Hamlet meets Ghostbusters in Arkema
This is a heart-pounding low-budget thriller with a heart, combining a coming-of-age romance, a murder mystery, and a ghost story with elements of matricide, physical abuse, and psychological torture in the form of parental gaslighting as its key themes.
Harry as a young boy is devastated after witnessing his mother Gwendolyn’s suspicious drowning. He not only blames his father for her death, but he vows from that moment forward to prove his father’s guilt.
His father, Richard, will use every form of psychological torture, and physical abuse his limitless wealth which allows him to keep his son in a perpetual state of confusion with mind-altering psychotropic medications, and forced commitment with the help of his sycophant witch doctor/psychiatrist and his asylum.
There are two reasons for all of this and one is if Harry is unable to carry out his duties as the sole heir to his late mother’s fortune his father will continue as the guardian of the estate until Harry is judged as psychologically fit.
The second reason is that buried somewhere in Harry’s head is the key whereabouts of a damning piece of evidence that will shed light on his father’s guilt in the drowning of Harry’s mother.
That’s where Sarah comes in; when Harry and Sarah meet in the witch doctor’s asylum between shock treatments. And with her help and the help of the ghost of Harry’s mother Gwendolyn, they will not only defeat his father but Gwendolyn will exact her eye for an eye revenge from her watery grave.
In the end, the ghost is raised as young love triumphs over every patriarchal obstacle this how done it can produce.
TMFF The Monthly Film Festival March 31, 2017, Quarter-Finalist. Quarter-Finalist Page Turner Screenplays 2021. Official Selection Hollywood Horrorfest 2021. Finalist Scream Writing Festival 2022. Santa Barbara Film Awards Official Selection 2022.