, cannot take it anymore and decided to visit a psychologist for help. When she arrives at the clinic, she is greeted by renowned psychologist named Isle (Colloton). Upon arrival and against her husband Nathan’s (Walsh) approval, Lana begins to unravel her mind to the doctor to try to ease her mind off of the mental hurdles she is facing. Lana never imagined that it was going to get a lot worse after each session.
Trouble begins when Isle asks Lana to try out hypnosis to delve deeper into Lana’s mind. Lana agrees, but soon after, she starts realizing that the “treatments” given to her are making her have secondary effects that are affecting other areas in her life. Isle asks Nathan to take her daughter to a remote cabin so that she can further help Lana without her worrying about what she might do to her family; Isle lies to Nathan about Lana telling him she is unstable and dangerous to be around. It does not take long for Lana to put two and two together and learning that her therapist Isle is not the person who she says she is, Lana has very little time to rescue her now abducted husband and daughter from the clutches of Isle and her minions.
The Scarapist is the first film to be based on an actual case of therapist abuse and also the first to be written, co-directed, produced by and starring the survivor of the experience and resulting PTSD. Based on actual events, the film examines the dark side of hypnosis, with an evil therapist who prefers controlling to curing, where her own demons turn her into a new kind of villain – one who perverts the tenets of the New Age pseudo-spirituality she preaches. The Scarapist is also the first film to use a gun for its opposite purpose, as a tool for forgiveness instead of violence.
With overall very good performances, The Scarapist is a film that will keep the audience ensconced in the various well-paced plot line twists and turns, culminating in the film’s surprising conclusion, likely causing a “what-if” reaction in the mind of its viewers. The film has been dubbed “The New Noir” by publicist Jeremy Walker (Paranormal Activity, The Blair Witch Project), containing themes, archetypes, lighting and mood of films like This Gun for Hire, Possessed (1947), and Hitchcock’s Spellbound.
