Not Forgotten is a 2009 American independent horror thriller written and directed by Dror Soref starring Simon Baker and Paz Vega. The film takes place on the Texas-Mexico border and tells the story of a kidnapping plot involving the ritualistic cult Santa Muerte. The protagonist Jack Bishop s (Simon Baker) dark past is slowly uncovered as the kidnapping case unravels.

Plot

Jack Bishop (Simon Baker) works as a loan officer in Del Rio, Texas, and is remarried to Amaya Bishop (Paz Vega), living with her and his daughter Toby Bishop (Chloë Grace Moretz) from his first marriage. Toby is kidnapped by an unknown perpetrator leading to the involvement of the local police and eventually the FBI. The FBI begins inquiring in Jack s past only to find out he has no official records dating back farther than ten years, and there is no evidence showing how his first wife had died or where she was buried.

A local petty criminal and repeated sex offender is initially thought to be the culprit, but it is revealed that the dangerous cult-like religious movement Santa Muerte, popular within Mexican criminal circles, might be involved. Jack s former life as a Santa Muerte worshiping hit man for the Mexican Mafia is revealed as he tries desperately to find out who kidnapped his daughter. We later learn that Jack was really named Roberto. Though born in Oklahoma, his drug addicted mother took him to Mexico when she was young. She later died, and Roberto had to make a life for himself on the streets. He ultimately became an enforcer for the Mexican Mafia. He married a woman named Katie, and they had a child, Toby. Jack escapes from the FBI in Texas and makes his way across the border to Acuna. There he is accused of murdering a prostitute who was trying to help him find Toby. Though he did not do it, the Mexican police arrest him. Jack is later able to escape from the Mexican jail in disguise. Still in Acuna, he makes his presence known. As he planned, he lured the assassin who was looking for him to come to his hotel. They fight and Jack beats the assassin, who he then tortures for information about Toby s whereabouts. The assassin tells Jack that Toby was kidnapped by Katie, Jack s/Roberto s ex-wife. Jack breaks into the brothel that Katie now runs in Acuna and confronts Katie, who is herself furious that Jack/Roberto ran out on her without warning and took Toby with him. Jack thinks Katie is lying when she says she does not know where Toby is, and murders her.

In the film s denouement, we realize that the real kidnapper was Jack s new wife, Amaya, with the help of her cousin, the sheriff in Del Rio (who throughout the film appeared as if he was trying to help Jack and that he believed Jack s innocence). We learn that the flashback we have seen throughout the film—of Jack/Roberto strangling a man at Katie s behest as she looks on in delight—has new meaning. The man Roberto strangled was Amaya s father. Worse still, Amaya was in the room with Roberto and Katie when they strangled her father, hiding under the bed. Amaya s father was a degenerate gambler who owed a large debt to Katie and the Mexican Mob, and when he could not pay, Katie had Roberto kill him. Amaya witnessed all of this. We realize that she then set in motion an elaborate plan to emigrate to the United States and marry Jack/Roberto in order to punish him for murdering her father. It was Amaya and the sheriff who kidnapped Toby. Amaya and the sheriff set fire to the room where Jack is (the same room where he killed Amaya s father many years ago). But Jack is able to see that Toby is tied up on the bed in the room. He manages to free her and they escape the fire unhurt.

The viewer thinks this is the end of the movie and that it has a happy ending. But we then learn, in a final twist, the truth. Amaya did not really kidnap Toby. When Amaya explained to Toby who her father really was, Amaya was able to enlist Toby (using the magic of Santa Muerte) to help exact an even worse revenge on Jack/Roberto. Amaya tells Toby that her father will kill her mother (which in fact happened earlier when Jack was duped by the assassin he tortured into killing Katie to find Toby). Amaya told Toby that Santa Muerte magic would give her the strength to carry out a terrible revenge on her father for that murder. So Amaya purposefully let Jack and Toby escape. Her plan was for them to live happily for many years and then for Toby to kill her father. In the final scene, we see Jack and Toby fleeing deeper into Mexico on an old bus. As she sits and watches the countryside go by, we hear Toby reciting the same Santa Muerta chant for power that others (including Jack) said throughout the movie.

Cast

The film stars Simon Baker, who was cast just before his great success with the hit TV show The Mentalist, and Paz Vega who was previously known for her work as the star of Sex and Lucia and the co-star of Spanglish and Michael DeLorenzo, who played a lead role as Detective Eddie Torres in the TV series New York Undercover.

