ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
A young woman spends the weekend looking after a secluded mansion, unaware that she may be embroiled in a series of mysterious disasters and her own imminent demise.

SYNOPSIS
HIDDEN TRAILS is a story about the modern experience of stunted existence. You can’t find a stable job despite your parents telling you the world is yours. You can’t find a partner despite a buffet of dating apps. You can’t think clearly despite having zero obligations. How does psychic malaise manifest physically in a person? What is it like to desire in a world with endless options but no real possibility? The film explores these tensions, a case study in how precarity affects a person’s wellbeing.

Ellie is a temp receptionist at a medical clinic somewhere in Southern California. One day at work, she unwittingly unleashes a ransomware attack that leaves the clinic’s system in lockdown and her job in furlough. Thus begins a weekend of solitude house-sitting for a vague acquaintance of her mother, though a series of disquieting omens threatens her newfound bubble. A missing airliner dominates the news; her phone alights with an amber alert for a stolen car she spots outside; and a lotus flower ornament in the living room emits a strange pull and a piercing, high-pitched tone.

Ellie’s innate desire to make order out of entropy, to experience the pleasure of a world that makes sense, dissolves the barrier between fantasy and reality. She’s being trailed, leaving trails, trailing behind, trailing away…

PROJECT TYPE Narrative Short

DIRECTOR Nick Harwood
SCREENWRITER Ryan Petersen, Nick Harwood
PRODUCER Jake Agger

WEBSITE industryplant.biz/