Center: Lauren Right: Rebecca Left: Bob
The Archer is a 2016 American Drama / Thriller film directed by Valerie Weiss and written by Casey Schroen.
Ordinary High-School Student Lauren Pierce (Bailey Noble) is a Tri-State Archery Junior Champion that gets into trouble when she discovers her friend Emily (Grace Victoria Cox) is being abused by her boyfriend Daniel (Timothy Granaderos). When Lauren confronts him, he ends up attacking her, but she beats him up instead.
She is sent to juvenile court for adjudication, but since Emily doesn't show up to confirm it was self-defense, Lauren is ordered to a girl's reform camp by the unsympathetic judge until her hearing is scheduled and her mother has been convinced to waive parental rights as a sign of cooperation.
Lauren soon discovers that this "reform camp" is a terrible place, with a sadistic staff under warden Bob Patrice (Bill Sage). The entire place is made to break young girls while keeping the parents in the dark as they're surrounded by inhospitable terrain preventing escape. She bonds with a rebellious escapee named Rebecca (Jeanine Mason), while trying to find any means possible for getting away.
Examples:
- Abusive Parents: Bob straps his son Michael for having let Lauren and Rebecca escape. It's strongly implied this is far from the first time he's done this, since it comes off as routine.
- Academic Athlete: Lauren is both a straight A student and an expert archer on her high school archery team.
- Action Girl: Lauren is a very skilled archer who uses her prowess to fight, and also knows martial arts. Rebecca also fights to a lesser extent, but isn't as skilled.
- All Crimes Are Equal: No matter what their crimes (real or alleged) girls at the camp are sent there indefinitely (or at least until they're 21).
- Ambiguously Brown: Rebecca's got olive skin and features which don't seem Caucasian. Her ethnicity however is not stated, and her last name, Rosinsky, is Jewish. She's played by a Cuban-American.
- Annoying Arrows: Zigzagged. Lauren, Rebecca and Bob are struck by arrows in the film. All show pain and are held up by their injuries. However, despite getting hit in the hand, Bob is not slowed afterward. Lauren still manages to shoot with her wounded hand too (albeit through pain and difficulty). These seem less realistic.
- Big Bad: Bob Patrice, the sadistic warden of the for-profit "reform" camp who bribes a judge to send him juveniles even if they're innocents, and then treats the girls like crap while still keeping their parents in the dark.
- Bound and Gagged: Michael is left gagged and tied to a tree by Lauren and Rebecca after they beat him up so they can escape.
- Chekhov's Skill: Lauren is established at the beginning as a champion archer. This is used multiple times later in the film for her to defend herself or Rebecca.
- Crime of Self-Defense: Lauren protests at being sent to reform camp for beating up Daniel, her friend's abusive boyfriend, because she was defending herself. The unfeeling judge doesn't care (we later learn that he's also corrupt, ordering girls into the camp for kickbacks, so he would do this regardless).
- Dirty Cop: Bob, the warden and owner of a girls' reform camp, bribed a judge to send him juveniles as the state pays for housing them.
- Disappeared Dad: Lauren and Rebecca both discuss their absent fathers. Lauren's is barely involved, and she prefers him absent. Rebecca's father never was; he instantly abandoned her mom when she got pregnant.
- Disney Villain Death: Lauren ends up killing Michael by dropping him off a cliff while he was torturing her.
- Distracted by the Sexy:
- Rebecca distracts Michael while she's doing her punishment detail cleaning the floor by doing this with her breasts rubbing against it while wet, so that Lauren can sneak into the office and make a call (phone privileges being restricted).
- Lauren later acts like she'll have sex with Michael in return for leniency from another punishment, distracting him so she and Rebecca can escape.
- More positively, Lauren and Rebecca are distracted from Bob returning home because they're in the shower at the same time and are starting to get feelings for each other.
- Domestic Abuse:
- Emily, Lauren's friend, is being abused by her boyfriend Daniel. This sparks the plot, as Lauren tries to stand up for her. Emily still doesn't leave him though, and blames herself for making him mad. She even refuses to testify against him to help Lauren after she beat him up in self-defense.
