In a lonely seaside mansion, a West African caregiver and her Alzheimer’s patient face an unknown peril when the old woman’s sinister memories start to reawaken.
With SUNDOWN, my sophomore film as writer/director, I follow in the tradition of films like The Innocents, The Others, and His House in using the horror genre to tell a truly human, house-bound horror story exploring one of humanity’s deepest fears: losing our minds. This is a universal human fear which plays out in the lives of millions whose loved ones experience some form of dementia. I have watched my beloved, incredibly intelligent, fierce grandmother suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, which has steadily eroded her mind until she is unrecognizable. I want to give voice to and grieve for the experience of identity loss, using my character Beverly Cross as our conduit. In this story, Beverly has an opportunity to reckon with her past before it leaves her completely. SUNDOWN also centers the experience of Safietou Sané, a West African home health aide who takes a job caring for elderly Beverly in her cavernous seaside mansion. Safietou’s own mind becomes a conduit as she projects herself into a future she has long dreamed, while struggling to support her family back home. In this, she forms a connection with Beverly as they face a terrible, unknown evil.
SUNDOWN will delve unflinchingly into a too-relatable human horror, imbuing with raw physical power the old wounds lurking in the walls of an ancestral New England home. Growing up around these multistory houses of creaks and groans and endless disused rooms—some built by my own ancestors—I’ve turned the camera inward, where many have buried more than just memories. Generation after generation, women hide past horrors beneath the metaphorical or literal floorboards.
Step inside the Cross mansion... I hope you make it out alive.
Eve started making films when she discovered a video camera in her basement at the age of eleven. Her first feature film BRUT FORCE, a wine country thriller distributed by XYZ Films, is available to rent/buy on Amazon, AppleTV and more! BRUT FORCE has a 100% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes and comes recommended by the New York Times.
Eve has backpacked solo to nineteen countries and visited twenty more. After graduating with a B.A. in Film Studies from Columbia University, Eve's twin passions for film and travel came together at New York University’s Tisch Asia program in Singapore, where she earned her MFA. Her thesis short Tether, filmed in Guatemala, screened at Palm Springs, Rhode Island, and Newport Beach. Eve is based in Los Angeles, where she spent several years assisting producer/director Rob Lorenz (AMERICAN SNIPER, MILLION DOLLAR BABY). She directs commercials, produces branded videos for BuzzFeed (clients include McDonald’s, Subway, Visit California, General Mills), and has produced films for the AFI Directing Workshop for Women and the Alliance of Women Directors.
Eve's debut screenplay CALIFORNIANAS was an Academy Nicholls Fellowship Semifinalist and a Slamdance Competition Semifinalist. Her comedy ORIENTATION was an Austin Competition Finalist and was selected for the Women at Sundance Financing Intensive. She is developing and packaging a horror feature titled SUNDOWN, which is currently a Shore Finalist, Slamdance Semifinalist, Vail Semifinalist, and in the top 1% on Coverfly.
Slamdance Film Festival Semifinalist
Netflix / Dirty Films Proof of Concept Accelerator - Final 12
Script Pipeline - Top 10
Script Pipeline Genre Award Runner-Up
Shore Scripts Finalist
Director - Eve Symington
Director of Photography - Emilie Silvestri
