BENEATH THE SURFACE

By Jane CLARK

FILMMCQUEEN - as PROD

LGBT - Development 2023

13 year-old Ben watched helplessly as his twin brother drowned - an accident his father blamed him for. Twenty years later, Ben returns to scatter the ashes of his father on that same lake. Memories surface dredging up his dead brother who comes out of the dark with revenge in his water-logged heart

    • Year of production
    • 2023
    • Genres
    • LGBT, Female director, Horror
    • Countries
    • USA
    • Duration
    • 90 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Jane CLARK
    • Writer(s)
    • Paul FOX
    • Producer(s)
    • Jane CLARK (FilmMcQueen)
    • Synopsis
    • 13 year-old Ben Truman watched helplessly as his twin brother drowned - an accident his father blamed him for. Now, twenty years later, Ben returns to the family cabin to scatter the ashes of his estranged father on that same lake. Accompanied by his boyfriend, Noah, he arrives at the cabin determined to put his past behind him and begin a new chapter in their lives together.

      On a beautiful starry night, just as Ben is about to propose marriage, Noah receives an urgent call. His mother’s dementia has deepened quite suddenly and he is needed back home. Noah is forced to leave Ben to face his memories alone.

      At the end of a jetty, Ben watches his father’s ashes drift out on the lake. He then listens to a message left by his father the night he died. As hateful words spew out, Ben tries to cut the message short but accidentally drops the phone in the lake. Lunging to catch it , he falls in. He retrieves the phone, but it won’t turn on. As he trudges home, dejected and cut off from the outside world, the forest begins to feel foreboding.

      As hours slip away, with no contact to the outside world, time and place lose definition, the cabin grows sinister and Ben’s increasingly fractured reality conjures the manifestation of his guilt - his dead brother - who comes out of the dark with revenge in his water-logged heart.