Andrea Morris Movies
Director/screenwriter Anthony Stagliano uses a rare genetic disorder that refuses to let the body shut down as a jumping off point to explore such issues as identity and faithfulness in a world where dreams and reality are indistinguishable. Arthur Dichter (David Connolly) is a devoted husband suffering from a rare genetic disorder known as fatal familial insomnia. A disorder that typically doesn't manifest itself until adulthood, fatal familial insomnia causes the afflicted to suffer insomnia, intense phobias, panic attacks, hallucinations, dementia, and ultimately death. As Arthur slips ever deeper into the grips of fatal familial insomnia, he wanders the city streets in a sleepless bid to keep his body moving. After losing the ability to communicate, Arthur begins to self-mutilate and record his thoughts in a diary that he will not even share with his long-suffering wife, Anna (Sarah Lassez). His doctor begins to speculate that Arthur may be suicidal, but Anna knows that her husband is simply locked in a strange new reality from which the only escape is death. As despair, loneliness, and alienation take hold, Anna refuses to allow her husband to slip away without one last valiant fight. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Connolly, Sarah Lassez, (more)
A family of paranormalists investigates the strange goings-on at a high school still reeling over a student's very public suicide in this teen thriller. Hangman's Curse concerns the further exploits of the Veritas Group, a loose collective of people committed to researching supernatural mysteries. The group's members include the Springfield family -- parents Nate (David Keith) and Sarah (Mel Harris) and Elisha (Leighton Meester) and Elijah (Douglas Smith) -- whose current assignment takes them to the aforementioned high school. There, they find that Abel, the teen who took his life, had been long ostracized by various cliques in the school -- jocks, popular kids, and the like -- all of whom are falling prey to mysterious ailments. As Nate and Sarah watch from the sidelines, it's up to Elisha and Elijah to pose as students to get inside the mystery. Hangman's Curse was based on the novel by Christian author Frank Peretti. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Keith, Mel Harris, (more)
- 1995
- R
The often tragic lives of the residents of a Nova Scotia coal mining town are viewed through the eyes of a depressed young woman in this grim period drama. Set in the 1940s, the film begins with a brief, intentionally puzzling interlude before flashing back several years to focus on the story of Margaret MacNeil (Helena Bonham Carter). Margaret has suffered through the death of her father and her brother, both of whom perished while working as coal miners, and has subsequently developed a hatred for the mines that provide the town's primary source of economic support. When she finds herself attracted to charming stranger Neil (Clive Russell), she is thrilled to learn that he has no plans to work in the mines. When Margaret and Neil marry over the opposition of Margaret's stern mother (Kate Nelligan), financial troubles force him to go back on his word, with unfortunate results. Based on several short stories by Sheldon Currie, the film draws an unrelentingly bleak picture of its subject, concentrating on the numerous hardships, from black lung to deadly cave-ins, that haunt the coal-mining community, resulting in a gloomy and at times morbid drama. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helena Bonham Carter, Clive Russell, (more)
