Gravesend

Gravesend is a 1996 criminal drama film directed by Salvatore Stabile. Plot summary After a quick narration by director Stabile, as well as a flash forward, the film's plot begins with Zane, Mikey, Ray, and Chicken spending a Saturday night in Ray's basement. Throughout the film, the backgrounds of the four young men are explained by Stabile during scenes which pertain to the respected characters the most: Ray's parents died while he was young, which left him to be raised by his older brother Mark. Their upbringing together was bitter and would result in violent tendencies to grow between them. Zane grew up without a father, and had trouble staying in schools before ultimately being kicked out of his mother's house due to his behavior. Chicken developed drug habits at an early age as a result of witnessing the murder of his older brother, and his mother abandoned him when he was 15. Mikey, who experienced his parents' miserable marriage firsthand, was often humiliated and abused by the rest of the group and had at least two previous instances in which he attempted to commit suicide. Early into their night, the four get into an argument which wakes up Mark and leads to him getting into a fight with Zane. In attempt to intimidate Mark, Zane points what he believed to be an unloaded pistol at him, resulting in Mark being fatally shot by accident. The group contemplates sending Mark to a hospital or contacting authorities, however Zane instead forces the group to have the corpse be buried by his associate JoJo the Junkie out of fear of being arrested for murder. Naturally this would cause severe tensions to grow between Ray and Zane, with the two splitting the group into factions throughout the rest of the movie.