Experiencing Interruptions?

The Girl in the Photo

Another day, another victim for under-the-radar serial killer Dylan Weaver. He is driven by his desire to photograph the rawest human emotion: desperate fear. Each woman he photographs begging for life and then brutally kills, is collateral damage for his art and ascension to serial killer stardom. His popularity in the local news media grows with his body count, so the pressure is on to keep the police and the public interested. On the heels of his latest kill, Dylan has a new unsuspecting victim right where he wants her: his passenger's seat.

  • Sannah Parker
    Director
    Visions of the Past: Wessyngton Plantation (Producer/Editor)
  • Sannah Parker
    Writer
  • Emily Bowman
    Key Cast
    The Steps, Babe: Pig in the City, 20q
  • Jimmy Sowell
    Key Cast
    The Originals, The Joke, Fortune Falls
  • Chaz Holley
    Assistant Director
    Hoarders (PA)
  • Chandler Gilbert
    Director of Photography
    Visions of the Past: Wessyngton Plantation (Cinematographer)
  • Sannah Parker
    Editor
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 37 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 25, 2015
  • Production Budget:
    200 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    DSLR
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Frightening Ass Film Festival
    Chattanooga, TN
    October 31, 2015
    First Place, Short Horror Film Competition
  • East TN Film Gala
    Knoxville, TN
    December 9, 2015
    Best Emerging Director, Best Horror Film, Best Music/Sound
  • Genre Celebration Festival
    Los Angeles, CA
    March 9, 2016
    Best Director
  • Texas Ultimate Shorts
    Online Festival
    April 22, 2016
    Best Horror Short-Short
Director Biography - Sannah Parker

Sannah Parker is a filmmaker and editor with a particular interest in the horror and documentary genres. She is a two-time Best Film award recipient at Chattanooga-based Frightening Ass Film Festival and recently received the Best Emerging Director award at the East TN Film Gala among other awards. She also produced and edited Tennessee State Museum exhibited historical documentary Visions of the Past: Wessyngton Plantation. She developed her love for filmmaking while earning her Bachelor's degree in Communication at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. There she also received the Audience Choice award for her submission to the school's social justice documentary competition. She spent several years under the mentorship of award-winning filmmaker and TV producer Linda Duvoisin, from whom she learned invaluable producing, editing, and storytelling technique. Sannah looks forward to continued learning and developing her skillset with each project she takes on.

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Director Statement

When writing a horror film, I ultimately tend to consider what scares me the most personally. I find little more disturbing than the wild card mind of a serial killer. Even more terrifying, is a serial killer on the loose, killing and killing again without consequence, and little perceived motive.

A girl in a photograph, pale and scared, flashed across my computer screen one day. Despite a feeling of unease, I returned to the photo for a second look. The girl in the photo was Regina Kay Walters, one of the many victims of convicted serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades.

The photo of Regina Kay Walters is so chilling, because her last moments of fear and desperation are captured forever, and will be seen over and over by disconnected people scrolling through the internet for years to come. I thought to myself, "this kind of thing could happen to anyone. This could happen to me." If you happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, or trust the wrong person, you could be walking to your death.

The Girl in the Photo follows a young Rhoades-esque serial killer, who gains the trust of his female victims with his looks and charm. He then brings them back to a remote, wooded area where he plays with them psychologically before torturing, photographing, and killing them. He does not have a type, but his motive is to produce compelling visual art with his photographs.

The idea of someone so charming yet so evil truly scares me, but also seems to be a common denominator among some of the most notorious serial killers. It is that charm and detatchment that makes us love popular television characters like Dexter. It is that same quality that makes some women fall in love with convicted serial killers like Richard Ramirez or Charles Manson, and write letters to them in prison (or even marry them). It is that charm that can make a girl decide to go home with a guy she just met, throwing caution to the wind.

Many men and women have gone home with a stranger; the unknown can be exciting. But what if the unknown that follows a blind date, or the unknown that follows meeting someone at a bar, actually turned out to be a deadly trap?