• Simon Baker as Jack Bishop. Baker was personally cast by the director Dror Soref for the lead role after the director had seen his previous work in film and in television. Soref met with Baker before starting pre-production to go over the script line by line, including all of the actions to get a better feel for the role.
• Paz Vega as Amaya Bishop
• Chloë Grace Moretz as Toby Bishop
• Claire Forlani as Katie
• Michael DeLorenzo as Casper Navarro
• Ken Davitian as Father Salinas
• Julia Vera as Doña
• Virginia Periera as Karen De La Rosa
• Isaac Kappy as Stoner Dude

Development

The director began research on the film in 2004 by visiting, with co-writer Tomas Romero, the towns of Del Rio and Acuna, straddling the Texas-Mexican border. Soref had a prolific career as a music video and commercial director, working in the same company alongside such directors as Wim Wenders, Carroll Ballard, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Bruce Beresford before beginning to transition into features.

Production

Principal photography took place over the course of 28 days in New Mexico with three days of shooting on location in the outskirts of Mexico City and two days of insert pickups in Los Angeles. Several key cast and crew members came from Austin, Texas including the art director Ed Vega. In early 2009, Soref completed final post-production on Not Forgotten.

In 2016, it was revealed that the movie had been financed through an alleged Ponzi scheme run by Scientologists Michelle Seward and Dror Soref.

Distribution

As a result of the film s critical acclaim at the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival, Not Forgotten was picked up for US distribution. The film was notable for being the only entry picked up for US theatrical distribution from that year. In April 2009, Anchor Bay Films acquired the distribution rights to the movie. The film debuted in a regional premiere Austin, Texas and officially opened at Grauman s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on May 15, 2009.

Reception

The film has received generally negative reviews in the mainstream press. However, Variety stated the film satisfies as a solidly crafted and persuasively acted thriller that relies more on dark secrets than black magic while The Hollywood Reporter commented, Not Forgotten reminds you of a paperback you pick up at the airport…where the cover promises a pulp-ish combination of suspense, murder and…the story is so engrossing, you wish the flight were longer .

