X'ed Out
Nancy Urich & Seth Smith, Cut/Off/Tail Pictures
Language: English
Based On: Literary Adaptation
Project Type: Feature Film (Scripted)
Genre: Horror
Stage of Development: Scripted
Estimated Length (minutes): 90mins
Director: Seth Smith
Director Bio: Smith is an obsessive multidisciplinary artist and outsider-horror auteur. Handling the writing, directing, editing, and score of his films, his work stands apart as a singular voice—his films frequent genre festivals world wide and are praised for their tone and visually rich, surrealist style. In 2017, The Crescent dawned at TIFF, earning multiple awards; his follow up, TIN CAN, premiered at Sitges 2020, and was championed by critics. In 2021, Dust Bath, wowed at TIFF and Fantastic Fest. His latest feature PERMANENT DAMAGE, starring Stephen Dorff, premieres at Fantasia this Summer. X’ED OUT will be Smith’s fifth feature.
Total Budget: 7M CAD
Percent Confirmed: 45%
Currency: $ CAD
List names of confirmed partners: NS Incentive Fund 42% all spend
What is this project seeking? Financing, Distribution, Sales Agent, Co-production Partner
Logline:
A live action adaptation of the best selling graphic novel series by Charles Burns.
Waking from a coma after a brutal attack, a noise artist scours the city’s underground for “the Hive”— a clandestine breeding facility rumoured to be holding his pregnant girlfriend captive.
Synopsis:
1978. A man named NITNIT awakens with a severe head injury, ragged memory, and a crippling pain-pill addiction. Concealing his scars behind a handmade mask, he prowls the city’s underground—punk venues, back- alley markets, and the art college—searching for Sarah, his lover and an experimental filmmaker who disappeared without a trace. As he struggles to uncover the truth of her whereabouts, memory bleeds into hallucination. A tip-off from a conspiracy-theorist friend points to her involvement in a biological experiments program in the restricted zone beneath college known as “The Hive.” In an earlier timeline (1977), DOUG—a 20-something noise artist with more ambition than craft—drowns in self-loathing... until he locks eyes with Sarah at one of her exhibitions. The art-school siren blends pain into poetry on 8mm film, and an instant obsession ignites. Their romance and artistic collaboration push creativity to the limit... but the return of Sarah’s violent ex, Larry, and an unexpected pregnancy shatters their equilibrium.
At the midpoint, these two identities converge—Doug driven by love, Nitnit consumed by loss—Nitnit tears off his mask, revealing Doug’s face, cut up and mangled from near-fatal beating from Larry. After more investigation, self reflection, and unsettling discoveries, Doug finally uncovers The Hive’s clandestine operation—a compound where college students are bred to produce a secret reptilian race. He finds Sarah at its centre. A final doorway opens for Doug: into dream, memory, or madness. Nevertheless, Doug enters. The hardships
that brought him here were of the utmost importance, each a masterful brushstroke in Sarah’s final thesis exhibition.
Contact Information: nancyurich@gmail.com seth@cutofftail.pictures
