SYNOPSIS
A bereaved mother is hunted by a cosmic entity she’s convinced is her child.
In deepest despair he shines
In darkest depth he smiles
He lives in gaps between the stars
He burrows holes inside your heart
Embrace the light of ILLUMINATOR
THE FILM
Illuminated is an experimental cosmic horror short of a personal experience of death that parallels our cosmically overwhelming emotional state.
When we meet our main character Solana, we’re already aware she’s being hunted. It is through the jocundity of her elderly neighbor Ruthie and her abrasive methods of care that provide hope that together they can fight the universe stacked against them. Despite finding connection, it is too late.
This film attacks the senses and plays with emotion like a ruthlessly curious child befitting of the infantile monster killing these characters. It remains anachronistic, supernatural, and intimate in its violence creating a physical and emotional experience intended to stay in your thoughts when you’re in the dark staring at your screen, or when looking up at a night sky full of dead stars.
Cast and Characters
Played by the Illuminator
ILLUMINATOR
I am the shadow of the void.
I am the light between galaxies.
Without a beginning I will be the end
And you will embrace the light of
ILLUMINATOR
Played by Cecelia Phoenix
Ruthie
Ruthie is a stubborn but kindly Irish baker enjoying her retirement with a pint and a rugby match. The radiant and talented Cecelia Phoenix brings her own charm, wit and humor to Ruthie's complex love and haunting past.
Played by Chloe Pan-Kita
Solana
Solana is holding on by a thread, her anger and fear brought to the surface by recent tragedy. Chloe Pan-Kita gives a powerhouse emotional performance showing Solana's strength and anger as she battles grief and madness.
THE VISION and THE TEAM
Connor Rowe is the Writer/Director of ILLUMINATED and a founding member of Solana Productions. He loves strangely presented media and ideas that challenge what is certain. As a young man he believed he would make movies his entire life.
His body currently resides in Los Angeles, his heart is with his wife Maeve, his mind is in the clouds, and his soul is on a chaotic elevator between planes of existence.
The artistic group known as Solana Productions created an environment comfortable enough for any insane idea. The collaborators - now friends - continue to dream up ideas like they’re dancing at the end of the world. Mostly because they are. It was only with these amazing creatives in his life that Connor has started to make good on the belief he held as a child.
He will make movies for the rest of his life.
FROM THE WRITER-DIRECTOR
“Illuminated arrived out of the singular fear of the mystery of black holes and quickly became its own world. What started as an attempt at a no-budget short film depicting a space creature presenting as a ghost to eat its prey, has inspired its own mythology.
I became obsessed with cosmic horror as a genre. I became obsessed with belief and world religions. I am now obsessed with western occultism. What was research has become a mystical aspect of my life that is developing alongside this feature project.
The short occurs early in a larger story in which Solana and Ruthie do not fall victim, but instead find safety in a “we’re not a cult” style wellness center until it’s discovered its charismatic leader is obsessed with killing the entity hunting them known as the ILLUMINATOR. It is my ambition to make this feature with much of the same scrappy attitude that made the short’s unique style to dissect not only existentialism, but belief, delusion, miracles, magic and the power of the invisible.
The true horror of these cosmic stories, is not simply that we’re smaller than what we believed in a vast universe, but that what we know to be impossible is often more real than what we believe.”
