After their daughter’s apparent suicide, a divorced couple searches her apartment for hints about her motives, only to find clues that implicate one another as well as more sinister forces that might be closing in on them.

SYNOPSIS:

Millie (42) and Arthur (43), divorced, sit on opposite sides of the sofa in their daughter Erica’s apartment. They can hardly look at one another, so when they attempt a conversation as prelude to searching for clues about why Erica killed herself, which Erica’s roommate, Melissa, has left them the evening to do, they argue. When they separate, Arthur follows noises to an air vent and interacts about a “room.” He gets Millie to Erica’s room, where a painting with spiral staircases stands out. They search, and Arthur discovers a secret door in the closet that leads to a spiral staircase going down. Millie is skeptical; Arthur believes they’ve found the real mystery.

They follow the spiral down and find a barred metal door. Removing the bar, they enter a small room, like a cell. Arthur concludes Erica was a prisoner, murdered or coerced into suicide. Millie remains skeptical. Arthur hears footsteps, and Millie hears… something. Doors slam, and the lights go out. They search the dark apartment for an intruder. The deadbolt on the front door locks, and since the windows are barred, they are trapped. Millie calls Melissa to come let them out. Arthur, who keeps hearing voice-like noises, decides that they should search Melissa’s room. Millie is reluctant, but they search, finding a coffin-shaped box full of suspicious items, including a snake-shaped dagger. Arthur is convinced that Erica’s death was unnatural, maybe even supernatural. Millie says she is increasingly afraid of Arthur’s behavior. Soon after, Arthur sees Millie lifted into the air, beaten, and cut by invisible forces. When she awakes on the sofa, signs of the beating remain, but not the cuts. Arthur now suspects Millie had a part in Erica’s death. Doubting, he tries to force the front door. As he tries, Millie sneaks up behind him and knocks him out. He awakes in the cell, stripped and shackled. Hearing the voice-like noises, he talks to Erica, expresses regret for being a bad father, and, after listening, promises he knows what to do. Meanwhile, upstairs—in a scene lit so that it might seem unreal—Millie prepares a ritual to “drain” Arthur like she drained Erica. Downstairs, Arthur’s shackles unlock themselves, and the bar falls off the cell door, freeing him.

The lights come back on. Arthur calls to Millie as he goes up the stairs. Millie goes to Erica’s room to meet him. A running fight begins, each of them hurting the other, until Arthur gains control and tortures Millie, demanding she tell him why she killed Erica. In trying to force her confession, he supplies her reason: with Melissa’s help, she was performing a ritual to get back the youth she “lost” raising a child. Millie makes a last effort to escape, but he catches her and stabs her to death. Covered in blood, he sits in the sofa’s center and tells Erica that when Melissa arrives, he’ll make her say why she did it.

This script was a semi-finalist in the Emerging Screenwriters Suspense Screenplay Competition, 2024, won Best Horror Feature Screenplay at the Silver State FF, 2022, won Best Unproduced Script in the Miami Indie Film Awards, 2022, was a finalist for Best Screenplay at the Oregon Screams Horror FF, 2022, and was a selection in the Shockfest FF, 2022.