Three chilling tales set in and around the City of Angels, a region with dark secrets baked into its past...
AFTERSHOCK: Suzanna Bristol, well-known psychiatrist, and self-help author, is emotionally rattled and displaced from her condo in the Valley by a sudden late-night earthquake. After an odd encounter in a Santa Monica Canyon bar with a mysterious young man watching her from a corner table, she responds to a flyer on the wall behind him for a nearby guest house rental. The rental is a charming but crumbling unit on the grounds of a boarded-up Spanish villa, and as the days pass, Suzanna hears weird sounds, sees weirder lights and visions, and when the young man from the tavern suddenly appears naked in her room one night and then disappears, she realizes the property is severely haunted. She also feels an overwhelming sadness from the ghost and becomes obsessed with finding out why he can't rest.
ONE EYE OPEN: Leo is in his late 30s and despite having occasional sixth sense abilities, has forgotten exactly who he is and where he came from. All he knows is that he's been homeless in L.A. for years and has developed a survival routine that gets him through each day, sleeping in the ivy of a freeway cloverleaf, waiting on food lines, visiting shelters when necessary and groping through fast food dumpsters. One afternoon while contemplating suicide on a freeway overpass, he sees a young couple wearing black on a nearby hillside staring at him. Running soon after from a hostile group of "bum-beaters", he spends the night in the backyard of an abandoned house on the edge of Beverly Hills, where he has a freaky psychic vision of a woman dying in a house fire. Through his friend Victor he learns the woman was Jo Ordway, the wife of a rich tech mogul/producer named Jason Ordway who was briefly suspected of foul play. As his dark "visitations" increase no matter where he wanders and a batch of photos he snapped at the property fall into different hands, Leo finds himself entangled in a reality TV event generated by a sleazy producer, his opportunistic assistant, and Ruby Mellon, Leo's supportive but naive job counselor. In a race to save his sanity, Leo must find out why Jo Ordway is haunting him, and ultimately, discover who he really is.
LOVED ONES: John Griffin owns a truck and van dealership in the South Bay and along with his workmate and best friend Jimmy, they share a weekly passion for "Windy City", a cable drama and especially its lovely star, Gina Coogan. When Gina is found murdered on the doorstep of her Valley house, John and Jimmy are traumatized, and on the advice of his wife Polly, John suggests driving out to Palm Springs for a golf weekend to help them recover. But while attending a memorial service in Hollywood for Gina on the way out of town, they pick up Tom, another Gina fan and drifter and give him a ride back to where he lives in the desert. During a fast food stop, Jimmy discovers a map of the Valley and what could be a murder weapon in Tom's backpack, and immediately suspects their guest. With an inner rage and resentment from a childhood incident involving his father, Jimmy will not take no for an answer and talks John into stalking Tom to his trailer at the desolate Salton Sea, then questioning him about the murder. What results is a thrilling climax and revealing commentary on the power and danger of celebrity worship.
