The "You" star shares how social media became its own character in the psychological thriller.
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Title: Beneath the Leaves (2019)
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| Credited cast: | |||
| Mira Sorvino | ... | Detective Erica Shotwell | |
| Kristoffer Polaha | ... | Detective Brian Larson | |
| Doug Jones | ... | James Whitley | |
| Aaron Farb | ... | Detective Abrams | |
| Ser'Darius Blain | ... | Josh Ridley | |
| Christopher Backus | ... | Matt Tresner | |
| Christopher Masterson | ... | George Middleton | |
| Tommy Kijas | ... | Officer Cartwright | |
 |
Kee Seymore | ... | Officer Davis |
| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
| Marla Adams | ... | Nadine | |
| Cassidy Barnes | ... | Young Adult Whitley | |
| Randall Barnett | ... | Larry | |
| Lili Bordán | ... | Samantha | |
|
|
Damarr Calhoun | ... | Young Josh |
| Ashlyn Jade Lopez | ... | Young Rose | |
Four small-town boys are kidnapped by James Whitley, a warm-eyed psychopath. His grotesque pursuit to reunite orphaned children with their deceased birth parents is halted when the boys escape and he is arrested. Twenty years later Whitley flees during a prison fire and decides to see his mission through. Detective Larson, once Whitley's prior victim, is removed from the case due to impartiality leaving his partner and lover Detective Shotwell to solve the case. Fueled by rage and a chance of redemption, Detective Larson chases the steadfast psychopath on his own only to fall back into the same trap he once escaped as a child.
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Greetings again from the darkness. It doesn't happen often, so it's probably kind of fun for them when a father and daughter are able to appear in the same film. This is writer-director Adam Marino's first feature film, and he cast Paul Sorvino and Mira Sorvino not as father-daughter, but as Police Captain and Detective. The script, co-written by Marino, Naman Barsoon, Daniel Wallner, and Mark Andrew Wilson treads familiar, yet usually interesting ground ... a crime topic covered previously by numerous TV shows and movies.
The film opens with an abusive father (Don Swayze) doing despicable things to his young son and daughter, before the two of them take action against him. We then flash forward to a prison escape that occurred after a fire is set. One of the escapees is an especially demented psychopath with a trait that ties the story back into the opening sequence. What follows is a whodunit police procedural that focuses on Detective Erica Shotwell (Oscar winner Ms. Sorvino) and the four boys who survived their encounter with the twisted prison escapee some 15 years ago. Doug Jones plays James Whitley, the prison escapee returning to finish the job on the 4 that got away. Mr. Jones is best known for his fabulous "creature" work in THE SHAPE OF WATER and PAN'S LABRYNTH.
The four boys, now grown men, are played by Ser'Darius Blain, Christopher Backus, Christopher Masterson, and Kristopher Polaha, the latter of which is now Detective Shotwell's partner ... though, against his vociferous protests, is prohibited by the Chief from working the case that he is oh-so-close to. Also providing support work are Melora Walters, Jena Sims, and fingernails in general. Director Marino's film is mostly B-level material, and actually much milder than what we see on many TV shows these days. It does, however, reinforce the notion that screwed up kids quite frequently grow into screwed up adults.