The Recovered is a 2008 No Budget Psychological Horror film written and directed by Jay Bauman and Mike Stoklasa of RedLetterMedia. It stars Z-movie scream queen Tina Krause as Beverly Sloane, a heavily medicated woman who is haunted by Repressed Memories as she returns to her hometown to handle her mother's funeral.
To date, it is the only non-comedic RedLetterMedia production.
The film provides examples of:
- All Just a Dream: One possible interpretation of the ending. According to Word of God, it's not supposed to be interpreted this way, though they admit that it's fair to do so.
- Bald of Evil: The Business Man is bald and the main villain of the film.
- Catapult Nightmare: Beverly awakens from several nightmares by bolting upright. In the DVD commentary, the directors both regret using this trope because it never actually happens in real life.
- Crazy-Prepared: As a child, Beverly was creeped out by the Business Man and created a trap in the woods outside her house in case he came after her. It's not clear whether he actually fell into it or if this is just a wishful memory.
- Credits Gag:
- The typical "this film is a work of fiction" end disclaimer includes the undead.
- The last Special Thanks credit is to "Steak (the food)." In the Behind the Scenes featurette, Bauman cooks a steak at the premier for the absent Tina Krause, and it ends with a voice-over of Krause proclaiming, "Steak forever!"
- Creator Cameo: Co-directors Bauman and Stoklasa have cameos as a hardware store worker and Beverly's father, respectively. Bauman and make-up artist Dixie Jacobs also serve as extras in the bar scene.
- Creator Thumbprint: A VHS copy of Death List is visible at Monty's apartment. This tape is featured somewhere in virtually every Red Letter Media production.
- Dead-Hand Shot: When Beverly's birth mother is murdered, we only see her bloody hand protruding from behind a door.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Beverly meets back up with an old friend from school who still holds a candle for her. He picks her up from the airport, takes her out for a drink and invites her over to his place. She turns him down.
- Evil Phone: Beverly keeps getting phone calls that are just ominous static. It's implied that she's just imagining the evil static, and real people are on the other line trying to talk to her.
- Foreshadowing: Even before Beverly starts to question her reality, we see her walking up a flight of stairs several times in her mother's house, even though the external shots clearly show a single-story home. It turns out that she might be in a completely different home, the childhood home she's repressed.
- Gainax Ending: The directors originally planned to end the film with the crane shot of Beverly dead in the forest, with her hair being stroked by the ghost of her birth mother. Instead, they decided the film needed one more "beat," so they cut to Beverly awakening from a nightmare and answering the phone to hear more of that static from earlier. The filmmakers now admit that it's rather incomprehensible.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: Beverly falls into a trap she laid herself.
- Irony: In the final act, Beverly prepares to attend the funeral by dressing in black, but she's the one who dies in the end... or does she?
- Mind Screw: The film is surreal and the main character is constantly unsure of what is real or just in her head.
- Motif: Beverly is frequently shown looking through doors and windows and into mirrors.
- No Name Given: There are few names offered in the film, but most notable is the main villain, who is never named and credited as the Business Man.
- Psychological Horror: Most of the horror elements are those of questioning one's sanity.
- Repressed Memories: The source of all the horror is Beverly's repressed memory of her birth mother's brutal murder. The film's title, The Recovered, refers to her recovered memories.
- Shower Scene: The film has a notable lack of nudity for a film starring Krause except for a brief shower scene in which she's visible through a cloudy glass door.
- Torture Cellar: Beverly has dreams of the hardware store's basement being a torture cellar for the Business Man.
- Unexplained Accent: Beverly speaks with Krause's noticeable New York accent in spite of growing up in a place where everyone speaks with a Wisconsin accent, including her younger self.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: When Will is first introduced, he's looking for an expensive bottle of scotch that has disappeared from his house. This is never brought up again.
