A charming young sociopath -- the product of a professor/student affair -- seeks out and infiltrates his unsuspecting birth father's family.

***ACADEMY NICHOLL SEMIFINALIST**

SYNOPSIS:

The Donlevys are a happy family -- until young Mitchell learns he was adopted. His "genuine” family core violated, Mitchell murders his adoptive parents. He becomes a ward of the state until legal age, when his case workers attempt to transition him back into society. Mitchell disappears, embarking on a violent search to unlock the secrets of his past. The journey leads him to the Skoltaks, his unsuspecting birth father Richard's family. Mitchell assimilates into their environment at Northwestern University. There, he befriends his professor/grandmother. But when she senses his true identity, Mitchell kills her.

Mitchell exploits his grandmother's funeral to infiltrate the Skoltaks. A perfect gentleman, he befriends his half-sister Tracy. Both suppress mutual attraction to the other... but seemingly cross the line when a heart to heart ends in a drunken blackout. As the Skoltaks open their home to Mitchell, outcast half-brother K.C. remains suspicious. At the family reunion, Mitchell is looked upon as "one of the family", but must navigate Tracy's growing feelings towards him -- and how the family views them as a couple. At term break, Mitchell's case workers search on campus for him, but Mitchell murders them before they can expose his identity. Family tensions mount. The Skoltaks retreat to their mountain cabin for Thanksgiving.

Tracy and K.C. resolve their sibling issues, leading her to press Mitchell. Tracy sees Mitchell's love for her family, especially Richard. But when Mitchell refuses to embrace his true feelings for her, an upset Tracy rejects him. Richard confronts Mitchell, who reveals that he is Richard's son. Richard rejects Mitchell, ordering him to leave. Richard gathers his family to confess to his affair when Mitchell crashes the family's SUV into the cabin, killing the parents. As the cabin collapses, Mitchell tries to kill the surviving family as they are no longer "genuine". In the struggle, he is impaled on the family tree. In the hospital, Tracy is comforted from a nightmare. Deep inside her, a fetus awakens...

GENUINE