Sharp Objects '99-'00 Synopsis:        A young man living with his parents in the woods of Georgia is hired to dog sit one weekend when their neighbors go out of town. Upon entering the house and realizing how big it is, in addition to the large amount of accessible alcohol, he decides to invite his friends to spend the weekend with him at the house. After the first night of the weekend long party, people start to turn up missing as news reports are broadcasted from the local news station that police tracked the Railway Killer to their town the night before. And, that a manhunt is underway, beginning from the train he was on, but headed toward the opposite direction away from the house they are in. Everyone starts to panic, making an attempt to drive back into town, only to find that their vehicles were sabotaged sometime during the night before. Too far to hike, the remaining guests try to wait it out until the neighbors return from their trip. When dead bodies begin to turn up with evidence pointing to the partiers themselves, everyone turns on each other in a violent battle for survival. The Production:        Even though Wes wanted to attend film school, it was never a real possibility. After high school, Wes attended Jacksonville State University where the faculty tried to push him towards Journalsim. After running into a couple of friends at the college from his hometown, one of which happened to be a broadcast major, he talked them into checking out the school’s equipment for the weekend long shoot and to even help film the movie.

After recruiting students from the college to star in the film, Wes talked his bestfriend’s parents into letting him bring an entire cast and crew to film at their house for a weekend long 3 day shoot.

When the weekend finally came around, Wes actually managed to get everyone from the college to the house in Georgia for filming. Everything was already behind schedule, however, and scenes were already being shuffled around so that filming could begin upon arriving at the house, without rehearsal.

As the first group arrived at the house, everyone began unpacking equipment and scrambling to set up the first scene before the second group arrived. They had arrived late at night, way behind schedule, and did’nt want to wake the parents, so they headed off into the woods with lights and cameras. Moments into the first take, trucks came tearing down the dirt road toward the group and the bestfriends dad jumped out of the truck screaming at everyone to jump into the truck because the group was being hunted in the woods by shotgun wielding neighbors who thought they were trespassers. Now that the night was ruined, everyone was sleepy and tired from the trip so they called it a night.

The plans for the rest of the weekend slowly unraveled as they were never able to get back on schedule, not that they would have been able to finish shooting all of the scenes as planned anyway, because the idea was ultimately ridiculous. Returning to the house to finish shooting became less and less of a possibility as the year passed and the film was eventually scrapped.


Fun Facts:


1. The screenplay was co-written over the internet with a writer from the UK.

2. The story was based on the actual Railway Killer who had been illegally riding trains through Kentucky and surrounding states, killing attendants and homeless people who were also riding the trains along the way.

3. The presence of the Railway Killer contributed to the psychological terror that the real killer was creating, but was never an actual threat to the people staying at the house, which is revealed at the end of the story.

4. The “twist” that is teased in the poster, was that the neighbors did hire the young man to dog sit, but were killed by their own son who was friends with the young man, and was invited to the party at his own house as planned.

5. Several characters kill each other in defense, suspecting the other of murder, even though they are innocent. Another character uses the opportunity of the situation, which they had been patiently waiting for, to exact revenge on the people responsible for the death of their sibling earlier in life. The third killer, the son who actually lives in the house, sets the weekend up for his killing spree after having the psychotic breakdown that led to the death of his parents. The insanity of it all is amplified by the possibile presence of the Railway Killer, who is the main suspect for the majority of the story.