It was a fun evening last Tuesday (15) at the Prospect Playhouse when the premier of the Indie film “Duppies” was shown. Phil Eckstein, an award winning screenplay writer, was on hand to greet the fifty plus enthusiastic audience members who attended the showing. The Playhouse is an intimate theatre and the venue was the perfect venue for this piece of history.

Phil wrote the screenplay, financed it, directed it, edited it and was also one of the camera hands. Wow! This really was a lesson in love. His wife Mary was the makeup artist.

Phil appeared on stage just before the showing to welcome everybody and explain this was a low budget movie costing just over $2,000 and he would help anyone who wanted to imitate his route in producing an independent film. He introduced some of the actors who were in the audience and thanked all the people who had been involved in the production.

The lights went down, we all applauded and the feature film began. We were treated to many familiar landmarks: a car rental agency near the Owen Roberts Airport and Rum Point. Most of the action took place in a North Side home that was supposedly old but looked as if it had had a recent major makeover.

The story involved a young couple that had just moved to Grand Cayman and wanted to start a family. They buy the aforementioned home from a realtor who was sinister by what he didn’t say about the house. Pauses and strange looks that we saw but the young couple were oblivious to. There was a locked door leading to……? The realtor didn’t know nor where the key was but he would obtain it.

With just a few doubts from the male partner our loving couple buy the property and settle down to a life of wedded bliss. Then the trouble starts quickly. Noises. Faces appearing and disappearing. Shadows. Cold spots. The Realtor cannot be located. No one knows who he is. They force the lock on the shut door and find there is a staircase. Not your normal rickety and creaking one full of cobwebs and scurrying rats. This one is modern with a nice carpet and leads to another room upstairs. Our couple bought a house not knowing it was two storey. They were so in love it didn’t matter. Sinister messages on walls telling them to leave and voices are heard. Weird dreams and a young girl keeps appearing.

Investigations reveal that previous owners of the property had all disappeared. A few unsolved murders and a doctor comes to the house telling the couple the house was built on land that had a strange past. A curse had been placed on the property because it should never have been built on this plot of land. The builder did not heed the warnings. Duppy sightings. The doctor is ordered out of the house by the young man and we see the doctor driving off nervously, almost in terror. He eventually has a heart attack in his office and an RCIPS inspector suspects foul play. He even calls the couple about it and after speaking with them tells a female officer, “The man knows something.”

Our happy couple are not happy anymore and start arguing. We witness their first row. They make up and decide to leave as, at last, they realise the house is a home for duppies who don’t want them there. Our two heroes realise they had better leave as something unpleasant is going to happen to them. But they can’t. All the doors are now locked. There is no escape. In their terror they do not realise that perhaps breaking a window might help. Perhaps calling for help via their cell phone might be a way out of their predicament. They hold each other tight and await their fate.

The almost hour long movie was entertaining. There were many holes in the storyline that would have sunk the Titanic sooner. There were irritating jerky edits complete with lighting contrasts. Sound was a little difficult in places. Long gaps were evident between the speeches of the actors. Little back story and almost no character development. Several camera angles and shots were poor with heads missing whilst they spoke. I would have liked a lot more emotion from the two leads. However, it was made for a bargain basement price and that is very commendable if not incredible.

Mr. Eckstein needs congratulations for making a full length movie on such a budget. With some tighter edits he could still make the film look better. “Duppies” is well worth viewing.