Nick and Ailsa live on a remote farm in rural England, reeling from a personal tragedy. They’ve slowly shut themselves off from the outside world and, eventually, each other. Their fraying marriage is disrupted when a teenager, Maxine, arrives on a stormy night, soaking wet and claiming to be lost. Ailsa takes her in despite Nick’s protests and suspicions about the circumstances of her arrival. But Ailsa has ulterior motives for being so welcoming, while Maxine has her own reasons for needing to stay.Though initially wary of Maxine, Nick gradually warms to her, and her presence brings an unexpected energy into the house, awakening a side of him that Ailsa thought was lost. But just as Nick and Ailsa start to reconnect, the past Maxine has been running from threatens the unlikely refuge she has found. When violence erupts inside their isolated world, the deceptions that have allowed Maxine to remain in their home begin to unravel, putting everything they have begun to rebuild at risk.

About the Director

Ryan Patch cut his teeth telling campfire stories in the mountains of his native Colorado. A writer, director, and producer, his work spans film, television, audio, and immersive storytelling.Half Way Down, shot on location in Yorkshire, marks his feature directorial debut. He most recently co-created and directed City of Ghosts, a ten-episode neo-noir audio drama starring Jack Haven, Golshifteh Farahani, Erin Darke and Kevin Pollak. The series was acquired by Realm and optioned for television by eOne/Lionsgate.His sci-fi thriller Regulation, starring Sunita Mani (GLOW), played at more than 25 festivals and was acquired by Gunpowder & Sky’s DUST platform. His horror short, The Offering, screened at Palm Springs International ShortFest and was named a Vimeo Short of the Week. His NYU thesis film, The Sheol Express, won the Audience Award at the First Run Film Festival and was distributed internationally by Shorts International.Before turning to narrative filmmaking, Ryan worked as a documentary journalist, filming in Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, and West Africa, and his writing often combines themes ripped from these geopolitical adventures with grounded genre stories. His television writing was selected for the Black List’s inaugural Staffing Book, and he is a Stowe Story Lab Fellow.Ryan holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and an MA in Screenwriting from Royal Holloway, University of London. For more, visit ryanpatch.me.