Actors/Actress for Independent Feature

Anna is the older sister—controlled, vigilant, emotionally restrained. She lives to place herself between danger and those she loves, believing in prevention over permission. Quiet and precise, her rare raised voice carries impact. Her tense stillness commands attention. She views violence as a necessary tool, not cruelty, acting from responsibility. Her arc moves from Protector to Enforcer to Confessor to Sacrifice, revealing the cost of control and protection.

Lucy is the younger sister—open, perceptive, shaped by adaptation and emotional survival. She reads people and danger instinctively, choosing to believe in goodness to protect her past. Warm and reactive at first, she grows colder and more deliberate. Her strength lies in pattern recognition, not force. Her arc moves from Denial to Suspicion to Recognition to Inheritance, realizing survival may require moral collapse and the resolve to carry forward alone.

The Mother is abusive, controlling, and emotionally manipulative, delivering cruelty casually and quietly, equating fear with respect. She is terrifying because she is recognizable, not monstrous. She views her children as extensions of herself, treating independence as betrayal. She represents the origin and ideology of violence within the story. Casting should avoid horror villain energy, favoring restrained, familiar menace with minimal screen time and maximum impact.

Lucy's boyfriend. Mark is charming, casual, well-liked. Not a villain. He represents normalcy and the life Lucy might have had away from her family. Function: His death is the emotional turning point — it makes the violence personal and irreversible.

Calm, grounded, emotionally neutral. Rivera is not incompetent — just cautious and procedural. Function: Represents institutional blindness and the limits of rational explanation. Casting Notes: Underplayed authority. Someone who feels trustworthy but distant.

A volatile, aggressive college student. Quick to anger, dismissive of consequences. Function: A moral trap. His behavior allows Anna to justify escalation.

Jason’s girlfriend. Withdrawn, defensive, used to minimizing harm. Function: Living proof that Anna’s violence “works” — which makes it more dangerous.

A belligerent local drunk. Loud, misogynistic, increasingly unstable. Function: Demonstrates Anna’s growing lack of restraint and expanding target range.

Shaken, hysterical, unable to fully articulate what happened. Function: The last external warning before total collapse.