As most of the East Coast from Minnesota to New Jersey anxiously waits to see how this next snowstorm pans out, I can’t help but remember a particularly interesting horror film that takes place in another snowy area, the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Completely different parts of America, I know, but whenever I think of a snowy, scary movie I always think of Donner Pass from Elise Robertson and I would like to recognize her today as part of Women in Horror Month.
Elise Robertson is one of the most knowledge female filmmakers in the game right now. She has worked in every medium of performance – theater, film, television, and more – and she has taken on a variety of jobs within each category. I mean, how many filmmakers have worked in the animation department on The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and the visual effects department on Starship Troopers (1997) while also producing stage plays and family friend short films and television shows? If anything, this shows off how versatile she really is.
In 2012 Robertson wrote and directed Donner Pass, a horror-thriller which takes an unfortunate historic event and turns it into a current, bloody slasher film. Set against the 1846 Donner Party incident that is still talked about to this day, a small group of teenagers think they’re in for a fun winter’s getaway when they party in a cabin where the well-known alleged, documented case of cannibalism happened. Not so surprisingly, the teens start to go missing one by one and it becomes obvious someone or something is lurking in the woods just outside the cabin. Donner Pass is available on VOD outlets, just incase you need a horror flick to keep you company while the snow falls this week.
Elise is an Emmy Award winning director and actress who has appeared in Vacancy (2005) and an episode of “True Blood” in 2011 among many other roles. Currently you can find her in a supporting spot in American Sniper which is in theaters nationwide.
Follow Elise Robertson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/eliserob.
Find her full resume on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0731826/.
