Purgatory County

This low-budget independent film is a satirical melodrama containing references to director Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). In a small Texas town, an emotionally unstable native son, Perkins (Terrance Rogan) returns after a long absence to find that his brother Duane (Trent Turner) has been elected sheriff. Much to Perkins' shock, he also discovers that the ambitious and greedy Duane is having an affair with Perkins' wife Liz (Sallie Guy). Perkins also learns that the family ranch has been turned into a failing emu farm, and that his abusive, chain-smoking mother (Patt Vee) has passed away and left him only the family gun collection. Purgatory County (1997) was featured at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, where writer and director George Ratliff was awarded honorable mention in the narrative feature competition.