| Distorted | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Rob W. King |
| Screenplay by | Arne Olsen |
| Produced by | Kevin DeWalt Danielle Masters Benjamin DeWalt Andrew Holmes |
| Starring | John Cusack Christina Ricci |
| Cinematography | Mark Dobrescu |
| Edited by | Jackie Dzuba |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Minds Eye Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 86 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $29,103 [1] |
Distorted is a 2018 Canadian thriller [2] [3] film starring Christina Ricci and John Cusack.
Russell Curran (Brendan Fletcher) is a successful businessman living in Portland, Oregon. His 32-year-old wife Lauren (Christina Ricci) suffers from bipolar disorder after a home invasion left her injured and her baby drowned in the bathtub.
Craving for a safe home, Russell and Lauren decide to move into a luxurious high-tech smart apartment an hour away from Portland. On one of their first evenings, they attend a cocktail party and meet the other residents who are all very wealthy. One of them is Phillip Starks (Vicellous Reon Shannon), an heir of a successful marketing company focussing on consumer psychology.
Lauren notices strange noises coming from the apartment's sound system and occasionally sees the TV flashing up strange pictures and words. She tries to speak to Russell, but he blames her bipolar disorder and accuses her of paranoia. Later, Russell secretly installs CCTV cameras to observe Lauren's behavior.
Through research on the internet, Lauren gets in touch with Vernon Sarsfield (John Cusack), a hacker and journalist. Vernon affirms to Lauren that she is not paranoid and that she needs to help him to prove that the residents of her home are being used as involuntary experimental subjects for subliminal stimuli by the building's owners. Vernon believes Lauren is the only one to notice the subliminal messaging because of her bipolar disorder.
One day, Lauren meets a resident that she perceives as particularly awkward. He tells Lauren that he "is not one of them" and soon after commits suicide by jumping off the roof of the building. As the strange events intensify, Vernon advises Lauren to leave since he has been tracked and thus can not help her anymore.
Lauren becomes increasingly suspicious of Russell who threatens to send her to a psychiatric hospital. As Lauren figures that all residents have continuously been scratching their necks, thus must have been exposed to some substance or implant, she tries to flee, but the building's security manager and groundskeeper apprehend her in the garage and forcefully subdue her with an injection in the neck.
As Lauren wakes up, she is restrained and exposed to another subliminal stimuli on the TV, realizing that the goal of the stimuli is for her to murder a three-year-old child residing in another apartment. Vernon suddenly appears and frees Lauren. He gives her a gun and allows her to flee by holding up the pursuers, but is murdered.
Lauren does as the stimuli suggested by kidnapping the child. Russell tries to win back her trust by saying he has proof of the subliminal stimuli through the CCTV he has installed, but Lauren rebuffs him. Using the images implanted into her head earlier, she drives the child to an abandoned shack. Later, she is then seen driving to an abandoned luxurious hotel with a blood-stained bag where she is greeted by Phillip Stark, and the building's employees and some of its residents who were disguised employees of Stark. Stark interviews Lauren on how she feels about having killed the child. As Lauren replies that she feels well since she does as expected from her, Stark is satisfied and thanks Lauren for her contribution to the future of warfare.
However, as Stark opens the bag, it is only filled with apples. A flashback reveals that Lauren and Russell had only faked the child's death. Stark attacks Lauren, but Russell rushes to her aid and shoots him dead. The police arrive and surround the premises.
In the closing scene, a pregnant Lauren and Russell have moved into a new home. As they hug, Lauren suspiciously eyes the parent unit Russell had been trying to install.
Production for the film started in Kelowna and Vernon, British Columbia in May 2017. [4] The film is produced by Kevin DeWalt, CEO of Minds Eye Entertainment.
Minds Eye Entertainment co-produced and released the film in North America territories, while Voltage Pictures handled international rights for the film. [2] [3]
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 18% based on 11 reviews with an average rating of 4.2/10. [5]
Mania, also known as manic syndrome, is a mental and behavioral disorder defined as a state of abnormally elevated arousal, affect, and energy level, or "a state of heightened overall activation with enhanced affective expression together with lability of affect." During a manic episode, an individual will experience rapidly changing emotions and moods, highly influenced by surrounding stimuli. Although mania is often conceived as a "mirror image" to depression, the heightened mood can be either euphoric or dysphoric. As the mania intensifies, irritability can be more pronounced and result in anxiety or anger.
Joan Mary Cusack is an American actress and comedian. She received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in the comedy-drama Working Girl (1988) and the romantic comedy In & Out (1997). Her other starring roles include those in Toys (1992), Addams Family Values (1993), Nine Months (1995), Cradle Will Rock (1999), Where the Heart Is (2000), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008). She has also provided the voice of Jessie in the Toy Story franchise (1999–present), for which she won an Annie Award, and Abby Mallard in Chicken Little (2005).
