Yoko Okumura (“The Bold Type”), in her feature film directorial debut, delivers an incredibly thrilling horror film with, Unseen.
Synopsis: Two women form an unlikely connection when a depressed gas station clerk SAM (Purdy), receives a call from EMILY (Francis), a nearly blind woman who is running from her murderous ex in the woods. Emily must survive the ordeal with Sam being her eyes from afar using video call.
Unseen stars an ensemble cast of Midori Francis (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Jolene Purdy (“Orange is the New Black”), Missi Pyle (Gone Girl) and Michael Patrick Lane (“Dynasty”). The film is written by Salvatore Cardoni (Gnomes & Trolls: The Secret Chamber) and Brian Rawlins. The film was executive produced by Alexander Kruener, Jeremy Gold, Chris McCumber and Jason Blum.
Check out our interview with Yoko:
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT:
I was drawn to Unseen as a director because at the core of a fast-paced survival thriller, there was a story about an unlikely friendship between two women that ends up saving both of their lives. My own female friendships are truly the bedrock of my happiness and fulfillment in life even as an adult. Since kindergarten I’ve been collecting lifelong female friendships that continue to fuel me through this mad existence we call life.
Once I knew the central relationship of Unseen was something that I deeply valued and connected to, we were off to the races. Blumhouse was so supportive in letting me infuse the film with my personal style as a director. The writers Salvatore Cardoni and Brian Rawlins were collaborative in further developing the nuances of the characters with me, the cinematographer Federico Verardi and I worked to create a cinematic language that would connect the two separate and far away worlds together on screen, the production designer Spencer Davidson ran with my desire to infuse a kitschy color palette of Pepto Bismol pink and Mountain Dew green into the gas station set. Every department was stellar in helping me brighten up the world of Unseen and creating a world that embodied both dark tension and a sense of humor.
Now our cast. I gratefully lay offerings at the feet of the movie gods (and of course our incredible casting director John McAlary) for bringing my two incredible leads Jolene Purdy and Midori Francis to this film. Both of them are 100% superstars that everyone in the entertainment business must be paying attention to.
As a Japanese American girl who grew up in the Midwest never seeing herself represented in North American media, I am floored that for my directorial debut feature I got to have not only one, but two Japanese American women as my leads! All of us with our own varied backgrounds as Japanese Americans, Midori from New Jersey, Jolene from Torrance, and I from Kyoto via Minneapolis, I loved that there was actually so much diversity even under the umbrella of our shared identity. They are my movie stars. The heroes I need to see in this world. The fact we got to come together to be this trifecta and create a film about women coming together and fighting back, is a dream come true.
I am eternally grateful to Blumhouse, MGM+ and Paramount for the support they gave us to be our authentic selves and am so pumped to continue to create color packed, femme powered genre films for the world to enjoy.
