RUST – Phytonrobinson

Psychological Horror | 104 min | Director: David Fincher

LOGLINE:
When a corporate investigator arrives at a derelict steel town to assess an abandoned factory’s value, she uncovers a horrifying truth: the rust consuming the town isn’t just decay—it’s alive, and it remembers every sin committed on its soil.

SYNOPSIS:

ACT 1: THE ASSIGNMENT
Lena Voss (Florence Pugh), a ruthless asset evaluator for a multinational conglomerate, is sent to Harrow’s Mill, a former industrial hub where the last resident died a decade ago. The company wants to bulldoze the corpse of the town—a labyrinth of crumbling factories and worker row houses—but something feels off. The rust coating every surface spreads too uniformly. The few locals who remain whisper about “the Pact.” And at night, Lena hears metal groaning in places where nothing moves.

ACT 2: THE CORROSION
After discovering a child’s diary from 1982 (“Dad says the Mill gets hungry”), Lena pieces together Harrow’s secret: the factory owners made a deal with something in the blast furnaces. Profits boomed, but workers began dissolving—their bodies leaching iron, leaving only rust-stained clothes. The town covered it up for paychecks. Now, decades later, the Mill is calling its debt due.

ACT 3: THE RECKONING
As Lena’s fillings ache and her watch corrodes overnight, she realizes the truth: the rust is conscious, a hive-mind of every toxin ever dumped here, every worker left to die. The factory isn’t abandoned—it’s digesting. To escape, she must confront the CEO (Charles Dance) who brokered the original deal… and offer herself as a new vessel for the hunger.

VISUAL STYLE:

Industrial Decay Porn: Think True Detective S1’s sprawl meets Annihilation’s surrealism
Body Horror: Workers’ faces flaking into oxidized powder, rust blooming under skin like tattoos
The Mill: A cathedral of corroded pipes that breathe, its furnace mouth dripping molten rust

THEMES:

“Capitalism as literal consumption”
“The land remembers what the ledgers erased”
Rust as reckoning: Environmental rage made manifest

ENDINGS (CHOOSE YOUR FATE):

“New Management”: Lena becomes the Mill’s avatar. Final shot: her iron-rich blood seeping into city water mains.
“Scorched Earth”: She triggers the furnaces, burning herself alive to starve the entity. Post-credits: a rusted hand claws up from a puddle.
“The Deal Stands”: She sells the land anyway. As the bulldozers roll in, workers’ screams echo from the rust.

WHY IT WORKS:

Eco-horror with teeth: The Thing meets Erin Brockovich
Timely as hell: Corporate crimes made visceral
Unnerving gimmick: The rust is always moving in background shots

TAGLINE: “Some stains never wash out.”

PITCH PERFECT:

“For fans of The Terror and Silent Hill”
“Chernobyl’s dread meets **The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s industrial fury”

Want it more supernatural? The Mill whispers to her in dead workers’ voices.
Want more realist? The “entity” is a mutagenic fungus fed on heavy metals.