Independent filmmaker Alaskan Nomad Productions brings on the terror in “Rain Bringer.” Director/co-writer Sean Morris and screenwriter Bryan Davidson tie in a violent lynching in the 1930’s, serial killings in 1965, and vicious murders in the present.
What is it that links this series of brutal events to the normally quiet suburb of Greeley County?
That’s the question that Trent Calavados must answer after his mother takes her own life, leaving him with only a cryptic suicide note avowing that their family is cursed. Hyper-intelligent and introverted, abandoned long ago by his father, and an outcast at his high school, Trent is now completely alone.
Brett Harris is an award-winning journalist for the Free-Enterprise, the local newspaper in Greeley. Although the Free-Enterprise is highly respected, Harris is not. He’s pushy, belligerent and has a habit of rubbing the wrong people the wrong way. If he weren’t so good at his job, chances are he wouldn’t have one. Harris is assigned to cover the recent murders in Greeley. Two things stand out about the killings: the unexplainably bizarre and violent method in which they are carried out and the veiled similarities to a stream of killings that happened in the area over 30 years ago.
While on a school field trip to the local museum, Trent stumbles upon some hidden archival photos. The confidential series of pictures begin with a brutal beating that occurred in Greeley in the 1930’s, and end with the lynching of a tall, mysterious and obscured stranger. Using hints buried deep within the photos, Trent begins to speculate that links to the present-day killings may run deeper than anyone had imagined.
After reading Harris’s articles on the recent murders, Trent tracks him down, believing that the reporter has insights and resources that could benefit them both. Together they begin to piece together a string of tangled and seemingly unrelated events. Things become uneasy as Trent begins to have periodic psychological episodes, haunted by living hallucinations of his deceased mother.
In the meantime, the wave of murders continue with increasing depravity in Greeley, each orchestrated by a mute, grisly, hooded creature. The massacres are disturbing in their efficiency and purpose. Each slaying leaves us with new clues – murder weapons, names, bodies propped up and posed as if part of a morbid ritual. But the clues only seem to lead to more questions.
Through a series of shocking discoveries and wicked twists, Trent and Harris find that there are shadowy people in the sleepy town of Greeley who have plenty to hide, that Trent himself could have something to do with the murders, and that the answers to all of these questions are likely locked inside the tortured mind of someone who hasn’t spoken in over 30 years. The circle of violence continues, climaxing in a surprise ending that is as illuminating as it is horrifying.
To learn more about this horror/suspense indie film visit the above linked website.
