During a girls’ weekend getaway, a heartbroken self-help writer becomes convinced her best friend’s new fling is the devil in disguise. But as the weekend spirals into literal hell, the two friends are forced to confront not only evil, but the painful truths threatening to destroy their bond.
Struggling self-help writer Ange may be heartbroken about her divorce, but she is determined to treat her best friend Tess, whose beloved pup Barley was creamed by an ice cream truck, to a weekend getaway to help lift her spirits. When the "ride-or-dies" wind up on the other side of Death Valley, they resort to checking in to The Motel Between, smack in the middle of the scorching desert. Tess hits it off with mysterious guest Pierce, Ange connects with charismatic concierge Gaela, to whom Ange spills the tea on her secret motivation for the girls’ weekend getaway: to confess Ange is the one who killed Tess’s dog.
But as Tess and Pierce’s bond grows, Ange’s guilt intensifies. She works to conjure the courage to confess her secret that's sure to destroy the friendship. But when Ange learns The Motel Between is a famous site for Satan worship, she becomes convinced that Pierce is the devil himself, and sets out to prove it. But attempts to protect Tess are thwarted by screaming goats, karaoke curses, poolside rituals, and the ultimate discovery that Ange and Tess actually perished in a car crash on their road trip… and The Motel Between is perched on the mouth of hell itself.
As the clock ticks towards midnight on their final night at the motel before the besties are relegated to their respective eternities, Ange and Tess confront the truth about the motel's supernatural nature, Barley’s death, and the consequences of their choices. In a wind storm that sucks Tess into the pits of hell located in the lobby, Ange discovers it’s not Pierce who’s the devil after all — it’s Gaela. Pierce is her good-for-nothing spawn.
Ange makes the selfless decision to trade places with Tess in hell, offering herself to save her friend from eternal damnation. This is the key that opens the pool gates to heaven so Tess can spend eternity upstairs with Barley, and Pierce is relegated to prisoner of hell.
Ange chooses eternity downstairs with her new friend Gaela where the two will run The Motel Between together. Forever.
Ashley Maria is an Emmy Nominated director & writer based in Los Angeles, CA. She is best known for her comedy/horror short “Friday Night Fright” which won a Directors Guild of America award and her breakthrough documentary “Pioneers in Skirts,” airing now on PBS, which follows her own journey to find solutions to overcoming systemic bias in our culture. Ashley is also a Blackmagic Collective fellow in their Filmmaker Advancement Initiative and just wrapped production on her next impact film “Super Human Anxiety,” which will launch in May 2024 for Mental Health Awareness Month. When not on set, Ashley is also a directing instructor at UCLA’s Film School and a sound instructor at the American Film Institute’s Young Women in Film program. An advocate for advancing women’s opportunities on set and off, Ashley takes her commitment to the next level by being a North American delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women – the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and the advancement of women. Since finding this passion for advocacy, Ashley now tells her stories through a sharper lens of equality, even creating a female serial killer in her new horror feature currently in development. Ashley has also grown as a leader through this advocacy work, taking note of the dreadful numbers of diverse representation in the film industry both in front of the camera and behind.
