Safer at Home | |
---|---|
Directed by | Will Wernick |
Written by |
|
Story by |
|
Produced by |
|
Starring |
|
Cinematography | Jason Goodell |
Edited by | Sean Aylward |
Music by | Genevieve Vincent |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | Vertical Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 82 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $100,323 [1] |
Safer at Home is a 2021 American thriller film written by Will Wernick and Lia Bozonelis, and directed by Wernick. The film stars Jocelyn Hudon, Emma Lahana, Alisa Allapach, Adwin Brown and Dan J. Johnson. [2] [3]
Set in the fall of 2022, after the second and third strains of COVID-19 have extended the COVID-19 pandemic death toll to over 31 million in the United States, mass chaos in Los Angeles has turned the city into a police state. Three sets of couples –Ben and Liam in New York City, Evan and Jen in West Hollywood, and Oliver and Mia in Los Angeles' Venice neighborhood –are joined by friend Harper in Austin, Texas, on a four way online birthday party for Evan via Zoom. The group agrees to take a designer drug that Oliver has had delivered to each home. After taking the pill, during a brief verbal argument, Jen falls backward, hits her head and appears to be dead.
As the drugs take a firm hold on the friends, their decision making skills are severely hampered. Fearing that the authorities will think Evan killed her (they themselves are unsure, as none were paying attention to their screens when Jen tripped), the friends help Evan run when a neighbor calls the police. As Oliver drives cross town to Evan, Harper shares that Jen had secretly told her she was pregnant, and planned to tell Evan after the party. Evan reaches his own car and heads for Oliver's, and the group is stunned to see how the pandemic has caused the conditions to deteriorate on the streets of Los Angeles, including military roadblocks.
With Evan having broken the strict curfew, the police escalate a search for him. When the police search Oliver's house, Evan leaves in Oliver's car. Mia convinces Oliver that she should contact her abusive ex-boyfriend, who is a top criminal lawyer. He advises Evan to drive to the Hollywood police station and wait for Danny to arrive, and to say nothing until he gets there. However, he is pulled over by the police before he arrives. Unable to think clearly, and ignoring the advice of Danny and all his friends, Evan disobeys the police orders and gets out of the car, raising his hands with his Zoom enabled phone, leading to Evan being shot.
As Evan lays dying on the street, the feed from Evan and Jen's house shows her regain consciousness and sit up. She and Evan speak of the baby and their love for each other. Evan dies, witnessed by all the friends. Jen screams in agony, as the news radio show in Oliver's car relays that Evan's death is dwarfed by the 2 million Covid deaths that day, bringing the death toll to 253 million, with the United Kingdom becoming the seventh major superpower to cease to exist as a coherent nation.
The film was produced by Bo Youngblood and John Ierardi of Showdown Productions, and Will Wernick under his 7930 Entertainment banner. [2] [3]
Voltage Pictures sold the distribution rights to the film in the United States to Vertical Entertainment, which release in limited theatres and for VOD platforms on February 26, 2021. [2] [4]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 7% approval rating, based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 3.7/10. [5] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 35 out of 100 based on 5 critics indicating "mixed or average reviews". [6]
Fear is a 1996 American psychological thriller film directed by James Foley and written by Christopher Crowe. It stars Mark Wahlberg, Reese Witherspoon, William Petersen, Alyssa Milano and Amy Brenneman.
Emma Kate Lahana is a New Zealand actress. She is known for her roles as Kira Ford, the Yellow Dino Ranger, in Power Rangers Dino Thunder, Jennifer Mason on Haven, and Brigid O'Reilly in Cloak & Dagger.
Annabelle Frances Wallis is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Jane Seymour in Showtime's period drama The Tudors (2009–2010), Grace Burgess in the BBC drama Peaky Blinders (2013–2019), Mia Form in the supernatural horror film Annabelle (2014), Jenny Halsey in the supernatural adventure film The Mummy (2017), Rebecca Crosby in Tag (2018), Sandra in Silent Night (2021) and Madison Mitchell in the horror film Malignant (2021).
Clifford the Big Red Dog is a 2021 live-action animated fantasy comedy film directed by Walt Becker from a screenplay by Blaise Hemingway and the writing team of Jay Scherick and David Ronn, and a story by Justin Malen and Ellen Rapoport, based on the children's book series of the same name by Norman Bridwell. The film stars Jack Whitehall, Darby Camp, Tony Hale, Sienna Guillory, David Alan Grier, Russell Wong, Izaac Wang, Kenan Thompson and John Cleese.
F9 is a 2021 American action film directed by Justin Lin, who co-wrote the screenplay with Daniel Casey, based on a story by Lin, Alfredo Botello and Casey. It is the ninth main installment and the overall tenth installment in the Fast & Furious franchise. It stars Vin Diesel as Dominic Toretto, alongside an ensemble cast including, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, John Cena, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Michael Rooker, Helen Mirren, Kurt Russell, and Charlize Theron. In the film, Toretto and his team set out to stop a world-shattering plot involving his younger brother, Jakob (Cena).