Year	2009
ReleaseDate	2009-09-11
RuntimeMins	96
RuntimeStr	1h 36min
Plot	In a Tex-Mex border town, a man and his wife must face their tortured pasts in order to save their kidnapped daughter.
Awards	Awards, 1 nomination
Directors	Dror Soref
Writers	Tomás Romero, Dror Soref
Stars	Simon Baker, Paz Vega, Michael DeLorenzo
Produced by	Jamie Beardsley,Howard Behar,Alejandra Cárdenas,Kirk D’Amico,Jeff Geoffray,Warren Goz,Frederick Johntz,Walter Josten,Shea Kammer,Jefferson Keith Langley,Stewart McMichael,Tomás Romero,Michelle Seward,Dror Soref,Donald Zuckerman
Music by	Mark Isham,Cindy O’Connor
Cinematography by	Steven Bernstein
Film Editing by	Martin Hunter
Casting By	Lisa Essary,Heidi Levitt
Production Design by	Craig Stearns
Art Direction by	Darío Carreto,Ed Vega
Set Decoration by	Helen Britten
Costume Design by	Deborah Everton
Makeup Department	Georgia Allen,Svetlana Britt,Katherine Broderick,Judy Lovell,Ashlynne Padilla,Miho Suzuki
Production Management	Jamie Beardsley,Anne McCaffrey,Michael Toji
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Benita Allen,Noreen Dimster-Denk,Sarah Lemon,Fred Roth,Marcia Woske
Art Department	Brett Andrews,Jamie Archer,David Bancroft,Yhvh Bantista,Rick Belosic,Jeff Bolen,Benjamin Joseph Bustos,Warren Campbell,Isaiah Carpenter,Sage Emmett Connell,Sean Craycraft,Rémy Englander,Brooke Fair,Patrick Fuhrman,Eric Gallegos,Darren Gibson,Amy Giedraitis,Miguel Gurule,Forrest A. Haag,Andrea Hambuchen,Daniel Herrera Arau,Daniel L. Herrera,Wyndi Johnson,Lelan Keffer,Ben Lowney,Roberta Marquez Seret,Christopher McCain,Dana J. Mestas,Scott Plunket,Richard Roble,Sebastien Ruiz,Eric Gallegos Ruvalcaba,Leonard Sanchez,Lisanne Scafine,Juan Souter,Jaime Souza,Rachel Srigley,David Thompson,Thomas Traugott,David Trujillo,Robert P. Trujillo,Francisco Whitson-Brown,Colin Zaug
Sound Department	Willy Allen,Christopher Briles,Joshua Chase,Tomasz Dukszta,Darryl L. Frank,John-Thomas Graves,Trevor Jolly,Stanley Kastner,Brent Kiser,Donald Lyles,Maciek Malish,David Marcus,Cindy O’Connor,Tyler Parkinson,Jeffrey A. Pitts,Miles J.D. Vedder,Steven Willer
Special Effects by	Joe Freeman,Nicole Hansen,Scott Hastings,Jonathan Delaney Marsh,Mike Prawitz
Visual Effects by	Michael Caplan,Mary Dowd,Manny Dubon,Eric Heavens,Eric Mises-Rosenfeld,Rafi Pogosyan,Miles Reetz,Dan Schmit,Jeff Varga
Stunts	Keith Campbell,Laurence Chavez,Ed Duran,Adam Gomez,Al Goto,Jane Oshita,Justin Sundquist
Camera and Electrical Department	Troy Anderson,Nick Barros,Timothy Bauer,Nick Behrmann,Noah Bishop,Anne Carson,Kenneth Coblentz,Morgan Davis,Joe Abraham Dean,James Demetri,Erik Emerson,Scott M. Evans,Frank Eyers,Michael Ferris,Colleen E. Hayes,Ignacio’,Erik Messerschmidt,Mark O’Flahavan,Jessica Ramos,Mark Sheets,Christopher H. Sipes,Kirk F. Smith II,Paige Thomas,Bas Tiele,Sterling Wiggins
Casting Department	Marcelle Bowman,David V. Cordova,Jill Dupont,Lauren Fernandes,Jorge Guerrero,Melanie Hocking,Angelique Midthunder,Lewie Wickham
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Fran Allgood,Bren Cook,Elizabeth Lancaster
Editorial Department	Brian Anton,Karlo Babakhanian,Joe Fineman,Joe Finley,Amber Taylor
Location Management	Jason Bonnell,Ronald L. Carr,Trevor Carr,S. Todd Christensen,Alex Gianopoulos
Music Department	Peter Afterman,John Fee,Alison Litton,Carl Sealove
Script and Continuity Department	Kathleen Messmer
Transportation Department	Gary Armstrong,Alan Berger,Tom Berto,Bob A. Carter,Byron Carter,Kasey Christie,Cletus Cotton,Josh Foley,Adam Gomez,Roy A. Grace,Penny Hicks,Dean Hokanson,Laura James,Jason LaFountain,David L. Long,Michael McMahan,Steve Meador,Burt Melcher,Richard E. Morley Jr.,James William Ray,James Sanchez,Richard Slaughter,Lucas Stein,John H. Stephens,Andrew Trujillo,Leanne Wilkerson,Harold L. Woods
Additional Crew	Seonaid Barngrover,Cayley Bell,Wendy Benge,Natalie Bloomer,Jeane Champion,Thomas Cosolito,Stephanie Marie Delgado,Dave Dorn,Julian Duran,Windy Earls,Amy Eldridge,Susan Foley,Chai Forest,Colin Garza,Marissa M. Gonzales,Kelly Hoover Greenway,R. Elliott Guinn,Kent Hamilton,Amy Hawkins,Richard Heller,Casey Wayne Hupp,Laurie H. Hutzler,Lisa H. Jackson,Jossara Jinaro,Frederick Johntz,Walter Josten,Shea Kammer,Juliet Lopez,Monte Monteith Jr.,Ryan J. Pezdirc,Rachel Quinn,Paloma Rangel,Rufus Rosendo,Marissa Salgado,Nicholas Salinas,Ian Simon,Mark Smirnoff,Amber Taylor,Marcus Taylor,Naomi L. Tucker,Jeremy E. Wilcox,Matthew Zomick,Kathleen Breton-Collier,Francie Brown,Tyler Cross,Irwin M. Rappaport
Thanks	Carlos Gallardo
Genres	Horror, Thriller
Companies	Skyline Pictures (II), Blue Rider Pictures, Zuckerman Entertainment
Countries	USA, Mexico
Languages	English
ContentRating	R
ImDbRating	4.7
ImDbRatingVotes	2735
MetacriticRating	48
Keywords	child gagged,sect,tape over mouth,woman wears a g string,del rio texas