A man finds an injured woman in the woods behind his house. The movie has an ethereal, fairy tale-like feel - made even more magical with the use of a magnificent forest as backdrop. The characters journey through the woods to the home of hermit Osborne Fergus (Solomon Shiv), surrounded by tall trees that tower above them or block their path - having fallen long ago. These ground-laden trees are The Ones That Have Fallen, the trees that lone woodsman Osborne searches for to bring home for keeping warm. That search leads him to a different kind of fallen one, an injured woman named Lou, played by Kate Hodge.

 

Writer/director Susan Hunt had written a different script that she'd planned on shooting as her first feature-length film, when the idea came to her while scouting one of the locations - a location that would eventually become the center of The Ones That Have Fallen. "We'd already set the shooting dates,  made a shot list, and then this movie came into my head.  I knew I wanted this one, this love story, to be the first, so I sat down at my laptop and it just wrote itself." The previous script was more of an action movie, though some things remained constant- Kate Hodge and Paul Molnar in leading roles, and a character that slightly resembled the man that would become Osborne Fergus - along with the house that would become his home, and the vast woods behind it. 

 

With highly efficient rehearsal and shooting schedules designed by Susan and assistant director Eric "Frenchi" LaFranchi, the movie was shot in 13 days in Sullivan County in upstate New York. When asked about the short shoot, actress Kate Hodge insisted "It was a vacation. The beauty of it was that days weren't even long. We weren't over-worked, and we had a blast." Susan Hunt also credits other factors, including the well-done job of her fellow producers, husband Howard Hunt and friend Tammy Gibbens. "We had a kickass crew, and a wonderful group of prepared actors," says Hunt, "and shooting with the Arri Alexa saved countless hours of set-up, and it has a great workflow for post." When asked if she'd do anything differently, she said "18 days. 18 would've let us play with the guns a whole lot more."

 

Though based on a simple idea, the story is filled with references to other stories. Some are pop culture favorites, some literary, some based in the world of corporate espionage. At times disguised in character names or places, or in their conversations, these glimpses invite the audience to other worlds outside the life of the movie. The henchmen searching for Lou act almost as a Greek Chorus throughout the movie, talking about two very particular film and television references. The audience is left to decipher what these unhidden Easter eggs refer to, having entered the conversations after they've already begun. The "bad guys" seem to talk about film and television, while the protagonists talk about books. When asked if this holds particular meaning to her, Susan laughs. "The audience gets to decide whether they have meaning or not, and the good news is, you don't need to know what they are to follow the story. Each reference is written for their subsequent character. One guy reads a lot, one guy watches a lot of TV, and another guy talks about his job because that's all we get to know about him.  I use them because they help to really show which parts of the story are most important- the parts where the characters are connecting to each other instead of imaginary worlds." 

 

The Ones That Have Fallen is a love story with guns and blood, and it's a mystery that keeps you guessing from moment to moment.Backed by Anthony Georgou's modern, celestial score, it swiftly jumps through time with a relentlessly rhythmic pace.At times it feels almost like science fiction, but don't be deceived. As character Osborne Fergus would say, "It means just what it says." 

 

Total running time: 90 minutes.