Brad Dourif attends a ‘Death and Cremation’

Actor Brad Dourif is most commonly known for his roles in genre fare such as Exorcist 3, Grim Prairie Tales, and the Child’s Play series. In more recent years Dourif has expanded his repertoire on television with roles in Deadwood and Law & Order, but that hasn’t stopped him returning to the more creepy roles with which he made his name, such as in his latest movie Death and Cremation.

The debut of director Justin Steele, Death and Cremation is from a script by Alecc Bracero and Justin Steele, and stars Dourif along with Jeremy Sumpter (Friday Night Lights), Scott Elrod, Debbon Ayer (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Daniel Baldwin (Homicide: Life on the Street), and Staci Keenan (My Two Dads, Step by Step) in a story that takes place:

In Crest Point, [where] people go about their day-to-day lives with no sense of urgency and standard stereotypes abound. There’s the high school bully with the popular girlfriend. The single mother raising her son after her husband has died. The detective who’s never cracked a big case. Then there’s Stan (Brad Dourif), a single 59 year old recluse who contributes to society by offering cremation services from the basement of his funeral home.

Jarod Leary (Jeremy Sumpter), a bullied and fatherless 17-year-old high school outcast doesn’t even try to fit in with his high school peers. Dressed in black, with his hair and fingernails matching his wardrobe, Jarod draws attention to himself but not in a good way. He’s constantly picked on by resident jock David Valentine (Blake Hood) and doesn’t seem to have much luck with the ladies either. Many decide he’s a freak including cool girls Lindsey Weaver (Kate Maher) and Courtney Taylor (Madison Eginton), and although Courtney doesn’t mind him, Lindsey has other plans.

In addition to troubles at school, home life for Jarod isn’t much better. Living out of a trailer, Jarod has to put up with nagging from his mother, Martha Leary (Debbon Ayer), and her budding romance with self-righteous immigration attorney Rick Waters (Sam Ingraffia). Sick of the badgering, Jarod finds after-school work as an apprentice at Stan’s cremation house. The two quickly develop a quirky working relationship and soon Jarod starts to see Stan as a father figure.

Not long after Jarod begins working at the cremation house people start to go missing, including Lindsey Weaver. Her parents Bill (Daniel Baldwin) and Becky Weaver (Staci Keanan) tell suburban detective Matt Fairchild (Scott Elrod) about their recent family visit to a cremation house, and all trails lead to Stan. Rick begins to apply pressure on Jarod to accept him as Martha’s boyfriend just as Jarod gets acclimated to life at the cremation home. When Jarod rejects a summer trip to Alabama witnessing Rick shows his ugly side. Detective Fairchild, meanwhile, steps up his investigation as more bodies amass. It’s then that Stan must decide if protecting his newfound trainee is worth killing for.

Death and Cremation comes from AJI Productions & Clifton Production Services, Producer Ross Otterman, Executive Producer Ken Hedrick, Co-Producer Tiago Mesquita, Executive Producers Raphael Kryszek, Daniel Aldema, Andy Jensen Sved and Associate Producers Sean Dubravac and Matt Ilczuk.