''How to Deter a Robber'' is a 2020 American crime comedy film written and directed by Maria Bissell and starring

Vanessa Marano Vanessa Nicole Marano (born October 31, 1992) is an American actress. She has starred in television movies and had recurring roles in such series as ''Without a Trace'', ''Gilmore Girls'', ''Ghost Whisperer'', '' Scoundrels'', ''Grey's Anatomy'' ...

, Benjamin Papac,

Abbie Cobb Abbie Cobb is an American actress and author. She is known for her recurring roles as Emily Bradford on '' 90210'' and as Kimantha on ''Suburgatory''. Life and career Abbie Cobb was born in Papillion, Nebraska. She became interested in acting af ...

, Sonny Valicenti,

Gabrielle Carteris Gabrielle Anne Carteris (; born January 2, 1961) is an American actress and trade union leader. Her best known acting role was as Andrea Zuckerman during the early seasons of the 1990s television series ''Beverly Hills, 90210''. In 2012, Carter ...

and

Chris Mulkey Chris Mulkey (born May 3, 1948) is an American film and television actor. Career Mulkey played the supporting role of husband to Annie Potts's character in '' Any Day Now'' from 1998 to 2002. He has also appeared in '' Captain Phillips'', '' ...

. It is Bissell's feature directorial debut.

Cast

as Madison Williams *Benjamin Papac as Jimmy *

as Andy Reynolds *

as Charlotte *

Leah Lewis Leah Lewis (born December 9, 1996) is a Chinese-American actress, model and singer who began her career as a child actress. She is best known for her roles as Ellie Chu in the 2020 Netflix film ''The Half of It'' and as Georgia "George" Fan i ...

as Heather *Arnold Y. Kim as Scott *

as Christine Schroeder *Sonny Valicenti as Patrick Lindner

Premise

A teenage girl, her boyfriend and her uncle, face off against a pair of burglars.

Plot

While spending Christmas at a lakeside holiday cabin, Madison (

) bickers with her mother (

). Bored and annoyed, she and her dopey boyfriend Jimmy (

Benjamin Papac Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thir ...

) spot a light switched on in their neighbours' presumably empty house. They enter it and finding a

Ouija board The ouija ( , ), also known as a spirit board or talking board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the Latin alphabet, the numbers 0–9, the words "yes", "no", occasionally "hello" and "goodbye", along with various symbols and grap ...

inside, they use it before falling asleep in a drunken and stoned state in one of the bedrooms. Next morning on waking up, they discover that the place has been ransacked. They telephone the local police who on arrival, do not initially believe the teenager's story but have doubts about their culpability on realising that they were the ones who had dialled 911 in the first place. Thus Madison and Jimmy - as

minor Minor may refer to: * Minor (law), a person under the age of certain legal activities. ** A person who has not reached the age of majority * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Music theory *Minor chord ** Barb ...

s - are compelled by the law to stay in the immediate local area pending the conclusion of the police investigation which requires that they are placed in the custody of Madison's uncle Andy (

). When Andy's house is also broken into and burglarized, the trio retreat to the family's primary enclave, and fearful of the burglars, Madison and Jimmy set up "

Home Alone ''Home Alone'' is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film directed by Chris Columbus and written and produced by John Hughes. The first film in the ''Home Alone'' franchise, the film stars Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Hear ...

"-style booby-traps. The burglars - Patrick (

Sonny Valicenti Sonny is a common nickname and occasional given name. Often it can be a derivative of the English word "Son", a name derived from the Ancient Germanic element *sunn meaning "sun", a nickname derived from the Italian name Salvatore (especially in N ...

) and Christine (

) - eventually show up. A hostage situation then materializes causing Madison to fight in partnership with Jimmy.

Production

The film was shot in 17 days.

Release

The film premiered at the

Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of ''The Iron Gi ...

on September 29, 2020.

Reception

The film has rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. Marisa Maribal of

Slash Film ''/Film'', also spelled ''Slashfilm'', is a blog that covers movie news, reviews, interviews, and trailers. It was founded by Peter Sciretta in August 2005. Podcasts Six podcasts have run on the site. ''The /Filmcast'', hosted by David Chen, De ...

gave the film a 7.5 out 10. Mel Valentin of

Screen Anarchy Screen Anarchy, previously known as Twitch Film or Twitch, is a Canadian English-language website featuring news and reviews of mainly international, independent and cult films. The website was founded in 2004 by Todd Brown. In addition to films, ...

gave the film a positive review and wrote, "''How to Deter a Robber'' will and should be remembered as the work of a talented, first-time filmmaker."

References

External links

* * {{rotten-tomatoes, how_to_deter_a_robber American crime comedy films 2020s English-language films 2020s American films