DEADLY SPA/ ZEPHYR SPRINGS

US, 2013, 88 minutes, Colour.
Tracey Fairaway, Amy Pietz, Johnny Whitworth.
Directed by Martina Grabiak.

Deadly Spa is a thriller involving dangers for a mother and daughter.

The mother is busy, the daughter edgy, she persuades another to go to a resort which is not only beautiful and comfortable but also offers seminars and exercises. It is presided over by David James (Johnny Whitworth), charming in manner but soon to be seen as the leader of a cult, brainwashing the people who come for renewal, persuading them to depend on him, then emptying their bank accounts and living the luxury life. He is under suspicion when the daughter sees him threatening a young man from the staff whose body she later finds.

The film builds up some tension, a female audience probably identifying with it more, because of the mother and daughter presents and issues.

1. Thriller? Bizarre community? Overtones of the cult?

2. American cities, apartments, gyms, yoga classes? The contrast with the beautiful countryside, the resort, interiors and exteriors? The scenes in the mountains? Musical score?

3. The impact of each title?

4. Kaley and Dawn, the relationship, the daughter’s reaction to the mother, the mother trying to understand the daughter? Dawn and her yoga? Busy? Kaley persuading her to go to the resort? Pooling resources? The prospects of the weekend away?

5. The resort, David, agent appearance, suave and charming? The welcome? The bus, the room, the comfort, the pool, the resources, massages and spas, special sessions, the trips to the countryside, the walks, the beauty, archery, the lunch on the mountain?

6. Kaley and her response, tentative, the friendly staff member? Watching her mother? Jealous or not? Seeing David punish the attendant? Her wariness? Her mother’s fondness for David? The young men wanting to give the note? At the archery, a message that she wanted to be beautiful? David and his persuasive methods? His killing the young man who rebelled and Kaley seeing? Her attempt to leave, finding the dead body? Being taken away, torture, interrogation? Her mother and the escape, their being held together, and binding her mother, getting the bow and arrow, firing at David, ultimately killing him?

7. Dawn, her age, former husband, the work, the holiday, the treatment, responding to it, the attraction to David, his power over her? Puzzled about Kaley? Her not believing her daughter? Kaley’s disappearance, Dawn wanting to phone, David, his lie about the line being down, his quick recovery? Phoning her husband?

8. Kaley and the traveller giving her a lift, David with Dawn in the car, the attack? Kaley and her bow and arrow?

9. The opening, suspicions, the young men driving, the cars coming? Reprised at the end? David and his attack? Mother and daughter surviving?