The most dangerous memory is the one you forgot
SYNOPSIS
Sami, a deaf woman, survives alone in a suburban wasteland stalked by a terrifying presence beneath high-tension power lines. Her only warning of its approach is a faint hum detected by her cochlear implant. Clinging to the hope that her missing family will return, she refuses to leave her fortified home, even as the military prepares to destroy the entire area.
When two mysterious intruders arrive claiming they can destroy the creature using a bomb “fueled by Hell,” Sami’s world begins to unravel. Childhood trauma resurfaces, memories shift, and her grip on reality weakens. As the lines between the supernatural and the psychological blur, Sami must summon the strength to confront the truth, and fight for her survival.
The Womb explores the mind’s defense mechanisms, the devastation of unprocessed grief, and the courage it takes to reclaim one’s sanity. With its raw emotion and psychological depth, the film offers a powerful allegory of healing and human resilience.
The threat is already inside.
The Womb — Streaming August 12
JOURNEY INTO THE WOMB
(writer of Constantine and He Was a Quiet Man)
Every movie starts with an idea, shaped into a script, meticulously planned and then forged into a film. My first three films took this traditional path, necessary in order to schedule cast, crews, locations – you can’t just wing it with so much riding on a film’s ultimate “return on investment.” The Womb was nothing like that. It was born out of an event that none of us had ever experienced – a worldwide pandemic. When your life force is staying busy creatively, it’s tough to be told to stop – move inside – and wait for the threat to pass.
No.
A door with a key slams three times…
The Womb — Streaming August 12
I needed to create – to make a movie. But how? What did I have? Well, Cami just moved into a big empty rental that was in a suburban neighborhood straight out of E.T. It had tall ceilings. Backyard of weeds. An old rotting fence and high tension power lines passing over a field beyond that fence. And an alleyway on one side of the house that felt haunted even in the daytime. So what else did I have…. oh yeah, one very gifted deaf actress:
CAMI VARELA (co-producer)
(“Sami”, Cami Varela and “Young Sami”, Hannah Zamora)
“We’re going to make a movie, Cami.” “I’m working.” “You’re gonna be like Walli from that Pixar movie.” “ Which movie?” “Walli.” What’s my character? “Walli.” “I’m going to play a cute robot?” “No, you’re going to play SAMI, a woman that could be the last person on Earth.” “So it’s a one woman show?” This went on for a bit and beginning of the story came into focus: It’s a world in permanent lockdown – a woman in a homemade hazmat suit – buries bodies out back – plants flower seeds on each grave which has turned this ugly garbage strewn hillside into something a little more … pretty.
(Actors Myron, Martin, Cami, Anzu and Chase at first screening)
So I wrote the first 10 pages and Cami and I shot it on a rainy day. Showed it to some actor friends and they showed it to their friends and once they got the courage to step out of their “safe places”, they said – “What’s my role?” So I wrote scenes that were just for them and shot more days with four actors – just one crew person – Me. Which meant no one could get sick from the invisible monster we were all hiding from.
It was there all along… hiding.
The Womb — Streaming August 12
And about that – “What if this “virus thing” mutated into something that wasn’t invisible? What if it got bigger and bigger and because we could see it – maybe we could hide from it or even kill it.” That idea started a 3 year journey that pulled in more and more actors and crew – a few more locations and — scads of nifty visual effects.
At the beginning I was writing alone, but suddenly I had a co-writer and that was The World and every time I tried to turn left – The World grabbed me and told me to go right. I fought it at first but eventually gave in and let the river take me. The movie that finally emerged was far from what I set out to do but was exactly what it needed to be.
These are sounds only the deaf can hear.
The Womb — Streaming August 12
When I step back now and look at what we created, I’m amazed how closely the structure follows the phases we all went through for those same 3 years. The fear of death drove us into our “safe places” – that was easy – but when things got better, many of us were reluctant to leave those “safe places” behind. The world had changed and so had we. Reality became something personal, and that created an entirely new threat, not one from ‘out there’, but something else deep inside our own mind.
Frank Cappello
Me lost in my greenscreen world having a mind altering drink. Cheers.
Something’s watching from the other side.
The Womb — Streaming August 12
TRAILER
Interested in screening, interviewing, or featuring The Womb?
(We love talking about how it was made and what it all means.)
Email us at: soreb.master@gmail.com