They Don’t Leave is a short horror film about family, trauma, addiction and taking responsibility for yourself in life.

Our film begins as our main character, a young woman named Carly, drives down a remote road in rural Montana. She is on her way to a cabin that has been in her family for almost a century- yet she’s never been. However, she is recently divorced and is attempting to escape her life, heal and try to quit drinking. She is greeted at the house by Ruth, a somewhat mysterious caretaker who leaves her the keys.

Soon after Carly arrives, she realizes there’s something not quite right about the house; doors click when they’re not supposed to. Strange shadows flicker in the corridors at night. The smell of urine is sometimes overwhelming when there is no reason for it to be present.

Shortly into her stay after coming into contact with a series of these bizarre oddities, Carly discovers a large shoe box that contains three objects, all from the past. As she makes her way through these objects, a sinister familial history begins to unfold and Carly is forced to confront her past, her trauma and herself.

Director’s Vision for ‘They Don’t Leave’

Survivors of childhood abuse have disparate stories, so uniquely specific and subjective to the survivor in question. However, the one thing that unites them is that they are all excellent at keeping their stories close to themselves- we do not speak about these things freely. And what happens when we don’t? The horrible thing you’re carrying around with you becomes heavier and heavier.
When I wrote They Don’t Leave, my main goal was to explicate what happens when we allow generational trauma to rot at the root of who we are. Montana is a place of untold natural beauty, and the sweeping landscapes leant itself well to this concept of “mountains” that we climb throughout our lives; the aspects of our lives that take time and courage to confront and conquer.
We need to believe in a world where we can be vulnerable and open about that which we have survived and overcome. We need to celebrate the fact that if we’re still here, if we’re still trying, we have already won the battle. We need to explore the unfamiliar but very true sentiment that whatever was done to us need not define us – and that while it isn’t our fault, we are responsible for ourselves and the stories that we inherit. What we do with our lives is ultimately down to us. Because of our desire to elevate these narratives and explore these issues, we believe this is a story worth telling.