Witnesses (2019)

Four college classmates are hunted by a ruthless drug cartel hitman when they inadvertently record a murder while shooting their student film.

Director:

Christopher Burgart

Writer:

Christopher Burgart

Stars:

Jesse Howland, Conner Floyd, Rachel Clark-Spear

Cast

Credited cast:
Jesse Howland	...	Steve
Conner Floyd	...	Luke
Rachel Clark-Spear	...	Natalie
Sam Skolnik	...	Quint
Mario Lazaridis	...	El Verdugo
Manuel Soro	...	Xavi 'The Maniac' Montalban
Circus-Szalewski	...	Rick Rosen
Laura Liefer	...	Kelly
Jessica M. Lopez	...	Caged Girl
Alison Kafka	...	Tramp
Christopher Burgart	...	Anonymous ATF Agent
Yunus Pashaliyev	...	Pass-It-Down Kid
Josue Osuna	...	Coyote / Cartel Soccer Ball
Sam Roth	...	Some Talent
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alonzo	...	Vicious Guard Dog

Storyline

Best friends, Steve and Luke, set out to create a short film for their Film Studies class' final project. Over their objections, Luke persuades Steve and their film's cast members, Natalie and Quint, to deviate from the planned shooting schedule and film their final scene in an abandoned warehouse. Inside they discover a cache of guns and drugs, and find a man savagely beaten and being held hostage by a merciless drug cartel. Before they can make their escape and get help, cartel enforcers return and heinously murder their hostage. Realizing they are not alone, the cartel sicarios hunt down to execute the film students that have witnessed their crime. Relentlessly determined to kill them, the college classmates must evade capture and survive against these hitmen, or become their next victims. Driven down into the massive subterranean labyrinth of the warehouse, the students come across a group of captive women held as human trafficked sex slaves, the cartel's secret drug processing ...

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Taglines:

You've never found footage like this.

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Genres:

Crime | Horror | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

Archon Entertainment [United States] Official Site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

9 September 2019 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Archon Entertainment, CLB Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Witnesses was the last production to film at the Firestone Tire factory in South Gate, Los Angeles - the same location for the Netflix film "Bright," starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton, the TV series "SWAT," and the "This Is America" music video by Childish Gambino.

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Crazy Credits

In the end credits there is a "Bark Out To" (like a Shout Out To) Gracie and Rosie. These are two dogs that crew members brought to set throughout shooting.

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Connections

References The Shining (1980)

User Reviews

Solid Small Budget Thriller

This movie has a great premise in that four kids witness a cartel murder and try to escape being killed themselves.

The story was well crafted and held my interest. The dialogue was natural, entertaining and not full of fluff for the sake of dialogue. Each character has their own personality and it shows. We get to know them well and are invested in their escape.

I do wish they made it to the warehouse earlier in the movie, and we got to explore more inside cartel building to see what other scares were lurking around.

Overall good small budget thriller thats worth the watch.