Jake Manley is a Canadian actor, best known for his roles as Jack Morton in the Netflix series The Order, Brad in the NBC series Heroes Reborn, Fisher Webb in the CW series iZombie, Shane in A Dog’s Journey (2019), George Waller in Brotherhood (2019), Dean Taylor in Infamous (2020), and York in Holidate (2020).
Inheritance is a 2020 American thriller film directed by Vaughn Stein from a screenplay by Matthew Kennedy. The film stars Lily Collins, Simon Pegg, Connie Nielsen, Chace Crawford and Patrick Warburton. Inheritance was released on May 22, 2020, by Vertical Entertainment. It received generally negative reviews from critics.
Promising Young Woman is a 2020 film written, directed, and co-produced by Emerald Fennell in her feature directorial debut. It stars Carey Mulligan as an unstable young woman haunted by a traumatic past as she navigates balancing forgiveness and vengeance, with Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Chris Lowell, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, and Connie Britton in supporting roles. It incorporates film genres including black comedy, crime drama, feminist film, rape and revenge, and vigilante thriller.
Come Play is a 2020 American supernatural horror thriller film written and directed by Jacob Chase, based on his own short film titled Larry. The film stars Gillian Jacobs, John Gallagher Jr., Azhy Robertson, and Winslow Fegley. A gruesome monster named "Larry" manifests itself through smart phones and mobile devices while trying to take Oliver, a lonely boy desperate for a friend.
Haunt is a 2019 American slasher film written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. The film stars Katie Stevens, Will Brittain, and Lauryn McClain. Set on a Halloween night, it follows a group of friends who encounter a haunted house that promises to feed on their darkest fears, unknowing that the performers have a murderous intent.
Every Breath You Take, also known as You Belong to Me, is a 2021 psychological thriller film directed by Vaughn Stein and written by David Murray. It stars Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Sam Claflin, and Veronica Ferres. It follows a psychiatrist whose life is disrupted after a client's brother who, after the client's death, insinuates himself into the psychiatrist's family.
Solstice Studios is a Los Angeles–based entertainment company, founded on October 2, 2018. The studio developed, fully financed, produced, sold internationally and distributed feature films in the United States on a wide-release basis.
Clickbait is a drama television miniseries, created by Tony Ayres and Christian White. Ayres serves as showrunner, while Brad Anderson, Emma Freeman, Ben Young, and Laura Besley are directors. It was released on Netflix on August 25, 2021.
Unhinged is a 2020 American action thriller film directed by Derrick Borte, from a screenplay by Carl Ellsworth. The film stars Russell Crowe, Caren Pistorius, Gabriel Bateman, Jimmi Simpson and Austin P. McKenzie. It tells the story of a woman who, while on her way to drop her son off at school, is fired by a client over the phone in rush hour traffic, but is then terrorized by a violent and vengeance-obsessed stranger, following a hostile verbal altercation with him at a traffic light. This leads to the rest of the day involving the stranger targeting the woman's family and friends as revenge.
Spiderhead is a 2022 American sci-fi psychological thriller film directed by Joseph Kosinski, with a screenplay by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, based on the dystopian short story "Escape from Spiderhead" by George Saunders and first published in The New Yorker. The film stars Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, and Jurnee Smollett. The story follows inmates in a luxurious prison who participate in experiments involving mind-altering drugs. Principal photography took place in Australia in 2020.
The Guilty is a 2021 American crime thriller film directed and produced by Antoine Fuqua, from a screenplay by Nic Pizzolatto. A remake of the 2018 Danish film of the same name, the film stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Christina Vidal, with the voices of Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Eli Goree, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Paul Dano, and Peter Sarsgaard.
Black Site is a 2022 American action-thriller film directed by Sophia Banks and written by Jinder Ho. The film stars Jason Clarke, Michelle Monaghan, and Jai Courtney. It was released on May 3, 2022, by Vertical Entertainment and Redbox.
The Desperate Hour is a 2021 thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce and written by Chris Sparling. It stars Naomi Watts as a woman who is desperately racing to save her child after police place her hometown on lockdown due to an active shooter incident. The film was shot in the North Bay area of Ontario in 2020. It premiered under its original title Lakewood at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The Desperate Hour was theatrically released by Roadside Attractions and Vertical Entertainment on February 25, 2022.
Emily the Criminal is a 2022 American crime thriller film written and directed by John Patton Ford in his feature directorial debut. It stars Aubrey Plaza as the titular character, alongside Theo Rossi, Megalyn Echikunwoke, and Gina Gershon in supporting roles. The film follows Emily Benetto, a young woman saddled with student debt and locked out of the job market due to a criminal record, who gets involved in a credit card scam that pulls her into the criminal underworld of Los Angeles.
The Road to Galena is a 2022 American drama film written and directed by Joe Hall and starring Ben Winchell, Will Brittain, Aimee Teegarden, Alisa Allapach, Jay O. Sanders, Jill Hennessy, Margaret Colin and Jennifer Holliday.