Jonathan Keogh

A brutal mugging leaves Grey Trace paralyzed in the hospital and his beloved wife dead. A billionaire inventor soon offers Trace a cure — an artificial intelligence implant called STEM that will enhance his body. Now able to walk, Grey finds that he also has superhuman strength and agility — skills he uses to seek revenge against the thugs who destroyed his life.

Set in a world not unlike mid-20th century America, The Vandal centers on Harold, whose tormented search for peace from traumatic loss results in an unexpectedly destructive awakening after he undergoes a lobotomy. When the procedure “turns his mind inside out” and his great love is suddenly gone, Harold’s desperate search intensifies.

While an unseen serial killer stalks the imaginary town of Bluefish, New York, the accidental vehicular homicide of a young vandal by a local drug dealer leads to a case of mistaken identity that precipitates a cycle of violence and death among a house full of partying teenagers who have reunited for the first time since graduating from high school the previous year.

A short film, commemorating the first 1000 spines in the Criterion Collection.