Logline: After breaking from 1852's last wagon train to California, a pregnant woman and her husband's family travel toward a supernatural fate as the patriarch descends into madness.
Originally conceived as “the shining on the California Trail,” The Invaders explores the rot at the root of manifest destiny.
The Invaders is a proof of concept short film for a western horror feature titled The Mother of the Ram Horns. After raising 158% of our crowdfunding goal on Seed & Spark, it premiered at the Oscar Qualifying Cinequest Film Festival, and is currently on the festival circuit. The feature script went to the second round at the Sundance Labs. We are actively meeting with producers to get it made, with the intention of filming in Montana - a state with stunning landscapes and considerable tax incentives. If you’re a producer, financier, or potential collaborator, please contact me for a password-protected screener.
Why Now?
I've been writing feminist historical horror since 7th grade... before I had the vocabulary to understand what I was writing. And I'm passionate about Westerns, but I'm interested in the stories that haven't been told. The West was the most diverse place in American history, but you wouldn't know it from watching most of Hollywood's great Westerns. I’m fascinated by its brutal reality, and I’ve spent the past number of years researching what it was actually like.
In summer 2019, I was writing a female-driven Western when a shooter killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart, declaring his attack a response to “the Hispanic invasion” at the border. I decided that instead of just bringing a woman’s perspective to a Western, I’d explore the uncomfortable truth at America’s roots. Thus, The Invaders is more than a horror film, and more than a western: it’s an accountability fantasy for myself and every other child weaned on Laura Ingles Wilder and the pioneer myth.
Writer/Director/EP: Erin Doyle Cooper
Executive Producer: Allison Tolman
Produced by: Bri Goldberg
DP: Demi Waldron
Starring: Christy St. John, Lorelei Olivia Mote, Claudia Elmore, Will Cooper, Simon Haycock
Native Costume Designer/Consultant: Leah Mata Fragua
Pioneer Costumer Designer: Meredith Peebles
Production Designer: Rachelle Flauta
Editor: Giselle Murillo
Colorist: Jenny Montgomery, CO3
Sound Designer/Re-Recording Mixer: Steve Bucino, CAS
Music by: Jessica Rae Huber
BTS photography by: Kyle Rose