Killer Instincts

Spec Screenplay - Feature Film

Comp: HANNA meets SCREAM
High Concept: Does evil ever die if a serial killer retires his killer instinct to murder?
Budget: $1MM-$5MM Low-Budget / Contained Diversity Feature Film
Primary Targeted Audience: YA / Secondary Audiences: Anime Manga Fandom
Theme(s): Violence and Morality: Raises insightful questions about the nature of evil. Heroine’s Ordeal vs. Villain’s Torment: Road to redemption or justice is to fight good against evil; Evil knows no color of race.
________________________________

OVERVIEW

As a unique fusion of mostly live-action and partial anime motion inspired by true events - A deranged, Afro-Latino LAPD detective retires with a grisly secret, his hidden identity as an ex-serial killer. But he’s provoked by a female, Asian, teenage prankster next door who stalks and mocks him. She lures him out of hiding, then exposes him to their RV community. Only, he retaliates with a fresh killing spree as she rallies residents to fight back against his evil carnage.

Lead Character Arc – The protagonist, Sul-ki, is a troubled teenage girl and the fainthearted survivor of a broken home who evolves into a badass, fierce fighter. She musters the courage to super sleuth and stalk a sinister neighbor whom she suspects is a predator. Her anime alter ego is a brave warrior princess and highly-skilled opponent who nobly fights for justice as she morphs into an adult, heroic hybrid woman and fights evil in her world.

Transformational Journey - The vast generational gap between the two lead characters is a profound contrast of gender, age, and world. When a young, rebellious, female Jackie Chan-type character, Sul-ki, challenges a grizzled, male Wesley Snipes-type character, Reeks, these different generations collide. They spar like gladiators for survival and supremacy. The story is symbolic as a coming-of-age journey representing Sul-ki’s POV of her inside/outside world where she seeks emancipation through her anime art from the harsh reality of being uprooted from her home, school friends, and family due to divorce. She’s the Comeback Kid.

Lead Antagonist – Reeks, as the old detective/ex-serial killer, is the cruel change agent who portrays the impotence, resentment, and loss of purpose he feels. After retiring from both careers, he attempts to bury his homicidal urges. But he feels humiliated by the teenager Sul-ki who mocks him publicly with her anime art, then meddles in his private life. They soon develop a fierce rivalry that results later in a series of face-to-face combat. Provoked by Sul-ki, he must reclaim his power and dominance by victimizing the most vulnerable – local seniors and the teen. His goal never changes as he fulfills his dark destiny as The Senior Slayer. This harrowing, high-velocity journey follows Sul-ki as the rebellious and resilient, but reluctant hero and Reeks as the relentless and narcissistic, evil villain on a collision course as formidable adversaries. High Stakes spur them both to seek revenge and justice until the shocking, cliffhanger ending.
_______________________________________________________

SYNOPSIS

Does evil ever die? An ex-serial killer's lured out of hiding by a prankster teen!

A killer emerges and is on the loose! He brutally murders a lone, elderly resident in an isolated, RV park community. Cramming her body into roller luggage, he hums a jaunty tune. But she’s too obese to remove. So, he blows up the victim’s RV instead. Then, he calls 911 to report it.

Months earlier. . . SUL-KI (16), a brooding Asian-American anime artist, moves with her workaholic, religious Mom, MI-YOUNG (40) to the same, remote RV Park for retirees after her parents’ bitter divorce. Home alone and cut off from past school chums, she recuperates from a temporary, fainting illness and depression by spying on her oddball SENIOR NEIGHBORS.

Lonely, Sul-ki often escapes into her anime world of drawing superheroes and evil villains. She sketches to cope with the harsh reality of a broken home and forbidding, new community where danger seems to lurk everywhere. Her alter ego is illustrated as a beautiful ANIME EURASIAN GIRL who rises as a valiant tribal leader and leads her kingdom to fight injustice.

Sul-ki’s next-door neighbor is multi-racial REEKS (60s). He’s a former LAPD Detective and pro-boxer who lives a double life undetected as the dreaded Senior Slayer. He retires to tranquil living and buries his killer instinct. Bored, Sul-ki researches the web about her creepy male neighbors. She discovers Reeks was a person of interest in old murders. MAX (50s) is an Aryan sympathizer and ex-convict. Then, there’s voyeur GREG (60s), the RV Park Owner whose surveillance cameras follow her. She draws them as ruthless predators in her anime art.

Reckless, she secretly sends cryptic notes to pressure these sinister, male neighbors to make public restitution or she threatens to expose them. But her foolish pranks horribly backfire! Reeks’s repressed killer instinct is triggered with dire consequences for the RV community.

. . . Then local residents go missing and turn up dead later.

Sul-ki panics! Yet her inner warrior spirit emerges as she rallies some senior residents to super-sleuth and report Reeks as a murder suspect to police. He’s questioned and released by his good ole boy buddies. Sul-ki must up her game and stalks him in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game.

Sul-ki’s group of amateur detectives finally catch the Senior Slayer red-handed when he’s observed disposing of victims. Sul-ki tips off the L.A. homicide hotline. Reeks is convicted. However, he gets out early with electronic tagging parole due to a pandemic breakout in overcrowded, men’s prisons and a corrupt DA. Intent on revenge, Reeks returns to the RV park but he’s harassed by the hostile residents. This triggers a flashback where he recalls his abusive mother and her violent legacy - a monster who created a monster!

Enraged, he targets Sul-ki but she barely escapes his axe-wielding clutches. Expert in Taekwondo, she battles Reeks in a fierce showdown of wits and flurry of fists, high kicks, and jabs. The princess warrior girl is fully birthed within her now as she grows stronger from every altercation. Suddenly, Reeks is neutralized by a stunning TKO from Sul-ki! Only, she faints.

The outraged neighbors arrive to rescue Sul-ki and turn vigilante! Will Reeks elude their retaliation for final justice and wreak a counterattack on Sul-ki? Or will Sul-ki, with her newfound fearlessness, outwit and outmaneuver him with her arsenal of martial arts weapons?

During a final, deadly face-off, will the grizzled killer or the plucky teen prevail?
______________________________________________________________________________________