DAVID SUMNER: RESET
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Written By Jennifer Ariesta
The cabin is where the majority of RESET, a film with just two people and one location, takes place. This setting made the scary parts of the movie seem more real and saved money on making it. In the movie, a first-year college student, Danielle, is taken by Edgar, a troubled person. Edgar has a lot of trouble when the women turns him down, and his lack of social skills has made him dangerous. Danielle is lucky to have a magical item that lets her "reset" and try different ways to get out of Edgar's well-guarded resort.
David Sumner claims that while viewing earlier thrillers and wondering whether a character would genuinely survive the circumstances shown, the concept for this movie initially came to him. Because of his extensive military experience, he used to constantly evaluate movies from a tactical perspective, such as what are the
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If At First You Don't Succeed, Die Again.
advantages and disadvantages. Given the situation—a young woman being held captive by a serial killer in the middle of nowhere with no special training—she will surely perish. So how can I let her die while there's still a chance?
Danielle is a regular college student going to get her degree (Alyssa Corella). When she wakes up, she is in a new bedroom. Edgar (Ben Barlow), her "host," shows up soon after offering her breakfast and saying that he took her in after seeing her drunk and unresponsive. He also tells her that Bryna Vogel and Daniel Austin, two of her best friends, have left her after a fight. Even though they are talking about it, Danielle doesn't know if her friends will leave her. Why does he also say that a friend took his car, that her phone is dead, and that he is broken? Isn't it strange that Edgar lives in the middle of nowhere, 1.5 hours away from where the party is? And why do all the doors and windows in his house have number of locks and padlocks? Danielle immediately knows she has been taken, even though Edgar says she hasn't. Edgar, who calls himself "the decent man here," says that Danielle would like him more if she got to know him better. Danielle eventually tries to get away, but Edgar holds her down and strangles her. Danielle dies and goes to heaven, but she can't stay there because of a ring that her late grandfather, Earl Sumner, gave her. When she puts on the ring, she is taken back to Edgar's house, where she wakes up for the first time. Danielle tries to beat Edgar this time because she knows what will happen. However, she dies again and returns to life at Edgar's house. She tries to run away again and again until she dies and then wakes up. She finally tries something new to get to know Edgar and learn more about him. When she does, she finds out that she is not his first victim and that he has killed all of his other victims. She has a slight advantage because she can change her fate and keep reliving the same event, but how many times will she be able or even willing to die?
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The movie has a low budget, so Sumner wrote a script that could be shot in a few places with a small cast while still being interesting. With this idea, he could still do many different things while spending less time setting up. Once it was clear how Danielle's character should have grown, writing the screenplay was more accessible in many ways. Sumner says it's essential to write the start and end of each scene. He said, "In real life, we walk into a room, talk to the family member for twenty minutes, and then leave. Since a movie scene can only last a minute, it might be challenging and take a lot of time for me to write a character walking into and out of a room in a way that seems natural.
"What I like about horror is that it can make me feel excited in my gut with very little. If you want to get the audience excited, thrilled, or emotional, you can spend $100 million on an amazing car chase or have a sympathetic character get chased by a masked killer."
– David Sumner (writer/director)
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