Genre: War/Supernatural/Drama

Logline:  In a chilling tale of justice from beyond the grave, a boy of 10 remembers a past life as a doctor that was murdered with his wife and children. He is abducted by an army led by the same general who killed him in the past life.

Treatment

Act 1

Jabari , a man of 35, is watching television with his family one night. He hears the sound of a troop carrier outside. He thinks nothing of it, but soon his door is broken down and a dozen troops storm into his house. A soldier  zip ties Jabari and tells him to get on his knees. The general, Omari, walks in.

He questions Jabari and asks why he killed his brother Idir. Omari is insane with rage. He only wants blood tonight. Jabari explains he is only a doctor and points to a framed photo of him and his staff. Omari doesn’t care. The case of mistaken identity only enraged him more.

Omari’s soldiers round up his family, zip tie them, and bring them together. Before he dies a furious Jabari  looks at Omari and swears he will exact a bloody revenge in this life or the next. He is quickly executed by Omari with a shot between the eyes.

The soldiers pour gasoline around the house, and then set it on fire. They leave. In minutes the house will be fully ablaze.

Act 2

Three months later Amari is born. He is born with a pale, circular birthmark on his forehead. It is about the size of a nickel.

Amari struggles with bad dreams. When he is five years of age, he goes to the market with his mother. While his mother, Hibo, examines produce Amari excitedly tells her a woman of about 60, Imani, is his past mother. He points to her matter-of-factly. Hibo is noticeably disturbed, and quickly leaves the market.

After consulting with her husband Chima they decide to see a child psychologist. Amari is able to open up to her. He tells Zuri, the psychologist, everything he remembers. After the session, Zuri calls his mother and says he has a vivid imagination and may be experiencing a form of dissassociation. She notes one area of concern. She says that Amari told him about his former mother, Imani, and that he even remembered her number, which she called and confirmed. She refers him to a psychiatrist, who prescribes two medications: Clozapine, an anti-psychotic, and Trazadone, a sleeping medication.

Act 3

By the time Amari is ten the country is still ravaged by war and there are many child soldiers. While walking to school with friends a truck in a long line of military vehicles pulls off the road close to them. He is abducted by the militia. Troops tell them to get in, firing in the air. Amari gets on the back of a Toyota truck with a .50 caliber machine gun mounted in the back. The passenger disembarks and heads to the back of the truck. He smiles at Amari. It’s Gen. Omari!

Soon, however, Amari gets used to life in the militia. He gets hardened after several close calls with death. After several battles with a rival militia, Amari is an experienced, fearless killer. Having killed grown men made him bolder, but he is still haunted by nightmares of his past life and still obsessed with thoughts of revenge.

One day in the base camp Amari notices Omari has become ill and has diarrhea. He is running back and forth to the latrines right in the middle of an attempt to overrun the camp.  The sound of gunfire fills the air. While everyone else is rushing to battle, Amari sees an opportunity. He pretends he is sick too. He follows Omari to the latrines and as he is relieving himself, and before Omari could grab his weapon Amari stands in front of him, aiming straight at him. No one is with them as all the men are fighting. He reminds him of who Jabari was and what he did ten years ago. He asks Omari if he remembers the promise. He shakes his head. Amari tells him detail by painful detail before he tells him that as Jabari, he would kill him, in this life or the next. Omari now remembers and tries to excuse it as mistaken identity.

Amari is in tears of rage, and now channeling the full voice of Jabari, he shakes his head and opens fire.

Act 4

Weary, Amari makes his way out of the jungle and can now go home. He boards a bus. When Amari arrives home he comes inside and his family celebrates his return, but he tells them that he really needs to go to sleep. When he wakes the next day he can’t recall what he did in the last night or the past three months. He stops telling everyone he lived a previous life, because he honestly can’t remember it.

Your Turn

Logline: A doctor haunted by the souls of those he has euthanized is left in a state of near-death after a car crash when trapped within his paralyzed body, he has one week to convince his skeptical family that he will recover, all while facing the wrath of the spirits who want him dead.

Synopsis: In the somber world of Dr. Jonathan Hartley, a skilled euthanasia practitioner, the line between life and death blurs when he starts seeing the lingering spirits of the patients he has helped pass on. Among them, a mysterious woman’s apparition emerges repeatedly on the side of the road, haunting him at every turn.

As the doctor’s psyche begins to unravel, he becomes plagued by guilt and regret. Patients he can’t remember euthanizing appear on his daily train commute, sit beside him, or even hitch rides in his car, only to vanish upon arrival. But none affect him as deeply as the woman who haunts his thoughts and surroundings. The most fearsome spirits are the ones who say they are in hell and blame it on him.

One fateful night, shaken by a vision of the woman, Dr. Hartley crashes his car into a tree, leaving him in a coma with severe brain damage. Paralyzed and trapped within his own body, he retains his consciousness and awareness but can’t move or communicate.

Amid the turmoil, his family hovers on the precipice of deciding whether to pull the plug, wrestling with the guilt of their own decisions. Dr. Hartley’s wife, Laura, and his adult children, Alex and Megan, grapple with the profound ethical and emotional challenge.

As the week following the accident unfolds, Dr. Hartley’s consciousness battles against the encroaching darkness. A deceased relative visits him in a dream-like state, revealing that he will fully recover in a week’s time, but only if he can convince his family to hold on.

