"What Lies in the Valley Below is based on the novel “The Happy Man” which takes us into the sordid decline of suburbanite Charles Ripley and wife Shelly when Ruskin Marsh and wife Sybil move in next door and life becomes just a little bit too much fun."
From the director: David M. O'Neill.
Novelists Eric Higgs, inspired by the unrivaled imagery of the 15th Century Dutch painter, Hieronymus Bosch, weaves an enlightening, sinister and telling tale of an urban, contemporary couple’s vicious, downward spiral as they are introduced to the darker, and finer aspects of the American Dream. We can only stand by and watch Charles and Shelly Ripley’s uncalculated descent as they graciously welcome new neighbors Ruskin and Sybil Marsh into their home - only later to face the unimaginable, unforeseeable and incalculable costs of befriending the wrong people.
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I was first introduced to the book by St. Martin’s Publishing House. Once I finished reading the novel, I was confident the adaptation could be done. “Coaxed to lead with impulse and self-absorption, a once dismayed Ripley now finds himself feeling renewed as the sole captain and broker of his own dormant and latent appetites”. Neighbor, Ruskin Marsh, grooms the unsuspecting Ripley through his troubles with the ease of suggestion, where a soft-spoken Ripley begins to learn how to take what he wants.
What drew me to The Happy Man were its numerous themes which are left up to one’s own imagination to decipher i.e., The unyielding strain and conflict between gluttony and moderation, wholly living for oneself or for others, taking what one wants without the slightest ping of self-consciousness – killing without giving it a second thought. The imagery of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, terrifyingly colors the inner-lives of our characters as his voluminous 14th-century work provides a visual pallet from which to draw.
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Moreover, world’s based on assumptions, hierarchies, social norms, community living, the American Dream are all turned upside down as this story seductively progresses. A neighborhood once filled with color and life gradually turns from lush greens to summer browns and eventually deadened opaques. Once serene vista views now echo with screams - optimistic young people, now sloth-like as they make their way for the bus. The very life of Mesa Verde is drained by way of Ripley's new neighbors. The darker delicacies of aggression leave their mark on Mesa Verde Estates and Charles Ripley has a front-row seat.
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