“Thanks for sticking it out with me.” Such a simple line keeps so much weight in a low-budget but hard-hitting film like To the Moon — whose title derives not from outer space, but from that little line we utter to loved ones (“I love you to the moon”). In the first moments of the film, Dennis (Scott Friend) thanks his girlfriend Mia (Madeleine Morgenweck) for “sticking it out” with him, and we slowly learn why: To the Moon explores a weekend getaway gone wrong. The couple’s makeshift retreat ultimately becomes a hallucinatory nightmare after Dennis’ estranged brother (the scene-stealing Will Brill) arrives unannounced and begins toying with their senses while distorting their sense of reality. It’s a slow-burning thrill ride that will surely appeal to a niche audience.
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From 1091 Pictures, To The Moon is directed by Friend, who also wrote the film. The film premiered at the 2021 Nightstream film festival and will have a one-night engagement special screening on Sept. 19 at Nitehawk Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York. To The Moon will then be available on digital platforms on Sept. 20.
Friend and Morgenweck also appeared together in Kevin Tran’s acclaimed film The Dark End of the Street, while Friend can notably be seen in Dan Sallitt’s Gotham Independent Film award-winning feature Fourteen. Brill, best known for his roles in the popular TV series The OA and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, as well as the indie horror hit The Eyes of My Mother, rounds out the intimate cast of three. To the Moon is a fever-dreamed, mixed bag of different themes and perhaps succeeds best through its familiar family woes. Here’s a closer look.
About The Writer-Director-Star
To the Moon is Friend’s feature film writing and directorial debut. He’s arguably best known for his acting roles in movies like The Dark End of the Street and Union Bridge. “With ‘To The Moon’, I wanted to explore the themes of love, addiction and enabling in the context of family,” Friend once told Collider. “This film, in all of its offbeat and dark humor, is very close to my heart and I hope it resonates with audiences as well as entertains.”
Friend’s character Dennis is a layered combination of different protagonists we’ve seen in psychological thrillers over the years. Friend makes an interesting choice here to make Mia, his girlfriend, the true protagonist here. We think it’s Dennis’ arc throughout the storyline, but the third act takes a clever twist (without giving anything away), and suddenly Morgenweck commands the screen as the film’s leading lady.
Dennis and Mia, the young couple at the center of this dysfunctional family study by way of psychological, psychedelic thriller, are layered characters with lots to unpack here. The tight 83-minute film plays out under the weight of addiction and takes its three leads to darkly funny lows. It thereby takes the trope of the uninvited house guest as well, while turning into a metaphor for the fallout of trauma on the relationship between a young couple.
Blending Different Genres And Themes
1091 Pictures
Dennis, by the way, is a struggling addict and TV actor who sees this retreat to his remote family home as a last ditch effort to detox and save their marriage. Their isolation is disrupted when Dennis’ estranged brother Roger unexpectedly arrives in the middle of their first night, pushing the couple’s commitment to each other to the limit as Roger infiltrates their relationship.
Without giving anything away, the ending of To the Moon is certainly open to interpretation. But how’d we get there? Well, for starters, there are a lot of moving parts in the plotline for such a simple premise. And that’s a good thing. The subject matter is evidently a twist on the unwanted-house-guest trope. It’s a familiar premise as we follow the young couple, who find that their weekend getaway has turned into a mind-bending nightmare. Thanks to a haunting score complimented by a wide variety of camera angles and techniques, To the Moon is often multiple genres at once, blending horror, dark comedy and psychological thriller — especially when brother Roger introduces the couple to his odd meditations, diet and theories on life itself. With a tight duration that goes quickly thanks to the fast-paced editing, To the Moon is certainly worth a tune-in.
