Director Christina Raia examines the horror genre with Summit

Last Updated on July 22, 2021

A group of college kids get lost on a road trip and end up going through a horrific experience. It's a set-up that has been used for countless horror movies over the decades, and it's the set-up that writer/director Christina Raia has used for her horror movie SUMMIT as well. However, Raia promises that she then takes things into a more nuanced and character-driven direction, as she wanted to comment on the usual horror formula and tropes while making her own entry in the genre.

The short synopsis for SUMMIT goes like this:

Five college friends hit the road for a ski trip. When they end up at the wrong location and can't backtrack because of the intense cold and secluded surroundings, they decide to take shelter in an abandoned house overnight. When they wake in the morning, things are not quite what they seemed and it's too late to turn back. 

Lauren A. Kennedy, Ryan Kramer, Ricardo Manigat, Rob Ceriello, and Emma Barrett star as the friends who ending up having a very bad vacation.

Inspired by THE TWILIGHT ZONE, John Carpenter's THE THING, and HALLOWEEN, SUMMIT was shot on a sixteen day schedule with a Canon C300 camera and a budget of $25,000. The film is now making the festival rounds, with its next screening scheduled to happen at the Scare-A-Con convention in Verona, New York during the September 11 – 13 weekend. Raia plans to bring SUMMIT to a wider audience by self-distributing the film on VOD platforms in January.

SUMMIT sounds to me like it's something that's definitely worth checking out. I'm looking forward to watching it, and hope it will go over well at Scare-A-Con.