In the new thriller, Paradise Cove – out now on digital from Quiver Distribution – True Blood actress Kristin Bauer van Straten plays a deranged homeless lady who wreaks havoc on the life of the home owners (Todd Grinnell and Mena Suvari) whose abode she lives under. Quiver has supplied us with an exclusive clip from the film which gives you a good idea of the challenge facing new home owners Knox and Tracey when it comes to the irrational Bree.
The movie serves up a surfeit of ridiculously entertaining moments that wouldn’t be out of place in a Lifetime thriller or a Reagan-era two-hander. Seems the tone is intentional. In an interview with Horror Fuel, director Martin Guigui (Beneath the Darkness) describes the film as akin to one of those fun ’80s thrillers that decade produced in abundance.
“… like Fatal Attraction. There’s some insanity and humor and it’s just entertaining. It’s one of those movies where you just want to forget about the world for a little bit, 90 something minutes, and watch it.”
Though “good old-fashioned entertainment” (the director’s own words), the Sherry Klein-written script is actually based on real events.
“There are a lot of homeless people in California right now. L.A. has a horrible homeless situation. It got worse during Covid. If you’re going to be homeless, you might as well live on the beach where the weather is better all year round. That has been a big issue here in California. That’s what happened with a house in Malibu, people were living under a home because the bottom part of the house gave way to the sand. Instead of having a basement, there was an open deck underneath the house people were climbing in and sleeping at night. They would leave their things in a corner during the day so no one knew they were living there. This went on for months. That’s what this is based on.”
Writer Klein clued That Moment In on when she came upon the idea.
“This particular idea came to me when I was out to dinner with a contractor friend who was working on a Malibu beach house that had been under construction for several years. I’d driven by it and noticed that after it was finished it got leveled again. The contractor told me that the home owner had gotten into an argument with a homeless lady who was living under the pylons. After this altercation, the homeless lady burned down the house!”
Paradise Cove is now available on digital from Quiver Distribution. Watch the trailer below.