Stranded at an isolated motel commune with no outside contact, a man suffering from amnesia discovers a disturbing conspiracy that will illuminate the truth to his past.

SYNOPSIS:

MOTEL KALIFORNIA is an intriguing glimpse through the eyes of an average man into a desert hotel commune that is under the control of a small group of tyrannical elites. It is the story of one man’s journey to waking up to and rising up against the powers that be.

STAN FREEMAN wakes behind the wheel of a moving car, his head throbbing from an unknown injury. He is driving through an anywhere, anytime desert with no knowledge of his whereabouts or destination. Searching the car and his person, Stan discovers an engraved cigarette lighter in his shirt pocket -- It is familiar to him, but he is unsure why. Stan spots and pulls into a lonely roadside motel in the middle of nowhere, intending to find out where he is. The gaudy and poised hotel manager MS. LYONS, and her right hand man, a looming and vigilant MR. BAUER, greet him. They inform him that their phone system is down, but that he is welcome to stay. Stan is hesitant, but is suddenly overcome with dizziness and loses consciousness. After a restless night filled with nightmares, Stan awakens to find the steering wheel stolen from his car and is subsequently stranded at the hotel.

Stan learns the guests at the hotel are permanent residents. They are under restrictive conditions of curfews and watchful eyes. The residents also live in fear of a mysterious group that has been supposedly terrorizing the hotel. Stan’s continuing nightmares are juxtaposed with increasingly odd interactions with the hotel residents and the hovering Lyons and Bauer. Stan befriends DIANA KELLY, a widower with a secret and her young son DONNY, whose well being Ms. Lyons seems particularly concerned with. The bartender, CAPTAIN JACK also office Stan sage-like advice. People, objects, and images begin to trigger flashbacks of Diana, Donny and hallucinations of a man trying to escape the hotel. It is revealed that this apparition of a man was Diana's dead husband, a doctor previously employed by the motel owners. Stan begins to piece together the mystery; he has been at this hotel before, forever returning and unable to escape the recurring nightmare. It becomes apparent there is an overarching force at work, the control and influence it executes stifles the imagination and free will of the residents.

A distraught Stan, heavy with his new realizations, hurries to see Diana after witnessing Ms. Lyons leading Donny away from her room by the hand. Stan finds a drugged and distressed Diana in a daze and she begs him to find Donny. He cannot find the boy, but instead finds himself in a sea of zombie-like hotel residents making their way upstairs. Stan mimics the catatonic-but-mobile residents and follows them upstairs, where he suddenly finds himself in the midst of a ritual to auction off key residents to a creepy old man, bound in a wheelchair. The mindless residents are present, as are the shadowy group behind it all -- The masked OWNERS. As the ritual progresses with Donny’s life at the centerfold, Stan bands together with his new-found allies to wake up the residents and overthrow Ms. Lyons and The Owners.

MOTEL KALIFORNIA is a twisting tale of mystery, infused with metaphor, that will have audiences guessing at every turn. It's a story about control; recognizing it, breaking free from it and taking it back into your own hands.

MOTEL KALIFORNIA