Christina Ricci is an American actress. Known for playing unusual characters with a dark edge, Ricci works mostly in independent productions, but has also appeared in numerous box-office hits. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Monster is a 2003 American biographical crime drama film written and directed by Patty Jenkins in her feature directorial debut. The film follows serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a street prostitute who murdered seven of her male clients between 1989 and 1990 and was executed in Florida in 2002. It stars Charlize Theron as Wuornos, and Christina Ricci as her semi-fictionalized lover, Selby Wall.
Bless the Child is a 2000 supernatural horror film directed by Chuck Russell and starring Kim Basinger, Jimmy Smits, Angela Bettis, Rufus Sewell, Christina Ricci, and Holliston Coleman. It follows a woman who discovers that her niece, whom she has adopted, is being sought by a Satanic cult seeking to use her supernatural abilities. It is based on the 1993 novel of the same name by Cathy Cash Spellman. The film is a co-production between the United States, Canada and Germany.
The Man Who Cried is a 2000 drama film written and directed by Sally Potter, and starring Christina Ricci, Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Harry Dean Stanton and John Turturro. The film tells the story of a young Jewish girl who, after being separated from her father in Soviet Russia, grows up in England and moves to Paris as a young adult, shortly before the beginning of World War II. It is the last film worked on by the French cinematographer Sacha Vierny.
Pecker is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by John Waters. Like all of Waters' films, it was filmed and set in Baltimore, this time in the Hampden neighborhood.
The Gathering is a 2002 British thriller/horror film directed by Brian Gilbert and starring Christina Ricci.
88 Minutes is a 2007 American thriller film directed by Jon Avnet and starring Al Pacino, Alicia Witt, Leelee Sobieski, William Forsythe, Deborah Kara Unger, Amy Brenneman, Neal McDonough and Benjamin McKenzie. In the film, famed forensic psychiatrist Dr. Jack Gramm (Pacino) is one of the most sought-after profilers in the world. His expert testimony resulted in the conviction of serial killer Jon Forster (McDonough). However, on the eve of Forster's execution, one of Gramm's students is murdered in a vicious copycat crime, and Gramm himself receives an ominous message informing him that he has 88 minutes to live. Filming began in the Vancouver area on October 8, 2005, and wrapped up in December 2005. In 2007 the film was released in various European countries.
Desert Blue is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Morgan J. Freeman, starring Brendan Sexton III, Kate Hudson, Christina Ricci, Casey Affleck, Sara Gilbert and John Heard.
Never Talk to Strangers is a 1995 psychological erotic thriller film directed by Peter Hall and starring Antonio Banderas and Rebecca De Mornay.
The Factory is a 2012 American crime thriller film directed by Morgan O'Neill and starring John Cusack, Mae Whitman, Dallas Roberts, Mageina Tovah, Cindy Sampson, and Jennifer Carpenter. In the film, Cusack plays a Buffalo, New York cop who has been chasing a serial kidnapper who abducts young women.
Carmen Cusack is an American musical theater actress and singer. She is known for playing Elphaba in the Chicago, North American Tour, and Melbourne productions of the musical Wicked and for originating the roles of Alice Murphy and Clare Boothe Luce in the Broadway musicals Bright Star and Flying Over Sunset, respectively.
Jenet Sarsfield, Baroness Dunsany was an Anglo-Irish noblewoman who lived in Dublin during the Tudor era. She is chiefly memorable for having married no less than six husbands.
Robert Shilyngford, or Shillenford was Mayor of Dublin in 1534–35. Apart from his tenure in this office, he is mainly remembered as the first of the six husbands of Jenet Sarsfield.
Adult World is a 2013 American comedy-drama film directed by Scott Coffey and written by Andy Cochran. The film stars Emma Roberts, Evan Peters, and John Cusack. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 18, 2013, and was released to select theaters and through video on demand on February 14, 2014, by IFC Films.
Lizzie Borden Took an Ax is a 2014 American biographical drama television film about Lizzie Borden, a young American woman tried and acquitted of the August 4, 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. It premiered on Lifetime on January 25, 2014 and starred Christina Ricci in the title role. The film was so successful it was followed by a miniseries, The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, which aired from April to May 2015. Ricci has described the film and its follow-up as being "self-aware, campy, and tongue-in-cheek".
The Lizzie Borden Chronicles is an American television limited series following Lizzie Borden after she is acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother in 1892. It premiered on Lifetime on Easter Sunday, April 5, 2015, and ended on May 25, 2015. The series is a continuation of the story begun in the network's 2014 film Lizzie Borden Took an Ax and, like the film, is fictionalized and speculative.
Bridgegate Pictures is an American film production company and public entity trading on the OTC Markets under the ticker symbol BBGP. The company engages in the financing, development, marketing, technology, and distribution of independent feature films. It currently holds a six picture partnership deal with Mind's Eye Entertainment in association with VMI Worldwide. Their upcoming six-film picture slate will focus on sci-fi, action and thriller films. Their first production was a sci-fi thriller film The Recall based on a screenplay by Reggie Keyohara III and Sam Acton King, starring Wesley Snipes and RJ Mitte. Their second and third completed features are the thriller The Humanity Bureau, and the independent drama Distorted starring John Cusack and Christina Ricci.
