''Sun Don't Shine'' is a 2012 independent thriller film written and directed by

Amy Seimetz Amy Lynne Seimetz is an American actress and filmmaker. She has appeared in several productions, including AMC's '' The Killing'', HBO's ''Family Tree'', and films like ''Upstream Color'', '' Alien: Covenant'', ''Pet Sematary'', and '' No Sudd ...

and starring Kate Lyn Sheil and

Kentucker Audley Andrew Michael Nenninger (born November 13, 1981), known professionally as Kentucker Audley, is an American filmmaker and actor. He appeared on the 2007 ''Filmmaker Magazine'' list of 25 New Faces of Independent Film. He founded the independent f ...

. It first premiered on March 10, 2012 at the

South by Southwest Film Festival South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...

, where it won a special jury award. The film was released in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unit ...

and through

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

on April 26, 2013, by Factory25.

Plot

Crystal ( Kate Lyn Sheil) and Leo (

) are a couple on the run after Crystal murdered her husband when he accused her of cheating on him with Leo. Leo tries to help the weak and needy Crystal by taking them to St. Petersburg, Florida where they hope to ditch the body and he hopes to get help from a friend that Crystal suspects is one of his ex-girlfriends. When they arrive Leo leaves Crystal at a campsite and goes to spend the evening with his ex. Afraid of being alone Crystal goes to the ex's house where she sees Leo kissing her and attacks them both, threatening them with a knife. Leo manages to get Crystal to drop the knife and the two leave. Leo drops Crystal off at

Weeki Wachee Springs Weeki Wachee Springs is a natural tourist attraction located in Weeki Wachee, Florida, where underwater performances by " mermaids," women wearing fish tails as well as other fanciful outfits, can be viewed in an aquarium-like setting in the spr ...

where she watches the mermaid show. In the meantime he tries to rent a boat, however the owner of the boat rental asks him to leave after he glimpses the inside of the trunk which contains Crystal's husband. Leo enters

and retrieves Crystal before returning to the boat place where they go in the water and throw in the bodies of Crystal's husband and the boat man, whom Leo also killed to protect them. Leo angrily berates Crystal who flies into a rage and hits him with an oar. Believing she has killed him she gets out of the boat and wades to the shore where she sees that local police have arrived. Crystal runs off into the swampland. Meanwhile, Leo recovers from being knocked out and returns to shore where he turns himself in. Crystal wanders into someone's back garden. Seeing a pool she gets in and begins to swim. The owner of the property arrives and asks Crystal if she wants her to call the police. Crystal tells her "Not yet."

Cast

* Kate Lyn Sheil as Crystal *

AJ Bowen Alfred Charles "A. J." Bowen Jr. (born December 21, 1977) is an American actor and producer. He starred in ''The Signal'' (2007) and '' A Horrible Way To Die'' (2010). Early life Bowen was born in Marietta, Georgia, and attended the Universit ...

as Highway Angel *

as Leo * Kit Gwin as Terri * Mark Reeb as Boatman

Reception

Critical reception for ''Sun Don't Shine'' has been generally positive and the film holds a rating of 70 on ''

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

'' (based on 8 reviews) and 93% on ''

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

'' (based on 14 reviews). The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' both praised the film's acting and direction, and the reviewer for the ''New York Times'' remarked that the film "unspools like a

Françoise Sagan Françoise Sagan (born Françoise Delphine Quoirez; 21 June 1935 – 24 September 2004) was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Sagan was known for works with strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois chara ...

novel: purposefully, enigmatically and with a raw emotional purity that makes its volatile central couple appear even more defenseless than they really are."

Awards

*Chicken & Egg Emergent Narrative Woman Director Award,

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...

(2012, won) * Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award, Gotham Independent Film Awards (2013, nominated) *Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You, Gotham Independent Film Awards (2013, nominated)

References

External links

* {{Amy Seimetz 2012 films 2012 thriller films Films set in Florida American thriller films Films shot in Florida American independent films 2012 independent films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films