School Day of the Dead

The Gift is a 2000 American independent Southern Gothic supernatural thriller film directed by Sam Raimi and written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson. Thornton and Epperson had written the screenplay for the film prior to the former's 1996 breakout success Sling Blade, with Thornton taking inspiration from his own mother's alleged psychic experiences. Set in the small Georgia town of Brixton, the film focuses on Annie Wilson (portrayed by Cate Blanchett), a widowed mother and clairvoyant who operates as a fortune teller in the rural community to several townsfolk including Buddy Cole (portrayed by Giovanni Ribisi), a mechanic struggling with his mental health due to abuse by his father, and Valerie Barksdale (portrayed by Hilary Swank), a woman in an abusive marriage with her hateful, violent redneck husband Donnie (portrayed by Keanu Reeves). Annie receives psychic visions of a gruesome murder and soon finds herself in the town's spotlight when she assists local law enforcement in the missing persons case of Jessica King (portrayed by Katie Holmes), the fiancé of the local school's principal Wayne Collins (portrayed by Greg Kinnear). Filming took place on location around various cities and towns in the Savannah metropolitan area in the state of Georgia from February to March 2000.