Mortician's Daughter

ELIZABETH KIRSTEN comes with a scent - of formaldehyde. The smell is not appetizing, but sometimes love is not only blind, it distorts one's sense of smell. This darkly humorous tale about obsessive/compulsive relationships could be a relative to Stephen King’s Carrie crossed with zombies and a ghost story. MIKE, a quiet, brooding young man, and his friends have grown up in the rural town of Cooganville. He and his friends are going through that confusing stage, having graduated high school, summer drawing to a close, and fall ushering in new realities that push many into adulthood. They’ve grown bored and yearn for something different in their lives. Something does, Elizabeth Kirsten, the mysterious new girl quickly captures Mike’s heart. Elizabeth is his first love. Her entrance into his life comes with bad omens. She manages to alienate all of Mike’s friends except for his best buddy, NICK. When Elizabeth sees Nick as a threat, she attempts to draw her boyfriend even closer. She becomes more clingy, demanding, and introduces him to her strange parents, grandfather and brother - the Addams Family by way of David Lynch. The rail-thin, waxy looking GRANDPA JUDD's joy of the organ matches his use of an axe. LEONARD is the strict disciplinarian father and town mortician. The unsettlingly and quiet matriarch, MARTHA, likes to pass off TV dinners as home cooked meals. And, Elizabeth’s brother JEREMY, obsesses on his taxidermic animals. The family is uncomfortable with Elizabeth’s new beau. Mike cannot warm up to them either. But, Elizabeth’s allure is too much for Mike. He’s willing to overcome any hurdles to make their relationship work. The hurdles may prove to be too high with a growing mystery about the Kirstens, a private detective snooping around, people dying, and tensions building between Elizabeth and her folks. There is also the growing sexual frustration Mike experiences with his new girlfriend. She’s willing to do just about anything but have sex. Mike’s suspects she is not just protecting her virginity. Eventually, grave decisions are carried out as Elizabeth comes to blows with the codependent relationship she has with her family...actually it’s more than that. They’re dead. She’s keeping them all alive, and daddy keeps them normal looking with his mortician abilities. There are also darker secrets that dare not be revealed until Elizabeth marries her intended.