- Rebecca's mom also had an abusive boyfriend.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Bob is a cruel, corrupt asshole. He still seems to love his son in his own twisted way.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: When she discovers that Michael's spying on her when she's showering, Lauren covers her breasts with both hands, along with slumping down under the peephole.
- How We Got Here: The film opens on Laurel out in the wilderness, bloody streaks showing on her back through her tank top, and then shows the events which led to this, starting at weeks earlier.
- Impaled Palm: Lauren pins Bob's hand to the wall using an arrow. He later does the same thing to her on the car.
- Interrupted Intimacy: This happens to Lauren twice.
- First, she's moving toward sex with her friend Emily when Daniel, Emily's boyfriend, knocks on the door.
- Next, she's getting intimate with Rebecca in the shower, but then Bob arrives at the cabin.
- Intimate Marks: Rebecca is revealed to have tattoos just over her breasts when she gets in the shower with Lauren.
- Juvenile Hell: The reform camp is staffed by sadistic guards and a warden (who is also keeping girls there for money), not to mention very harsh punishments if they commit any infractions.
- Lesbian Jock: Lauren is a lesbian and a champion archer. At one point while talking with Rebecca Lauren claims that she started it to meet girls (but this comes off as a joke). Her friend Emily is another lesbian or bi archer, as they nearly hook up.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Lauren, despite being a skilled archer, is a demure, long-haired girl with a graceful air. Her friend Emily (whom she nearly slept with) has much the same looks and manner (perhaps bisexual, given she is dating a guy, even if he's abusive). At most, they would be more chapstick lesbians. Rebecca, whom Lauren is later involved with, would also count as chapstick, because though a bit more tomboyish she's still far from butch.
- MacGuffin: The ledger that proves Bob's bribing the judge to send girls into his reform camp became this, with Lauren and Rebecca stealing it during their escape and Bob and Michael relentlessly chasing after them mostly so they can get it back.
- Master Archer: Lauren is an expert archer, introduced winning a championship, and her skills come in handy throughout the film, where she manages a number of great shots. This is commented on repeatedly.
- Miscarriage of Justice: All of the camp girls have been sent there regardless of their crimes due to the owner Bob bribing a judge into doing so.
- Missing Mom: Michael's mother is long gone, since his father got full custody of him.
- Overlord Jr.: Michael, the warden's son, also works in the reform camp and pretty much acts as his father's henchmen.
- The Peeping Tom: Lauren discovers that Michael likes to spy on the girls when they're in the shower and masturbate while watching them.
- Private Profit Prison: Bob runs a private reform camp to house delinquent girls. He's paid by the state to house them. It turns out he bribes a judge so the beds are always filled with girls being sent there.
- Punk in the Trunk: Bob places Rebecca in the trunk of his car after he captures her.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: While on the lam, Lauren and Rebecca kiss but then the scene cuts to the next day, with it being implied they had sex.
- Shoot the Hostage Taker: Lauren manages to shoot Bob in the chest at the climax despite him holding Rebecca hostage, and her having just been shot through one of her hands.
- Shoulders-Up Nudity: Lauren is shown in the shower alongside Rebecca with the camera never moving below shoulder level.
- Shower Scene:
- Lauren is having a Shower of Angst in the camp's bathroom when she realizes Michael is spying through a peephole and masturbating, covering herself in horror.
- While in Bob's cabin, she showers again, with Rebecca joining her, and they start getting intimate until Bob's arrival interrupts it.
- Toplessness from the Back: While in the camp's shower, Lauren's shown nude from the back and waist up.
- Vehicular Sabotage: Rebecca cut the brakes on a motorcycle her mom's abusive boyfriend got, which caused him to get into a minor wreck, which he survived. This is why she got put in the reform camp.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The plot is inspired by a real scandal in 2008
, where two Pennsylvania state judges were discovered taking bribes to send juveniles into private detention facilities. All the rest is added of course. The film ends with a denunciation of having juvenile offenders put in prison for profit, stating it makes them far more likely to also then re-offend and end up imprisoned later as adults. - Wardens Are Evil: Bob, though he first puts on an air of "tough but fair" turns out to be a sadistic, corrupt asshole, having girls sent to his camp for money and abusing his son. He also ruthlessly hunts down escapees.
- Would Hit a Girl: Michael, Bob and the guards in general show no hesitation in hitting the camp's girls.
