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DEATH PENALTY

By Michael WRIGHT

Horror - Pre-Production 2014

A group of convicted murderers, who are being transported on board an old freighter, discover the guards and crew mysteriously gone and that they are being executed by ghosts of their victims, who are reaching from beyond the grave to take their revenge…

- Year of production
- 2014
- Genres
- Horror
- Countries
- UNITED KINGDOM
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Budget
- 1 - 3 M$
- Duration
- 90 mn
- Director(s)
- Michael WRIGHT
- Writer(s)
- Michael WRIGHT
- Producer(s)
- Tom GEORGE (Happy Hour Productions), Andy THOMPSON (Gaia Media)
- Synopsis
- Britain. 1965 - On a remote island off the west coast of Scotland stands the cold, granite edifice that is Kilray High Security Prison, home to some of Britain's most brutal killers.
  A group of eight Category A prisoners, including a former lawyer DAVID BOOTHE, are sent to work in the prison workshop, where, following a fire caused by a crazed inmate, a vicious riot erupts, and results in the destruction of part of the prison. The prison authorities are forced to transport Boothe and the other seven Category A prisoners to a prison on the mainland onboard a rusty old supply freighter.
  The prisoners are sedated for the journey. During this, Boothe has a vivid flashback to the events surrounding his wife Martha’s murder, showing her death and glimpses of her killer, Kean, in their London home, several years earlier. We learn through this, and other fragmented memories, that Boothe was wrongly convicted of Martha's murder. Kean, a fixer for an east end London mob, had framed Boothe after he threatened to turn states evidence. But after serving several years for the ‘murder’ of Martha, Boothe escaped and exacted his revenge by killing Kean, only to be given a life sentence for this crime too.
  On the ship, the prisoners wake up to find the ship apparently deserted. They free themselves from their cages and begin to explore the ship. The crew and guards are nowhere to be seen, and the ship drifts lifelessly in the ocean, surrounded by a strange, dense fog. Convinced they are alone, they set about trying to start the engines and work out a route to the mainland, and freedom.
  Their elation at being free is short lived, after one of the prisoners decides to go it alone and heading off in a life boat, only for the boat to drift back to the side of the ship minutes later, with the prisoner's body butchered and dismembered. On board the dark and rusting vessel, Boothe thinks he sees a fleeting vision of Martha, but can't be sure if he was imagining it.
  Disturbed by these events, the normally tough prisoners at first suspect one of the is responsible. But gradually, they realise some malevolent and supernatural force is picking them off one by one, killing each prisoner in turn in a gruesome and vengeful manner.
  On finding the Prison Governor’s dossier on the eight prisoners, Boothe soon works out that they are being killed in the same manner as the prisoners victims were killed - a horrific and brutal version of an ‘eye for an eye’ is being played out by forces seemingly beyond their understanding or control.
  With only a few of the inmates surviving, Piccolo, a feisty convict from Swansea, accidentally discovers a way to drive the ghosts back when he is cornered - they are repelled by electricity, but in order to do this he has to make the ultimate sacrifice. With his last breath he passes on his discovery to Boothe and the other two survivors.
  As the ship floats into rocky waters, the attacks on the remaining prisoners increase. The race is on to restart the engines and make use of the knowledge Piccolo passed on. The prisoners put up a brave fight, but eventually Boothe is left alone to face his personal demon, Kean.
  In a final chase and confrontation, Boothe leads Kean into a trap, eventually defeating the spirit with a huge bolt of electricity from the ships generators. With the ship's hull punctured by rocks, Boothe scrambles and swims his way to safety.
  Washed up on a deserted beach, Boothe sees an old white beach house in the distance. Approaching it, he enters to find himself back in the apartment from his flashbacks, where Martha, waiting for him, forces Boothe to relive the entire flashback and the real cause of her death.
  Reeling from this revelation, she goes on to explain why it’s taken so long to reach him. Raising a gun, the same shotgun that killed her, she releases his soul and sets him free.
- Beginning of shooting
- Oct 01, 2014