PRISM is an independent feature film delving into mysteries of existence

The Intruder

Story Notes

Cage's room is full of color, shape, and love. He sneaks his prism to comfort himself off to sleep despite feeling uneasy.

A crash awakens the household, then slow deliberate footsteps pace in the empty space between the boy and his parents. This intruder seems completely calm and at ease. Unfazed by threats and even invigorated by Michael Martin's attack. There's also something odd about his voice, his eyes. Something not quite right.

The scene quickly escalates to a brutal execution style murder of Cage's parents as he lies in bed, helpless, in shock, unable to process these events. He looks for some sort of comfort by trying to view the acts through his beloved prism.

When the intruder approaches Cage to complete his night of "fun", he calls Cage "one of the fractured ones". This is a reference to Cage's autism. To his unique way of viewing the world. He also derogatively calls him a "splinter", as in a splinter of broken glass. The question of course is how he knows these things.

Arrogantly the intruder moves to bring the night to a close, but Cage has been working hard the entire time to get a handle on the moment, and the players. In a final act of defiance he is able to "SEE" something of the true nature of this intruder.

For a split second, through the prism, reflected in the black pupil of Cage's eye, we see a twisted and distorted figure. In this moment cage has broken through the boundaries of our physical existence. He is sees the universe without filters. He sees this entity who has hijacked a human body to feed its bloodlust. This is the only time we get a glimpse of the entity.

In this moment, Cage does more than simply see the entity. Through shear force of will he reaches out and binds the creature to him, using the image in the prism as a focal point. From this point on, Cage is caught in a desperate nightmarish struggle to maintain this image in his mind and thus to maintain his hold on the entity.

He does not completely understand what has happened, but he knows that he cannot let it happen again. So he holds on to the essence of this otherworldly entity with every fiber in his being. It sends him into a form of voluntary catatonia, but how long can he hold on before exhaustion takes over?

Filmmaker's Notes

This was a grueling weekend because we had an unbelievable amount to do and not enough hours to do it. 24 hours before the first shot, we didn't even have carpet on the floor in this house. It is a pure testament to the power of collective will that we got the shots we needed, and then some.

We were also blessed with a pretty creepy full moon.

We chose to do a fairly high production value shot here with a long dolly-crane flight across the front of the house, with activity going on inside the house, ending up in Cage's window. This was a time consuming shot for an indie picture, but well worth it in this instance.

Brett was an amazing young man who nailed each take, and brought some unique ideas to the shoot. This was a lot to do for him and he handled it with grace and talent.

You'll also see a shot of cage in bed peeking over his father's shoulder which is mirrored in the final scene by Leanna peeking over the bed to the newly awoken cage. It is a look which implies the momentary recognition of a strong attachment.

Interviews

Selected Scene Explorations

Thoughts and Spooky Production Stories:

HInts and Inspirations.