While She Was Out
While She Was Out is a 2008 American horror-thriller film starring Kim Basinger and Lukas Haas. Basinger plays a suburban housewife who is forced to fend for herself when she becomes stranded in a desolate forest with four murderous thugs. It was written and directed by film producer Susan Montford based on a short story by Edward Bryant which was originally an episode of the TV series The Hidden Room in 1993. The film was produced by Mary Aloe and Don Murphy. Its executive producers included Guillermo del Toro and Basinger. The film was shot in 2006 and had a very limited release in 5 theaters in Texas during 2008.
Plot
On Christmas Eve, suburban housewife Della Myers gets into an argument with her abusive husband Kenneth. After putting her two children to bed, she drives to the mall to buy some wrapping paper and cards. At the mall, she can't find a parking space for a while and angrily leaves a note on the windshield of a car that is parked using up two parking spaces. She leaves the store as the mall is closing, and the parking lot is nearly deserted. She notices the note is gone from the 'offending' car. As she enters her own car, the car on which she had left the note pulls up behind her.She confronts the car, and four young men — Huey, Vingh, Tomás and their leader Chuckie — emerge. They threaten to rape her. Della insults Chuckie, and a security guard intervenes, but he is shot dead by Chuckie. As the gang realizes that they have committed a murder, Della manages to start her car and drive away. They follow her, intending to kill her, as she is the only witness. As they pursue her some distance, she eventually crashes her car in a deserted area where homes are under construction. She takes a road flare and a toolbox out of her car, and hides behind a backhoe.
Della runs through the buildings under construction to hide, as they search for her. After some time, the thugs corner and threaten her by name, as they had found her driver's license in her purse in her car. As they have her open the toolbox, she hits Chuckie with a crescent wrench, and escapes again into some nearby woods. In the process of chasing her, Tomás accidentally steps on Huey, who falls through a construction site and dies from a broken neck.
After some hide-and-seek in the woods, Della beats and finally kills Tomás with a lug wrench. She flees through a creek, pursued by Chuckie and Vingh. Della sneaks up on Vingh, kills him with a screwdriver, and hides behind a fallen tree. Chuckie tries to persuade Della to give up; he talks about her kids, saying that he is going to pay them a visit. He tells her what he thinks of her, that she lives a boring life she doesn't want, mistreated by her husband. He finds her, touches her, and teases her face. She holds his hand, pulls him down toward her, and kisses him. He draws his weapon as they engage in foreplay, during which she distracts him. She ignites a road flare and blinds him, takes his gun and shoots him.
Della returns home, passing through the same parking lot where the security guard was killed. Her husband Kenneth, now completely drunk, complains that she was out late and is tracking mud throughout the house, but she merely ignores him. She goes upstairs to check on her children, whom are both sleeping. Kenneth asks what she brought him from the mall, but Della points Chuckie's gun at his head and coldly replies, "Nothing".
Cast
- Kim Basinger as Della
- Lukas Haas as Chuckie
- Craig Sheffer as Kenneth
- Jamie Starr as Huey
- Leonard Wu as Vingh
- Luis Chávez as Tomás
- Luke Gair as Terri
- Erika-Shaye Gair as Tammi
- Rachel Hayward as Lynn
Production