Director: Don Swanson
Writer: Don Swanson (Screenplay)
Starring: Ava Psoras, Alexa Mechling, Betsy Lynn George, MaLynda Parker, Carley Ward, Joe Fishel
Plot: Haunted by the death of her sister, a young woman’s reality erodes as she is plagued by a darkness hidden in her family’s past.
Tagline – A family secret is about to surface.
Runtime: 1 Hour 24 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Occurrence at Mills Creek starts as a family reunites after the death of their mother, Clara (Psoras) looks to take responsibility for her younger sister Cassandra (Mechling), only for an accident to take her away from her, leaving Clara guilt ridden by what happened.
When death continues to follow Clara, she turns to the loved ones around her for support, but deep down, she is still seeing things that can’t be explained the way that makes sense.
Thoughts on Occurrence at Mills Creek
Characters – Clara has seen her mother die suddenly, her young sister die in an accident, followed by her father, her distant family member come to comfort her as she needs to fight the guilt she is experiencing everyday to learn the truth about what has been around her. Cassandra is the young sister that passes away in an accident, she still visits Clara, helping drive into Clara not acting like herself. We do meet loved ones who will help and try to guide her in the right directions.
Performances – Ava Psoras in the leading role is the strongest part of the film, with her showing us everything her character is going through, with the rest of the cast being strong throughout the film.
Story – The story here follows a young woman that finds her life turned upside down by a string of deaths in her life, with the events continuing to haunt her. This is an full feature of a short of the same name, where it builds on the original story of the grief Clara is going through, it looks into the bigger mystery, with the bigger problems, while still keep the core ideas of the story together.
Horror – The horror in the film comes from seeing how Clara is being haunted with different stages of seeing people from her life.
Settings – The settings do takes away from the Creek, which is where the major part of the story took place in the short, it does show us where the normal life for Clara goes after the events, but how she is drawn to it.
Scene of the Movie – The truth night.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The Instagram undertaker.
Final Thoughts – This is a horror film that does build upon the short story, with a bigger mystery behind the deaths coming through.