DARK WATERS
Character-driven psychological horror thriller set in a suburban house, with a disturbed female lead and a shocking twist ending, inspired by Henry James' "Turn of the Screw". Two children seem to be haunted by the ghost of their dead mother's secret lover, as seen through the eyes of a young, troubled woman hired as a nanny while their father leaves town on business. Their suburban house evolves into a nightmare world of psychological evil that seems to emanate from the back-yard pool. Hook: is there a ghost in the house, or is the nanny imagining it and going mad?
Julie takes care of two children in suburbia, their father PETER leaving on an overseas business trip for the summer. Their mother was killed in a car accident the previous summer. As Julie is left alone with SEAN (11) and MELISSA (14), two unhappy kids with too many secrets between them, nothing seems normal in this household...
Strange things occur, particularly from the back yard and its "haunted" swimming pool. Sean seems to be tormented by some invisible demon from the past. And people are disappearing: the gardener, the pool man, then a neighboring babysitter. Julie bonds with the two disturbed siblings, determined to learn their secrets and heal their wounds out of newfound love, and to redeem her guilt-ridden past.
As the mystery unfolds, Julie learns the truth about their mother JESSICA's death and her secret affair with violent, womanizing MAX STRYKER, a neighbor with a prosthetic claw-hand. Both died together in the same car accident under sinister circumstances. Max's ghost, or some manifestation of Sean and Melissa's hidden fears, begins to terrorize Julie and endanger both her and the kids.
Julie's live-in nightmare and misguided efforts to save them from a hostile entity culminates in an unexpected twist, where nothing is what it seems in this house...nor in the pool, an ominous epicenter of horror and death.
Coverage excerpt from 2011 Award Winning Scripts Contest Finalist:
"This is a novel and original script, written by a writer who clearly knows how to manipulate the medium in terms of both historical and contemporary mystery thriller film precedents. Scary, inventive, and confident enough to find terror in the mundane details of every-day life, this is a story that produces some genuinely unsettling and hair-raising sequences.
"Water, overall, is both a plot device and a metaphor in the style of Clouzot's Diabolique, a carrier for fear that is utilized with great skill throughout the story. The suspense scenes are inventively realized in an extremely engaging and visceral manner. Even in those scenes in which nothing much visual happens, there are genuine psychological jolts.
"The dialogue, is highly polished, and the kids talk like real adolescents. Julie has some great dialogue, and this overall naturalism contributes to making the story credible and fluid. Julie is a likable protagonist, and the gradual way in which she forms a bond with the kids makes for a story that's easy to identify with and root for the characters in their predicament."
Shailene Woodley
Elle Fanning
The Others
The Innocents
Table Read (Finalist) [2013]
Austin Fest Film (Semifinalist) [2012]
Show More
ScriptLinks
Post Your Script Here!HOME MOVIES
Circa 1972, tiny Gemini Beach just north of Daytona.
THE HEALING
Twin siblings diverge violently when one becomes a celebrated, Christ-like preacher and the other courts death through reckless desire—until their bond is tested by miracles, scandal, and the ultimate act of faith.
WIZ KID
An 11-year-old farm boy with a genius-level IQ leaves his wheelchair-bound mother and abusive home to attend a Big Ten university—where he finds friendship, first love, and an unlikely place on the football field, proving that greatness comes in all sizes.
THE GLAMOROUS LIFE
: A fading supermodel fleeing an abusive rock-star boyfriend hides out at a Florida beach house with two mismatched brothers who mistake her for a prostitute—an error that gives all three an unexpected crash course in love, reinvention, and growing up.
A CHRISTMAS TALE OF NOT SO LONG AGO
In this family drama, Christmases of long ago, ones of togetherness, family entertainments, and memorable stories, as told by Grandpa Lynn, now living in his daughter, Rhiannon Nolan's, spare room, now contrast with those of the Nolan family with its packaged television and sports, relatives' distancing, and multitude of electronic distractions.
UNCLE FRANCO'S BIRTHDAY SUIT
Paolo’s relatives, including his zany Uncle Franco, are determined to reunite their nephew with his teenage love, Magdalena.
THE QUISLING
A young lawyer defends a wanted terrorist from international extradition.
ELECTRIC
After a freak electrical accident gives a tough-as-nails lineman the power to spark instant love between anyone she touches, she becomes a media sensation — except the one man she wants is immune, forcing her to discover what her power really does before it stops her heart for good.
The Minotaur
THE FIND OF THE CENTURY BECOMES THE NIGHTMARE OF THE CENTURY.
Undue Influence
An unscrupulous and money hungry debt collector is forced to make hard choices when she becomes the target of a wrongful death law suit.
