Synopsis for our Thriller Film and Opening

Media Studies – Thriller Film Synopsis
Our idea is for a detective thriller, set in present day in Britain. It tells the story of a woman whose parents disappeared when she was a teenager, and has since dedicated her life to discovering what happened to them. She does, however, lead a reasonably normal life in that she has a boyfriend (who she lives with) and a job writing articles for the London Times about current ‘big stories’ in the news. Due to this, she is asked to appear on a programme discussing a topical event in the world news about a seemingly unsolvable detective case. During this programme, the host mentions the woman’s past and what happened when she was younger, commenting on how strange it is that no one ever discovered what happened. A local police detective is watching this programme and contacts the woman after the show, claiming he may have some leads on another case that could help her find her parents and that he would be happy to help her. She is at first unsure (mostly due to her boyfriend’s disapproval), but he is persistent so she decides to give it a try. It turns out that the leads are not helpful to her, however the police detective insists he helps her anyway as he’s very interested in the case. She becomes more and more intrigued, spending less time with her boyfriend and more time at the detective’s house, which makes the boyfriend jealous and increasingly more irritated. The detective begins to hint that it could be her boyfriend who killed her parents, but very subtly and suggests that perhaps that’s why he’s getting so uneasy about the woman finding out more about the case. At first the woman completely denies this possibility, but then they find more and more evidence to suggest that this is a possibility and the woman begins to suspect her boyfriend, asking him to move out and give her some space while she thinks about everything. He immediately blames the detective and says that he’s poisoning her mind, but she just takes this as more evidence for his guilt (the audience are also led to believe he’s guilty due to the way he’s been acting). After this the police detective suddenly confesses his love for the woman, and asks that she completely leaves her boyfriend for him, saying that he’s dangerous and not good enough for her, but that he would take good care of her. The woman is completely taken aback and tells him she does not return these feelings and says it’s best if they stop seeing each other so much. The detective snaps, refuses to let her leave his house and shouts at her that he her ‘more than her own parents’. He then explains, smugly, her parents are not dead (which explains the lack of blood or traces of bodies etc found at the house) and that he was the one who made them leave because he has always loved the girl and wanted to have her all to himself. It turns out that her parents are now living somewhere near by, with changed names and new lives, because the man had threatened them that he would kill their daughter if they did not. They couldn’t go to the police, however, because the father was already under cover from having hacked into government information and would get life in prison if found out. The detective harshly points out that the parents couldn’t have loved the girl very much to just leave like that. The girl is shocked and horrified but doesn’t believe the detective’s story, so he says he will prove it to her and drives her to the new location of the parents’ house, intending to threaten to kill her parents if she does not promise to stay with him forever. Meanwhile, the boyfriend has gotten more suspicious about the detective’s intentions and decides to break into his house, hoping to save the woman. As they are not there however, he goes trough the detective’s things and finds a letter dating the year of the girl’s parents’ disappearance from them explaining everything to her (which the detective has clearly intercepted) and decides to go there, assuming that is where she is now. The parents have been explaining to the daughter that they tried to contact her but clearly failed and telling her how sorry they are etc. Then the detective tests the father’s dedication to the daughter by pointing a gun at her (his police gun, intended only for emergencies), he jumps in the way in order to save her life and is killed himself. (A tragic event, fairly conventional in thriller films). The detective is clearly/has gone insane and upon the daughter telling him she will never love him, turns the gun on both her and her mother, is about to shoot when the boyfriend appears behind him and strikes him over the head with some kind of heavy object (essentially ‘saving the day’).

Our opening, then, will show what happens on the night of the parents’ disappearance (though obviously not everything that happens as this would give away the ending of the film). It will start with lots of shots in quick succession of a man rifling through draws, gathering clothes etc. (he is the detective man, gathering the parent’s stuff for them, although the audience will currently be unaware of this as that is the mystery of the film. It might be filmed in such a way to make them believe he is stealing things instead). It will then cut to the girl getting out of a car, stumbling up the drive etc. But this will be interspersed with more shots of the man in the house (dressed all in black), he will also check the time occasionally in an urgent sense to show he is worried about how long he has to do this. Throughout this section there will be fast suspense music (un-copyrighted) which builds as the girl comes nearer and nearer to the house. The moment she puts the key in the lock for the front door, however, the music will stop abruptly as the man hears her coming in and panics. The man will then hurriedly hide somewhere in the parents’ room (e.g. the cupboard) as the girl enters the house. There will be some POV shots from the girl which will be filmed in time delay and with a hand held camera to show that she is drunk and has just returned from a party. The man upstairs will then accidentally drop something or somehow make a noise which makes the girl investigate. She comes upstairs but, finding nothing, just mutters something along the lines of ‘packing for the holiday already? I wonder where they are? ...not normally out this late...’ before climbing into bed. The man then creeps back downstairs with the bags and a letter which he silently sticks to the girl’s bedroom door; he then peers in and stares at her for a brief second (an over-shoulder shot) before quietly closing the door. The final shot is of the paper, which states clearly ‘Gone away for a while. Don’t worry, and don’t try to look for us x’ before a cut to the title screen then a ’10 years later...’ slide.


*we have not decided upon a title yet, but will post that as soon as we're ready*

Signed,
Keira Smalley