Actors Jasmeet Baduwalia and Ashlyn Baas play the two college-aged leads in the film "Dial it Back," written by Erin Keefer of Ponte Vedra Beach. | Dial It Back, Mad Wife Productions
Published on November 19, 2025 at 4:23 pm
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If you’re trying to decide what Christmas movie to put on this year, Ponte Vedra Beach resident and screenwriter Erin Keefer hopes you’ll consider the movie she wrote, Dial It Back.
“It’s a different spin on a Christmas movie,” Keefer says. “It’s basically a quirky crime comedy holiday movie.”
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Dial It Back follows the antics of a blended family including two college-aged kids and their newly married parents. Amid family drama and the impending holidays, they also have to reckon with being taken hostage by mobsters.
The film is loosely inspired by Keefer’s own experience getting married and hoping her teenaged children fit in — and then amped up for comedy’s sake. It’s her first screenplay to be developed into a feature film. But if she has it her way, it certainly won’t be her last.
It’s an “indie” production, developed on a smaller budget than many blockbuster films and with actors you likely haven’t heard of. The film was shot in Reno, Nevada, last year, and Keefer says she’s proud of the final product.
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“I’m hoping that it kind of will just be this kind of cute, easy watch over Christmas that you can throw on,” she says.
From small roles to a holiday feature
Keefer has lived in Ponte Vedra Beach since 2009, but before then, she moved around big film hubs like Los Angeles and New York City. In addition to being a screenwriter, she’s worked various odd jobs as a hostess, as a website developer and even as a member of The Dave Matthews Band’s team.
But before all of that, Keefer was a high school student at The Bolles School.
“I always knew I wanted to do something in the arts. I always knew I wanted to act in high school, and I wanted to pursue that after college,” she says. “The writing was kind of a fluke.”
While she scored small roles in shows like Chappelle’s Show and Arrested Development, Keefer found a love for writing comedy. Since she first started writing, her screenplays have won more than 200 awards at film festivals like the Burbank International Film Festival and the Catalina Film Festival.
Keefer recognizes that comedies aren’t as plentiful in movie theaters as they once were, but it’s a genre she feels a strong connection to.
“I feel that connection with humanity when I laugh. When you’re in a room of people laughing that, to me, is just as powerful as crying in a room full of people at a funeral,” Keefer says. “It’s a different connection, but it’s a human connection. It’s like the relief that we’re just stupid humans. Like, why are we taking everything so seriously?”
Keefer’s next film, another comedy called Love Me X3, is in post-production.
That film follows John, a man in a love triangle that includes one of his own split personalities.
It’s a project that Keefer is excited to share with audiences, and after years of working in and around showbiz, it’s another step in what she hopes is a long career as a screenwriter.
At 49, Keefer has some advice to offer people who may be worried they have already missed their chance at a gig in the film industry.
“Don’t have expectations on when you’re going to hit your goals, and when you hit a goal, stop and be happy about that for a minute before you raise the bar to want the next goal,” Keefer says. “You can be hard working, sure, but there’s a lot of luck and timing that you have no control over.”
Dial it Back is available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video and to watch for free on the streaming service Tubi.
