By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The rural horror figure is now invading Los Angeles.
Indie Rights will release Dark Atlantic Studios’ STRAWSTALKER later this spring. The found-footage feature with a campy edge was written and directed by George Henry Horton (DARK OBSESSION). The synopsis: “Henry and Haley are a rising content creator couple who’ve just moved into Oak Bridge, a Los Angeles neighborhood marketed as the safest place to live. They’re ready to film every ‘spontaneous’ moment of their new life, unaware that Oak Bridge isn’t interested in being part of their brand. In this neighborhood, the silence is intentional, and the perfection is a performance. When a theatrical scarecrow appears behind their backyard hedge, Henry—a man whose life is a carefully crafted lie—assumes it’s a viral prank. Haley, the ‘true’ heart of the pair who often finds herself going along with Henry’s nonsense, keeps the camera rolling. Then the footage changes. A local warns them that the creature hunts those who aren’t what they seem. In Oak Bridge, the land has a long memory, the neighbors are always watching, and the camera never stops rolling.”
“I’ve always been fascinated by Los Angeles, and especially the San Fernando Valley,” Horton says. “Not that long ago, it was all farmland. Now it’s this strange mix of suburbia, aspiration, and performance. You can’t help but wonder what the land remembers…and what it might say about us now. Out of those ideas, and with a bit of tongue-in-cheek eye-rolling at how performative life in LA can be, STRAWSTALKER was born. We set it in our own imagined neighborhood, Oak Bridge—a place that feels just real enough, but slightly off, like something isn’t quite telling the truth.”
