Charlie Reade is a young man governed by a silent, childhood pact. After a hit-and-run accident claimed his mother and sent his father into a spiral of alcoholism, Charlie made a desperate bargain with a higher power: he promised to be a "good kid" if his father found sobriety. This internal moral accounting defines his adolescence, leading him to become a standout athlete and student who harbors a secret sense of debt. When he hears the frantic baying of a dog from a reclusive neighbor’s yard, his ingrained need to settle his cosmic tab compels him to climb the hill toward the "Psycho House" of Howard Bowditch.

What begins as a grounded story of neighborhood loyalty and the bond between a boy and an aging German Shepherd named Radar soon shifts into the realm of the fantastic. Charlie di...

Charlie Reade is a young man governed by a silent, childhood pact. After a hit-and-run accident claimed his mother and sent his father into a spiral of alcoholism, Charlie made a desperate bargain with a higher power: he promised to be a "good kid" if his father found sobriety. This internal moral accounting defines his adolescence, leading him to become a standout athlete and student who harbors a secret sense of debt. When he hears the frantic baying of a dog from a reclusive neighbor’s yard, his ingrained need to settle his cosmic tab compels him to climb the hill toward the "Psycho House" of Howard Bowditch.

What begins as a grounded story of neighborhood loyalty and the bond between a boy and an aging German Shepherd named Radar soon shifts into the realm of the fantastic. Charlie di...