Penny Dreadful (film)

Infobox film
name = Penny Dreadful
caption = "Penny Dreadful" After Horror Fest
director = Richard Brandes
producer = Richard Brandes
Braxton Pope
Anita Sgarro
Andrew Weiner
writer = Diane Doniol-Valcroze
Arthur Flam
Richard Brandes
starring = Rachel Miner
Mimi Rogers
Mickey Jones
Chad Todhunter
Liz Davies
Tammy Filor
music = Steve Gurevitch
cinematography = Joplin Wu
editing = Ben Le Vine
distributor = Freestyle Releasing LLC
released = 18 November, 2006
runtime =
country = United States
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website = http://www.pennydreadfulthemovie.com/
amg_id = 1:378926
imdb_id = 0454224

"Penny Dreadful" is a 2006 independent horror film. It was shown at the horror film festival 8 Films To Die For in the same year.

Plot

Penny, (Rachel Miner; "The Black Dahlia", "Bully"), a young woman traumatized by a childhood auto accident that killed her parents, accompanies her therapist Orianna (Mimi Rogers; "Austin Powers", "Someone To Watch Over Me") on a road trip back to the scene of the accident as part of her therapy to overcome her fear of cars. On their way up a secluded road, Orianna finds out that Penny is taking sleeping pills; this disappoints her, as the pills are slowing Penny's recovery.

She explains this to Penny in frustration, and fails to notice the hitchhiker standing on the side of the road. Orianna accidentally hits the hitchhiker and then offers the Hitchhiker a ride to their destination, which happens to be an even more secluded location. The Hitchhiker remains completely silent during the drive with his hood pulled up to conceal his face. The only action the Hitchhiker takes besides silently offering them a skewer of raw meat is checking out the bag in the backseat containing a book written by Orianna, which then leads to Penny explaining the reason for their trip and her severe fear of cars.

Orianna and Penny drop off the Hitchhiker in the middle of the road going through a camp, which is closed for the season. The duo does not get too far, however, due to a flat tire caused by the Hitchhiker, who punctures the tire with one of the meat skewers. Orianna insists that Penny wait in the car while she goes to try and get some reception on her phone to call for help much to Penny's disapproval as she knows the hitchhiker is waiting out there for them.

Orianna sets out for help, but she doesn't get far when she sees a bright light in front of her. Penny waits anxiously in the car; after half an hour she realizes something has gone wrong. She leaves the car and tries to locate Orianna. Penny finds a phone and tries to call for help, but the phone is disconnected. As she turns around she sees the Hitchhiker behind her, and tries to run, but falls and hits her head.

When Penny wakes up, she is sitting in the car again, with the video camera in her hands. She turns it on to find a video recently recorded. She watches the video in horror as she realizes that the hitchhiker taped the murder of Orianna. Penny starts to panic, and when she looks to her side she sees Orianna's body in the seat next to her and realizes that she is trapped in the car between two tall, thick trees and there is no escape.

Penny tries to call for help, but the Hitchhiker continues to terrorize and torture her. A man who works in the mountains tries to help, but is killed by the Hitchhiker who is hiding under the car.

Penny is tortured for another few hours and continues to take sleeping pills to escape the madness. When she awakes for the last time she turns around to find the hitchhiker sitting in the back wearing Orianna's clothes, who then tries to strangle her while saying, "Don't forget your breathing ex cerises, "Penny". She manages to fight off the Hitchhiker and escape from the car, only to trip over. The hitchhiker finds her and tries to attack but a man driving a truck drives past in time to hit the Hitchhiker with his truck. The Hitchhiker appears to be dead at this point and the truck driver is panicking. He tells Penny to wait in the car while he assists the Hitchhiker. Penny feels a bit of relief as she watches the man and the dead Hitchhiker. But terror boils up when she realizes the Hitchhiker is still moving.

DVD Special Features

*"Behind the Screams" Featurette
*Teaser Trailer
*Sanity "Stay Away" Music Video
*16x9 Widescreen Version
*5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital Audio
*English and Spanish Subtitles
*English Closed Captioning
*Trailers

External links

* [http://www.pennydreadfulthemovie.com Penny Dreadful the movie official site]
* [http://www.horrorfestonline.com/archive/2006/film2.html Penny Dreadful at the Horror Fest official website]
* [http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/pennydreadful/trailer/ Trailer at apple.com]
* [http://www.dreadcentral.com/index.php?name=Reviews&req=showcontent&id=1195 Review at Dread Central]
* [http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2006/11/18/richard-brandes-on-directing-dread Richard Brandes on directing "Penny Dreadful"]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454224/ Penny Dreadful on IMDb]
* [http://hollywoodgothique.com/pennydreadful2006.html Film Review]