Suffer a “Beatdown” in Our Exclusive Clip from Dark Comedy Cop Horror SURVIVAL SKILLS
Josh Millican
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Look for the dark comedy Survival Skills next month via Cranked Up Films, Good Deed Entertainment’s genre label. The independent studio will release the film, starring Stacy Keach (Man With a Plan), Vayu O’Donnell (9-1-1), Spencer Garrett (Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood), Erica Kreutz (Dead to Me), Tyra Colar (Guiding Light) and Emily Chisholm on demand and digital, December 4th.
Today, Dread Central is thrilled to share an exclusive clip from the film! Give it a spin below the trailer and synopsis!
Synopsis:
Survival Skills is a biting police training video from the 1980s expertly narrated (Keach) like so many of the educational videos we remember fondly from a most radical decade. Lost for years and only now recovered, we meet Jim (O’Donnell), the perfect policeman in a perfect relationship in a perfect community, who gets in over his head when he tries to resolve a domestic violence case. Before long, the ugly underbelly of the ‘Good Guys in Blue’ begins to expose itself and Jim decides to take matters into his own hands.
| We open on a crackling VHS title sequence where our Narrator (Stacy Keach) introduces us to the movie, or, a police training video starring Jim (Vayu O’Donnell), a bright-eyed police cadet who is anxious to begin his life on the force. Good luck, Jim! Jim is assigned a partner, the no-bullshit Allison (Ericka Kreutz), and when the newly paired team gets a domestic abuse call, they dutifully head out to investigate. They come to find Mark (Bradford Farwell) and Leah (Emily Chisholm) fighting, but when they both deny any violent acts occurred, Jim is struck by his inability to help the situation. Allison deals him some tough love, informing her perky partner that sometimes the law trumps morality. Sorry, Jim. Overcome by duty and a yearning to do “good,” against the advice of both the Narrator and his partner, Jim begins to stray from police protocol in order to help this family. He goes so far as to convince their daughter, Lauren (Madeline Anderson), to go on tape about her father’s abuse, and persuades Leah to testify in court. But when Leah refuses to testify at the last minute, Jim is completely disillusioned. Luckily the Narrator reminds us that this is all too common in the life of a police officer. Poor Jim. |
“This film stems from my years of work in domestic violence, filtered through a darkly comic lens and a full-throated attack on modern American policing,” stated Writer/Director Quinn Armstrong. “With incredible work from the legendary Stacy Keach and Broadway vet Vayu O’Donnell, Survival Skills may make you laugh, it may make you cry, but I guarantee it will surprise you.”
What do you think of our exclusive clip from Survival Skills? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.
