"The United States of America is gone. Welcome to Deathlands." So says Ryan Cawdor (Vincent Spano, Rumble Fish, The Black Stallion Returns) leader of a small band of nomadic survivalists in the popular DEATHLANDS series of novels. In 2104, more than a century after a nuclear holocaust has regressed civilization to a medieval state studded with high-tech weapons, Ryan and his brethren defy the tyrants who've crafted kingdoms from a land of democracy. Accompanying him is his flame-haired companion and lover, Krysty Wroth (the stunningly statuesque Jenya Lano, Blade), weapons expert J.B. Dix (Cliff Saunders), and teenaged Jak Lauren (Nathan Carter), an albino mutant whose genetics can release lethal rage. Adapted from Deathlands: Homeward Bound — the fifth in a series of more than 50 books — the movie finds Ryan returning to the village of Sherville in what used to be Virginia. There, 20 years earlier, his brother Harvey (Alan C. Peterson) and their young stepmother Rachel (First Wave and Profiler star Traci Elizabeth Lords) conspired to kill the boys' father, the local baron. Harvey ran a sword through Ryan's eye, and left a slash on his brother's cheek. Ryan escaped — and as with Shakespeare's Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth, there will be both tragedy and nobility … both brotherhood and bloodshed. One of the most visually stylistic films yet seen under the SCI FI Pictures banner, DEATHLANDS: HOMEWARD BOUND is suffused with grainy yet color-saturated images for a startlingly different look. Director and editor Joshua Butler (SCI FI Pictures' Clive Barker Presents Saint Sinner) and cinematographer Bruce Worrall (Dead Man's Gun, Prancer Returns) jolt the screen with fast-moving, stiletto-sharp cuts and some of most eloquently elegiac violence since the heydays of Peckinpah and Argento. Composer Christopher Lennertz (TV's Brimstone, Clive Barker Presents Saint Sinner) contributes a beautifully subtle, evocative score. The pseudonymous James Axler's DEATHLANDS series began in 1986 with Pilgrimage to Hell, co-written by Jack Adrian (itself a pseudonym for British author Christopher Lowder) and Laurence James. James went on to write the next 32 novels before passing away on Feb 9, 2000. Under his own name and under the pen names James Axler, James Darke and James McPhee, he also wrote books for the series "Dark Future," "Earth Blood," "Galactic Security Service" and "Survival 2000," as well as a number of independent novels and short stories. Gold Eagle Books' ongoing DEATHLANDS series spawned the related "Outlanders" novels in 1997. SFI FI Wire Traci Elizabeth Lords discusses her role as Lady Rachel Cawdor. Cast Ryan Cawdor  …  VINCENT SPANO Krysty Wroth  …  JENYA LANO Lady Rachel Cawdor  …  TRACI ELIZABETH LORDS J.B. Dix  …  CLIFF SAUNDERS Jak Lauren  …  NATHAN CARTER Baron Harvey Cawdor  …  ALAN C. PETERSON Nathan Freeman  …  MATTHEW CURRIE HOLMES Sergeant  …  JEFFERY R. SMITH Jabbez Cawdor  …  MAXWELL McCABE Villager  …  ROB AVERY Kenny Morse  …  A. FRANK RUFFO Young Harvey  …  PARK BENCH Young Lady Rachel  …  HEATHER BERTRAM Young Ryan  …  ROBERT CLARK Baron Titus Cawdor  …  COLIN FOX Sec Man  …  DUANE MURRAY Sec Man #4  …  ROB WESTGATE Sec Man #5  …  DAVID J. MacNEIL Nathan's Men #1  …  MICHAEL STEVENS SCI FI Pictures Amber Light Films Screenplay by GABRIELLE STANTON & HARRY WERKMAN JR. Based on the Book by JAMES AXLER Directed by JOSHUA BUTLER Executive Producers CHET FENSTER, JOSHUA BUTLER Producer DEREK S. RAPPAPORT Associate Producer PAUL LEONARD Director of Photography BRUCE WORRALL Editor JOSHUA BUTLER Music CHRISTOPHER LENNERTZ Art Director JON P. GOULDING Production Designer ED HANNA Costume Designer RUTH SECORD Special Effects Coordinator JOHN LAFORET