Production - Treatment Two - [INITAL]

Film Title: “The Clarkes”
Production Company: Picture Frame Productions
Length of Film: 1hr 30mins(roughly)Audience: 15 – 30’s, horror genre fans, aimed at both male and female audiences. Certificate 15 due to running themes of:
• Threat and menace
• Dangerous behaviour
• Strong language
• Use of violence prohibited for the viewing of those under the age of 15
Related films are; “Captivity” (2007), “The Strangers” (2008) “The Girl Next Door” (2007)
Basic Synopsis: - A twist on ordinary family life. What appears to be an ordinary father, coming home to his wife and three teenagers, soon becomes a frantic fight for survival. We start the film with Steve Clarke, driving home from work. His inner monologue narrates the first scene, stating that he is an ordinary man with an ordinary family; he seems content with his life. He reaches his home and talks to his wife Jane, who tells him one of the kids, Lola has upset her today. He leaves and walks to a locked door and it soon becomes apparent that something is not right. Opening the door, the room behind it is in complete darkness until he switches the light on and a single bulb swings above. There are three chairs in the room and tied to each chair are three teenagers, two girls and a boy, and they are all gagged. He walks to Lola, removes her gag and asks her what she has said to upset "mum". Lola replies, “She’s not my fucking mum, please just let me go, please.” and with this, Steve snaps. He grabs her hair and kicks the chair out from beneath her. He begins dragging to the door by her hair to punish her. Kate, the second girl hostage, starts to cry and scream through her gag. She has seen this before with another hostage and fears for Lola's life. Steve tells Jane, who has now joined him at the door to “Go sort her out!”. She pulls off Kate’s gag and replaces it with duct tape she keeps in her apron pocket and tells Kate to, “Be a good girl now will you?” in a mothering way. Steve continues to drag Lola away and her screams fade into the distance. Steve proceeds to scare Lola by almost drowning her in the pool. This scene would involve flashbacks of him doing the same thing to a previous teenager, Charlie whom he actually drowned. He warns her, she has to start behaving like a good daughter or next time he won’t be so forgiving. On returning her back to the room, he straps her back in the chair, re-gags her and Kate, and leaves them. He informs Kate and Ben "it's dinner time soon for them" but that Lola won't be joining them again. He removes their ties and allows them to sit at a table Jane prepare in front of Lola so she has to watch them eat. There should be a jump cut to show time passes, and Jane and Steve are in bed. Kate and Ben have been given beds but Lola is still attach to the chair and clearly in pain. They remove her gag and try to talk to her, explaining that there had been another girl before her called Charlie. After being caught trying to escape, Steve took her away, and they never saw her again, and could only image she was dead. A few days later, Lola had replaced her. They believe that Jane is unable to have children of her own, and that's what has driven her and Steve to act the way they do. Lola tells them they have to try and escape but Ben and Kate seem hopeless to even try. Day’s pass, and there are several events, such as Jane cutting Kate and Lola hair. One scene also shows Jane out in the garden and a neighbor visit, saying then heard "something" last night, and asking if everything is alright after "what happened and all". It is obvious something tragic has happened to Jane not long ago. Jane stays calm until they leave but then returns to gardening and destroys her flowers with a pair of shears. We also find out more about what happens day to day, for example Steve not feeding Lola for her resistance and the others trying to steal food for her. The characters narrate flashbacks to the nights Steve captured them. First Lola, who was walking home from her boyfriends, they are having a huge argument over the phone. She hangs up and frustrated, pulls out a cigarette but cannot find a lighter. Steve is getting into his car just a few metres away and she's asks him if he has a "light". He asks her "Aren't you too young to be smoking? Your mother must not like that." to which she reply "What she doesn't know won't hurt her". He leans into his car as if he's reaching to get a lighter but then and punches her in the face before she has chance to react, knocking her unconscious. She had moved in with her boyfriend a few months earlier and knows that no one will be looking for her yet. Kate and Ben only remember waking up in the dark room with Charlie who had been there for several weeks. They know that every day, Steve leaves for work at 8:30 until 7 and Jane leaves every Friday at 6 for exactly 30 minutes, leaving them totally alone. The plan is to wait until Jane leaves the house and then they will free themselves from their ties and wait until Jane comes to check on them. They plan to remove the light-bulb so the room stays in darkness and then knock her out and steal her keys, giving them a chance to escape. All of this goes to plan until they hear Steve has returned from work early. They shut the door and lock themselves in the dark room with Jane. Steve opens the door and uses a torch to search the room to find them. Ben runs at Steve and tackles him but injures himself on the broken light-bulb glass in the process. He tells Lola and Kate to run, and Lola does, but Kate can't leave him. Steve knock Ben unconscious and grabs Kate, pushes her out of the room and locks the door behind him, leaving Jane in there with Ben. As Lola reaches the front door, she hears Kate screaming and can’t bring herself to leave them; instead she heads to the pool area to help Kate. Jane awakes and she and Ben have a tousle, Ben attempts to strangulate her and after believing he has done so, goes to help Kate and Lola. Ben and Steve are fighting in the water, whilst Lola drags Kate out of the water to try and revive her. Jane wakes up in the cellar and rushes to the pool area, after seeing the struggle between Ben and Steve she locks them all in the pool area. Ben overpowers Steve and kills him. They can hear Jane at the other side of the door, they beg her to let them out, but she panics and leaves the house, locking them in. Ben, Lola and Kate search the pool area for another exit. In hysterics Jane sets fire to the house. A distant noise of a police and fire engine siren can be heard in the distance. The film ends leaving the audience to make their own decision on whether Lola, Kate and Ben survive and escape or not.
Suggested Elements: Interesting location, shot within a claustrophobic/confined area, twisted plotline, unique story, original narrative from an unexpected point of view, unexpected ending, pyrotechnics, violence, disturbing props, child abuse, flashback footage with overexposure effects.