When a survivor on a desert island receives the worst gift ever from one of her fellow castaways in a Secret Santa, she begins looking for retribution. But her quest to find the dirtbag who betrayed her leads to a secret that will change life on the island forever.

Director’s Statement

Desert Island Secret Santa is in itself a Secret Santa gift of sorts. Hired Goons is made up of three partners — Tim, Sam and me — and typically all three of us are across every production that we make. This year Sam came up with the great idea to make surprise films for each other. We’re so used to knowing everything that we’re all up to, that it’s hard to be surprised by what we’re each making. So we each set about trying to make something that would delight the others, while also working in complete secrecy so as to not spoil any of the surprises.

This film ended up being very, very loosely based on my own failings picking a gift during a Secret Santa, and the subsequent fear the rest of the day that the recipient was hunting me down. Setting it on a desert island felt like a perfect way of exaggerating the feeling of something small becoming a potentially life and death situation.