Driven by his determination to live, the doctor struggles to communicate, even as his family’s skepticism grows. In a climactic confrontation with the spirits of the euthanized patients, he learns that they want him dead, especially the enigmatic woman. Their regret and anger fuel their vengeful desires.

With only days left before his potential demise, Dr. Hartley must rally his shattered resolve to reach out to his family, make them understand his situation, and convince them to wait for his recovery. He battles not only his own limitations but also the malevolent intent of the spirits that haunt him.

He decides to leave his body and resort to poltergeist activity, which gains attenion. A priest is called and he prays, leading a prayer circle. The doctor comes to him in a dream. The priest saves him.

He survives. He closes his practice and devotes the rest of his life to saving potential suicides, sharing his own experience if need be but otherwise proving to be a nighly convincing hero to many.

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Logline: A crime scene photographer finds his life unraveling when his camera captures images of future deaths, driving him to desperate measures to prevent the inevitable, only to discover that his struggle against fate might be in vain.

Synopsis: In the gritty underbelly of the city, we meet Richard Banks, a talented crime scene photographer with a reputation for capturing the macabre beauty of death through his lens. Richard, however, soon discovers a chilling and inexplicable phenomenon: his camera starts filling up with images of dead people he’s never photographed.

At first, Richard dismisses it as a result of his poor memory or overactive imagination, until the images eerily match the crime scenes he’s called to document the following day. Disturbed and mystified, he struggles to come to terms with this disturbing gift or curse. As the occurrences become more frequent, Richard becomes obsessed with changing the future and preventing the impending deaths he sees in his camera.

His efforts to intervene with celebrities whose deaths he foresees are met with skepticism and scorn. Despite his earnest attempts to save lives, his interventions seem to inadvertently seal their fates, leading many to label him as mentally unstable.

One day, Richard sees a woman, Elena, crossing the street, and his camera captures an image of her lifeless form. Desperate to save her, Richard orchestrates an elaborate scheme to have Elena arrested in hopes of sparing her from her predicted demise. Tragically, his efforts fail, leaving Richard shattered and guilt-ridden.

In a last-ditch effort to escape the torment, Richard acquires a new camera, believing that he can break the cycle. However, his new camera presents the same ominous images, confirming that the phenomenon transcends the equipment he uses. Distraught and exhausted, Richard decides to isolate himself in a remote motel for a month, convinced that he has finally escaped the relentless grip of fate.

As Richard believes he has successfully broken free from the curse, a sense of relief washes over him. But his newfound hope is shattered when, while stopped at a traffic light, a carjacker attempts to steal his car. In the ensuing chaos, Richard is shot and killed, his life tragically mirroring the final set of images captured by his camera.

“Snapshot” is a psychological thriller that explores the haunting interplay between premonition, free will, and the inexorable march of destiny. As Richard grapples with his chilling gift and embarks on a desperate mission to alter the course of events, the story delves into the blurred boundaries of reality and perception, ultimately questioning whether our efforts to escape fate can ever truly succeed.

Genre: Psychological Thriller/Drama

Logline: After the death of her only son, an unethical psychiatrist is thrown into the full throes of madness after a gypsy mother’s curse, this to the point of experiencing the true depths of hell.

Synopsis: “Fade to Madness” is a chilling, relentless narrative of abandoned morality and greed that delves into themes of guilt, redemption, and the devastating impact of one’s actions on others.

Treatment:

Act 1:

Dr. Nathan Kramer is a successful psychiatrist who believes he can treat even the most severe cases of mental illness. However, behind his professional facade lies a cruel and unscrupulous man who exploits vulnerable patients for financial gain. Driven by greed, he misleads patients into undergoing electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) despite knowing that it is ineffective for their conditions. We see Dr. Kramer’s patients deteriorate further, losing their jobs and becoming isolated due to severe memory loss caused by the unnecessary ECT treatments. One patient, a schizophrenic named Mark, tragically takes his own life while under Dr. Kramer’s care, devastating Mark’s mother.

Act 2:

One day, the grieving mother, a mysterious and attractive gypsy woman, confronts Dr. Kramer, blaming him for her son’s suicide. She rubs a potent oil on his temple while delivering a cryptic warning. Disturbed and dismissing her actions as mere superstition, Dr. Kramer calls for security to escort her out. That night, Dr. Kramer’s life begins to unravel. He hears unsettling voices whispering in his mind, urging him to self-harm and commit violent acts against others. Tainted by paranoia and haunted by the laughter of malevolent children, he checks himself into a hospital for psychiatric care.

Act 3:

Dr. Kramer’s close friend, another psychiatrist, prescribes him the most potent antipsychotics available, providing temporary relief from his disturbing symptoms. Granted his release, Dr. Kramer believes he is safe. However, tragedy strikes when, during a blackout episode, he unknowingly kills a teenager. Haunted by the fear that he may have committed more unknown atrocities, Dr. Kramer elects to undergo an extensive series of ECT treatments, desperate to regain control over his mind. The procedure backfires, leaving him with severe cognitive impairments and further alienating him from his family and friends.

Act 4:

As Dr. Kramer’s life crumbles, he becomes trapped in a self-imposed prison of remorse and anguish. The mocking voice of the deceased patient echoes in his mind, tormenting his every waking moment. Consumed by guilt and hearing the scornful laughter of his victims, he spirals deeper into madness. Eventually, Dr. Kramer is arrested for the murder of the teenager, his guilt shrouded in a fog of fragmented memories. He is found guilty and sentenced to spend the remainder of his life in prison, where he is left to battle with the demons of his past.