Edgar Klinger

Tragedy strikes Yvette Klinger’s family a month before she is born when her father falls from a ladder in the front yard. Six years later, Yvette’s mother perishes in a car accident driving her to school. Yvette’s older brother Edgar glimpses the horrific aftermath of both these accidents. Was it seeing father’s bleeding head or mother’s throat slashed by twisted metal that inspired his evil? They say Edgar loved his sister because he raised her in their parents’ absence. If so, why did he try to kill her? Adopted by Grandma, she inspires Yvette to become an actress. But Edgar disturbs her. He wears mother’s black leather clothes around the house and has a new hobby: smashing his toy cars with father’s hammer and decorating the wreckage with blood. Grandma tries to burn the leathers in the furnace but Edgar yanks her down the basement steps and runs the claw of father’s hammer across her throat. When Yvette returns to tell Grandma she landed a role in the school Christmas play, Edgar informs her Grandma has taken ill and left for treatment. Upset at first, Yvette excitedly accepts Edgar’s offer to rehearse the play, and she brings down the house in her stage debut. When Yvette learns that Grandma has passed away, she channels her grief into future performances. Yvette lands starring roles in high school plays, and at 16 she’s accepted into an acting program at the same university where 22-year-old Edgar studies mechanical engineering. She draws the attention of local theater critic Nigel Griffin, who catches Edgar in mother’s leathers. Protective of her career, Yvette convinces Nigel to leave Edgar out of his article on her. When Edgar protests, Yvette stands her ground: she suspects something sinister in Grandma’s passing and is fearful Nigel may discover the truth and ruin her career. Thus Edgar must keep his horrifying secrets to himself and stay out of her life. Despairing and paranoid about Nigel, Edgar agrees to help a film student with a gruesome special effect that requires engineering savvy. Taking multi-tasking to macabre extremes, Edgar kidnaps Nigel and murders him on camera in his newly-soundproofed basement. Turning in the footage, the film students and their professor marvel at the ultrarealistic effect Edgar has created. Yvette suspects the worst when she learns Nigel is missing and demands Edgar show her what’s inside his padlocked deep freezer. Edgar implies her career may not survive the knowledge of its contents, and she chooses not to find out. Back at school, a film student named Jack asks for Edgar’s help shooting a short film where a woman’s throat is slit by a masked killer in an elevator on campus. Edgar agrees, and suggests Yvette play the woman, not revealing she’s his sister. He also lands the role of the killer. As the night of filming approaches, Yvette has no idea her deranged brother Edgar is slated to run a prop knife across her throat on film. With the police now investigating Edgar, he needs Yvette to be his alibi. What if she refuses, and decides to expose his deadly deeds despite what it will mean for her career? Ever the prepared one, Edgar brings two knives to the shoot as he awaits Yvette’s decision: one dull, one sharp.