White Knuckles

Julie (Martie Ashworth), a sweet, subdued career housewife seems perfectly content in her life with her record player, houseplants, and cooking, despite her irritable husband William (Larry Strauss, in the performance of a lifetime) of 40 years whose hobbies are sleeping and watching tv. Provoked into a sudden state of fear – Julie’s innocent eyes become watchful and suspicious, and her perception of reality makes a dark shift. William is the unsuspecting victim faced with his own mortality – guilty of bad decisions and haunted by karma. Between them is an escalating war. If the cycle is to break, both must be awakened to the raw reality of a true life or death choice…

The writer/director/producer Kevin K. Shah, producer Zak Forsman and their team of artist-filmmakers, engage in a radical creative collaboration. The incredibly talented and fearless cast gave themselves to a guided improvisational process that captured deeper truths as they emerged – they abandoned the script before the end of production to make for an honest resolution that could never have been staged. What ultimately unfolds on screen is a compelling human drama that is terrifying and meaningful, darkly funny, suspenseful and above all – honest. White Knuckles takes us on a courageous journey to redemption.

“…the result is a relentless and haunting parable about forgiveness – a floating, ghost-like voyeuristic cinematic style that searches the face for clues, as if to save us from the uneasy feeling that the tide is rising…” – Shrina Anya, NoEnd Press

White Knuckles results from a deep collaboration between the filmmakers and a cast willing to take risks without feeling judged or vulnerable. Where Larry and Martie take the hearts and minds of their characters is incredibly courageous and often feels uncomfortably real. Their gritty depictions resonate with the kind of heartfelt honesty that is rare on screen, and their acting is the farthest thing from rehearsed ‘performance’. Basically, the idea was to create, seek out and discover moments of deeper understanding between Julie and William that could not have been pre-determined.

We took the scripts back before the end of production and opted to capture the remarkable conclusion of Julie and William exactly as it happened.