SOUR
Donna Davies, Ruby Tree Films
Language: English
Based On: Original Screenplay
Project Type: Feature Film (Scripted)
Genre: Horror
Stage of Development: Production slated for early 2027
Estimated Length (minutes): 100 mins
Director: Doug Karr
Director Bio:
Doug Karr is a Cannes Lion-winning, Sundance-alumni writer/director. His short film Ten for Grandpa premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and screened at more than fifty international festivals, winning multiple awards; his debut feature Art Machine (Joseph Cross, Jessica Szohr, Joey Lauren Adams) was acquired by NETFLIX. Over two decades, he has directed award-winning commercials and branded content, with multiple Cannes Lions and Adweek honours. SOUR, co-written with Douglas Robertson, is his sophomore feature and a homecoming: a Nova Scotia story built for the province's locations, crews, and rich history.
Proposed or Confirmed Talent:
SOUR is produced by an experienced Atlantic-Canadian team Donna Davies, Marie David, Doug Karr with deep Telefilm and Nova Scotia production relationships, alongside seasoned executive producers Jason Levangie and Marc Tetreault of Shut Up and Colour Pictures who have championed the project for over three years.
Total Budget: 1.4 million
Percent Confirmed: 100%
Currency: $ CAD
List names of confirmed partners:
Telefilm, Nova Scotia Film & Television Production Incentive Fund
Federal Tax Credit, Nova Scotia Content Creators Fund, Private Investors
What is this project seeking?
Distribution, Broadcaster, Co-production Partner
Logline:
A recovering addict takes refuge in a remote Michelin-starred restaurant kitchen, only to become the vessel for a 300-year-old sourdough starter’s unfinished ritual.
Synopsis:
Colin Hooke, a recovering addict, flees the city after accidentally killing the man who revived him from an overdose. Desperate and untethered, he hitchhikes to a remote Nova Scotia coastal town and stumbles upon St. Anthony's Fire, a Michelin-starred restaurant chasing its second star. Chef Leo Blackwood, whose Cornish family has run the kitchen for generations, hires Colin for night cleaning, seeing something of his own troubled past in the young man's desperation. Unbeknownst to Chef, Colin secretly takes up residence in the restaurant's attic, where an upside-down chair hangs on the wall like a warning he cannot read… a relic of colonial witch trials when eight Blackwood ancestors were burned for practicing "St. Anthony's Fire." Colin's world fractures when he tastes Chef Leo's precious 300-year-old sourdough starter. The sour triggers a shockwave of hallucination and euphoria: a vision of his dead mother lifting her head from the kitchen table, foam at her lip, smiling at him. For the first time since he found her overdosed as a child, Colin feels full. His addiction transfers completely to this ancient substance, and something inside the starter recognizes the void in him and rushes in. Night baker Jessi, who sells dried flakes of sour on the dark web quorum.ro, becomes Colin's reluctant guide into its occult mysteries… unaware that his obsession is transforming into something far darker than dependency. When Sous Chef Ryan discovers Colin's secret consumption, violence erupts. Rather than flee, Colin drags Ryan to the attic and packs his wound with sour, believing the starter will heal him. As Ryan ferments alongside the dough, Colin descends further into madness, chasing visions of his mother that the SOUR keeps just out of reach. He tries to destroy it, hurling the jar into the fire, but the possession reclaims him. Jessi discovers the horror Colin has created in the attic. She is fascinated by it, until she too becomes his victim. As Chef Leo prepares for a potential Michelin inspector's visit with a skeleton crew, Colin contaminates dishes with fluids harvested from his fermenting victims. The dinner service devolves into chaos. In the haunting climax, Colin completes an ancient ritual… eight bodies arranged beneath a marsh pyre, finishing what a colonial mob interrupted three centuries ago. He summons the moon to weep. The mother is awake now. And thanks to Jessi's dark web sales, her children are already everywhere.
Contact Information: donnadavies@rubytreefilms.com
