The Curse of Downers Grove (2015)

A teen angst thriller at a high school gripped by an apparent curse that claims the life of a senior every year. Story follows a senior, Chrissie, who is skeptical, and another, Tracy, who believes that she may be the next victim.

Director:

Derick Martini

Writers:

Bret Easton Ellis (screenplay), Bret Easton Ellis

Stars:

Bella Heathcote, Lucas Till, Helen Slater

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bella Heathcote	...	Chrissie
Lucas Till	...	Bobby
Helen Slater	...	Diane
Penelope Mitchell	...	Tracy
Mark L. Young	...	Ian
Zane Holtz	...	Guy
Martin Spanjers	...	David
Jeff Staron	...	Ezra
Marcus Giamatti	...	Rich
Tom Arnold	...	Charlie
Kevin Zegers	...	Chuck
Sean A. Rosales	...	Mike (as Sean Rosalies)
Joel Michael Kramer	...	Ryan (as Joel Kramer)
Steven Martini	...	Detective Libretti (as Steve Martini)
Jason Dubin	...	Detective

Storyline

Chrissie's last week of high-school in Downers Grove, IL. is a paranoid trip through a small Midwestern town gripped by a 'curse' that claims the life of one high school senior every year. With only five days to graduation, Chrissie Swanson is beginning to wonder if she will be the next victim of the Curse of Downers Grove.

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Plot Keywords:

slasher | curse | high school | father son relationship | jealousy | 

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Hayden Panettiere, Lucy Hale, and Nikki Reed were all cast in the lead female roles when the project was announced in 2011. All dropped out for unknown reasons.

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Crazy Credits

There is a scene after the ending credits.

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Soundtracks

The Hole
Performed by Obliterations

User Reviews

Surprisingly good Araki-esque darkly humorous thriller

I knew this movie was co-written by Bret Easton Ellis but didn't expect much - I really hated the title, the IMDb score for this film was very low (which in retrospect seems really sad) and for a host of reasons I thought it was just a journeyman project for Ellis and it would be some kind of standard forgettable slasher.

The first thing I noticed was that screenplay was very literary and contained a lot of recognizable deliberate sentences and mean humor of Bret Ellis (sometimes it got a little too much, i think meth is mentioned like 3 or 4 times in the first 10 minutes of the movie). Then I noticed how surprisingly good the acting in this movie was. In the end a lot of elements in this movie were familiar but delivered with a slight twist and hence worked for me.

The mix of lo-fi look, acting style, dark humor and menacing atmosphere reminded me most of Gregg Araki movies like "Nowhere" but more plot-driven (another reviewer mentioned some stylistic similarities to "Donnie Darko" and "It Follows", but I think Araki movies are the closest comparison). Araki, of course, was influenced by Bret Easton Ellis and was probably the closest cinematic analogue of his prose.

I think it's a shame that in our age of faceless mass-produced genre movies this one, which has a discernible style, has such criminally low IMDb rating and recommend it.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 August 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Curse of Downers Grove

Filming Locations:

243 E Holt Ave Pomona, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$33,462

Company Credits

Production Co:

AliBella Pictures, Bystander Films, Management Production Entertainment (MPE)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39:1