| The Other Side | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Gregg Bishop |
| Produced by | Gregg Bishop, Chad Eickoff |
| Written by | Gregg Bishop |
| Starring | Nathan Mobly, Jaimie Alexander, Cory Rouse, Poncho Hodges |
| Music by | Kristopher Carter |
| Cinematography | Sherman Johnson |
| Editing by | Gregg Bishop |
| Distributed by | Allumination Filmworks (US) |
| Release date(s) | 28 September 2007 (USA theatrical) |
| Running time | 95 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$15,000 |
The Other Side is a 2006 film directed by Gregg Bishop. After graduating from USC Film School, Bishop financed The Other Side with the $15,000 profit from his short film Voodoo (1999). The movie went on to premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and was presented theatrically in limited release in 2007[1].
Contents |
Samuel North has returned from college to reunite with his girlfriend Hannah Thompson. However on the night he is to have a romantic dinner with her on the banks of a river she does not show up and he is run into the river by a large white van. His soul goes to Hell, aka "The Pit", where he is tormented by the worst memories of his life, such as being bullied, finding his parents murdered and the regretful taxi ride which took him from Hannah to college. However, he experiences only a moment of torment before being rescued by other people who have found a way out. He escapes and wakes up along with the other escapees in a hospital, where he learns that Hannah did not return home the previous night and he is a suspect for her disappearance. Before he can find out anymore the three bounty hunters dispatched from hell to retrieve them appear and only Sam and two others escape. The duo, Mally and Oz, have both escaped numerous times only to be caught and brought back. They explain that two of the three bounty hunters are Switchers, who need to switch from dead body to body when their host body is killed. However their leader, a Changer, does not need to change unless into its native demonic form. They escape to a motel filled with escapees, all scarred by the Mark of the Damned, which is how the Reapers track them.
Mally and Oz originally plan to escape to Mexico however Sam decides to find Hannah. Mally wants to flee to Mexico however Oz wants to help Sam find Hannah, believing that helping him may be their ticket to Redemption and out of The Pit for good. Mally relents and the trio go to the bar where Hannah worked and Sam discovers Hannah was constantly being sexually harassed by a regular named Isaac and that one of Hannah's friends told Isaac that Hannah was reporting him to the police. She further explains that Isaac followed Hannah out to her car and didn't return home that night. The trio find Hannah's car in the woods near the river and a dead body next to it. Sam's police friend Peter informs him the dead body was John Rice, who drove a white van. However he was pulled over and stabbed to death and his white van was hijacked. Later that night while picking up a few items from his brother, David, Sam is shot at by a man in the white van and his brother is injured. After dropping David off at an Emergency room he breaks into Isaac's house and interrogates him only to receive a truthful answer that Isaac left Hannah alone.
Sam returns to the motel just before it is attacked by the Reapers. Although many escapees are killed and sent back to The Pit they succeed in sending one Switcher back to Hell. However, Mally and Oz, tired of fighting, decide to leave for Mexico. But before they can leave Sam tells them the sin for which he went to Hell (he had kept it secret): Murder. Despite this Oz and Mally leave Sam alone to fight the Reapers. Later on Sam is attacked by the Reapers however manages to send another Switcher back to Hell. Meanwhile Hannah's body is found in a river by a couple and the search is called off.
David meanwhile is fired and Peter offers to drive him home. On the way he sees the white van and finds the driver has entered a motel. Before he can call in backup however David shoots and kills him and confronts the man in the white van. It is revealed that David hired the man to kill Hannah and Sam. He berates him for being careless and not burying the body and ditching the van. The man however forces David to arrange a meeting at the Church between him and Sam. They meet and it is revealed the man is William Cain, the man who murdered Sam's parents and as revenge Sam killed him as he was trying to escape. William also escaped from Hell and offered to kill Sam and Hannah so that David could claim the inheritance, as their parent's will left everything to Sam and Sam's will left everything to Hannah. However before Will can kill Sam the final Reaper, the Changer, arrives and attacks both of them and kills William, but not before he tells Sam that David hired him to kill him. Now in its natural form the Changer nearly kills Sam before being killed by Mally and Oz, who have returned. Oz confesses that Sam didn't escape by accident and was in fact broken out by Oz, who is a Guardian Angel. He offers to take Sam down to Mexico however Sam stays to confront his brother. David admits not only to having Will kill Sam and Hannah but also having their parents murdered by him because he was jealous of his parents' treatment of Sam as well as for the inheritance money. Following their argument Sam is shot by David however in a brief struggle Sam gains the upper hand and spares his brother only to be shot in the back as he is leaving. As the police arrive to arrest David Sam has the opportunity to fire back at David, however he instead spends his final moments staring at a picture of him and Hannah happily together. For this act Sam gains redemption for his previous sin and when he dies he awakes in heaven with Hannah, where they spend the rest of eternity happily ever after.
Nathan Mobley as Samuel North
Jaimie Alexander as Hannah Thompson
Cory Rouse as Mally
Poncho Hodges as Oz
Shale Nelson as David North, Sam's brother
Stephen Caudill as Pete, Sam's Police Friend
Chris Burns as Isaac
Vince Canlas as William Cain