‘Don’t Let Them Out’: Emily Rios, Louis Ferreira And Bonnie Root Topline Horror Feature
23.04.2024 - 07:51
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Emily Rios (Snowfall, Breaking Bad), Louis Ferreira (S.W.A.T., Breaking Bad), and Bonnie Root (Cruel Hearts, The Movie, Cold Case) will star in the new independent horror-thriller feature film, Don’t Let Them Out.
Led by screenwriter Lila McLaughlin, who makes her directorial debut and penned the script, Don’t Let Them Out centers on a struggling woman who journeys to a property she has inherited in hopes of selling it to pay off her debts. But upon arriving to the property, the story takes a terrifying turn when the woman is lured into a desperate scavenger hunt down a perilous rabbit hole. The female-helmed film blends psychological twists with haunting horror elements in the vein of Hereditary and The Conjuring, adding in sinister themes of generational trauma woven into the storyline.
McLaughlin and Root are producing the project which is nearing completion at a desert film compound near Barstow, California. It will soon head into post-production with veteran editor Eric Strand (Donnie Darko, Tombraider, Mission Impossible 2, Lethal Weapon with plans for a festival release in 2025.
As an alum of The Second City, McLaughlin has sold and written for independent productions and studios including CBS Films and has previously been invited into studio writing roundtable teams for Universal Pictures and Fox Studios, helping to shape scripts in development for production. She was the 2nd Unit Director and Assistant Director on the award-winning independent feature film Hero Man. In addition, her based-on-a-true-story book, G.I. Hollywood, was published in 2018 by Heritage Builders Publishing and sold nationwide.
Root has starred in indie features like the Sundance Foundation film, Eden, opposite Dylan Walsh