Recovery

Waking up in a basement chained to a radiator after an alcohol fuelled night out. Philip slowly pieces together the events of the previous night. He soon discovers that he is at the mercy of Wayne, an evangelical fundamentalist, who has been driven to misguided revenge over the death of his wife and son. Realising that Wayne’s twisted idea of salvation will lead to his death Philip must do whatever he can to survive.

  • Marcus Scott
    Director
  • Heath Hetherington
    Director
  • Marcus Scott
    Writer
  • Heath Hetherington
    Writer
  • Marcus Scott
    Producer
  • Heath Hetherington
    Producer
  • Adam Cryne
    Key Cast
  • A.J. Salisbury
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Thriller, Horror, Drama
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 11 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    June 1, 2017
  • Production Budget:
    2,500 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Marcus Scott, Heath Hetherington

Heath: Living in Australia for most of his life, Heath moved to the UK in 2014. Always looking for new challenges Heath has worked in a range of diverse fields such as LGBTQ+ Health and Activism, construction, Government Welfare and Stockbroking. Writing and directing films is his latest challenge.

Marcus: First time film maker and youngest member of crew on set Marcus has achieved his goal of being a filmmaker at the age of 22. Eschewing formal education in film Marcus went straight from writing unproduced screenplays to directing his first feature.

Heath and Marcus met when they were both working in a call centre in Leeds. They became friends over their love of film and irreverent humour. The name OBD Films (Orphaned by Dingoes) comes from one of these jokes. Over a drink Marcus suggested an idea for a film. A back and forth ensued and the first seeds of Recovery were sown.

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Director Statement

The core idea for Recovery is based on the universal fear of losing control through intoxication. A shared fascination with religion and morality led to the exploration of the idea of divine purpose justifying abhorrent acts. The Steven Weinberg quote “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion.” is representative of one of the core principles of Recovery.

In the villain Wayne, we set out to create a character who would come across as both a dangerous threat to the protagonist and a sympathetic, misguided and ultimately understandable man. Our protagonist, Philip is an everyman who introduces us into this situation but Wayne is our channel into exploring the themes of redemption, grief and salvation.

To add ambiguity into the film, towards the conclusion of the film, we have Philip our seemingly irreligious protagonist betraying his fellow captive to escape his imprisonment. Subverting the central premise of religion causing an otherwise moral person to act immorally. A flashback structure is employed as a tool to flesh out the character of Philip and to mirror his degradation in the basement. Just as in the present day Philip becomes compromised by the need to survive we show in the flashbacks his descent into drunken melancholy and introversion.

To match the themes of salvation we used visual signifiers such as an early use of vertical lines to show imprisonment contrasted against later use of more wide open spaces to suggest freedom. Also to play into the themes of redemption and imprisonment in the early flashback scenes the visual palette is colourful and the lighting is bright but as it gets closer and closer to the present day it becomes darker and more morose which also contrasts with the present day scenes as they start in the dark of Wayne’s basement and end in the relative brightness of day.