The Wretched

Seventeen-year-old Ben (John-Paul Howard) is heading to join father Liam (Jamison Jones) for the summer in a lakeside resort community. But this isn’t a vacation: Ben has apparently been acting out since his parents’ separation, getting into mildly criminal hijinks that resulted in a broken arm (and this change of parental supervision). He’ll have to work at the harbor alongside dad, and otherwise keep his nose out of trouble. Ben realizes that something is going on with the hipster couple (Zarah Mahler, Kevin Bigley) renting the bigger house next door. We’ve already seen the wife Abby and son Dillon (Blane Crockarell) unknowingly attract the attention of the wraith-like thing living under a tree while they’re out hiking on forested hills. That night, the family’s baby vanishes from its crib. The next morning, Abby is … different, and Dillon runs in terror to neighbor Ben. The morning after that, Dillon is also missing. Stranger still is that his parents now flatly deny they brought — or have — any children at all. A teen’s suspicions of supernatural doings in a lakeside resort town go unheeded in this nicely turned summer-vacation horror tale.

The 16th Annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival brings you 15 days of mind bending cinema from the San Francisco Bay Area and around the globe culling together a diverse collection of films of all varieties and budgetary considerations.