RED HOOK, THE MOVIE

The origin of RED HOOK came from discussions between RSMP and Sammy Buck (Red Hook's screenwriter) and Elizabeth Lucas (its director), where we felt a gap that currently exists in the low-risk/low-budget commercial movie and DVD market. We felt that teen thrillers, perfect for couples watching at home on dates, had been replaced by a flood of shocking, gross-out horror movies. We also felt that it had been a long time since a uniquely New York horror movie had been created, one that seemed individual to the city as it exists in 2007.

We realized as we talked that the group of us had tremendous assets to apply to exactly the sort of project we were talking about. We began to design a project that would leverage our broad range of skills and our contacts in the NYC entertainment industry to create something deliberately low-risk, targeting a wide consumer base and connecting to the teen audience with the type of thriller that we feel is not being currently created.
Combining a fast-paced thriller with smart pop culture sensibilities, Red Hook will be fun and frightening, smart and scary, an edge-of-your-seat chiller that will keep the audience at home hiding in each others arms.

We will shoot on Hi-Def Digital under the Screen Actors Guild Ultra Low Budget Agreement, and Red Hook will move into principal photography in August 2007, under the management of Michael Hein, experience horror film creator and director of the NYC Horror Film Festival. All budgeting and scheduling has been planned to minimize the risk involved for investors and maximize the options for distribution; the schedule allows the movie to reach the market by Halloween 2007, where it can be presented to sales agents and distributors at a number of film festivals and markets across the US.

The Story

Suburban tract mansion. Safe? Jenny Traylor, 13, is about to find out the answer is no.

Her older sister sends Jenny off to bed, but she can't sleep. There's a slasher on the loose. Her sister opens the door for a young policeman. He reports the slasher has been spotted in the neighborhood. Jenny sneaks out of her room to eavesdrop. And to witness the most horrifying scene anyone can see:

The policeman stabs her sister, dragging her bleeding body to the expansive backyard. He descends onto her sister to make his sick version of love. A bullet stops him. Pierces him. Kills him. But it's too late: Jenny's sister's defiled corpse lies in the backyard.

And Jenny is watching it all.

New York City. Six years later. Jenny leaves home from her North Carolina community college to transfer to New York State University. Her parents think she's nuts to go to the big, scary city. But she knows scary. She's seen scary - where she thought she was safe. “When you grow up with shit like that, New York City should be a breeze.”

Despite her bravado, she senses she's being followed. Worse, her reputation precedes her: her roommate has googled her and learned Jenny's traumatic story. After Jenny overreacts to an intruder in the bathroom (oops, it was the maintenance man), she earns a reputation as a paranoiac. She feels alone, especially since everyone in her dorm is obsessed with the upcoming back-to-school citywide scavenger hunt.

Still, she makes a new friend in Gavin, another sophomore down the hall. He understands her: he lost his brother. One day, though, the two are caught in the crossfire of a bodega robbery. Jenny begins reliving the trauma she thought she left behind. Where can she feel safe again?

Her perky RA Tim encourages her to join the hunt. She should bounce back and enjoy the city. Gavin reassures her she'll be okay: they will be a team.

On the day of the hunt, Gavin is nowhere to be found. And Jenny's classmates on the hunt are being killed one by one. A murderous gamemaster has hijacked the scavenger hunt and kidnapped Gavin with a specific challenge to Jenny: join the hunt and save his life. She must fight her fear and play the game.

Set across the city in locations both famous and offbeat, the hunt leads Jenny and her fellow students into more and more sinister clues. With the hunters themselves being hunted, Jenny races to save Gavin and win the ultimate prize: staying alive.