The Monster In Me

A random city in the UK. Some 25 years earlier, a young boy, alone in his room, contemplates suicide. Now, an anti-bullying campaigner is on a mission to change lives. Flashback/dream. A boy of 14, very slight with an almost sickly appearance, walks cautiously into the school ground. He keeps his head bowed, avoiding all eye contact. He makes his way to the school building and enters. Suddenly, he is dragged to the floor by his school bag. The bully, 14, big, hard-nosed and angry, cries out for attention in everything he does. Andrew Thompson, a physically fit, family man in his late 30s, runs an influential anti-bullying charity supported by his slightly scruffy, overweight, ‘don’t give a fuck’, colleague Peter. They raise awareness by visiting schools, relating a series of increasingly distressing scenarios. We see Andrew and Peter together, but we never see Peter on his own. Andrew’s impeccable physique and undoubted expertise should demand authority yet he is oddly nervous, haunted, quick to anger. He is plagued by dreams of an un-named boy tormented by an un-named brutal, school bully. Gradually, the dreams invade his life and compromise the relationship with his wife and three children, becoming ever more graphic and visual. Unsurprisingly, Andrew is alert to bullying everywhere, even accusing his 14-year-old, rugby-playing son of picking on a less able member of the youth team he coaches. It becomes very obvious, however, that he is unable to act - he can neither stand up for himself nor defend others. Time and again, it falls to his colleague, Peter, to step in. Surely, Andrew’s dreams must be auto-biographical? Surely, he is the beaten young boy, driven to thoughts of suicide? At an awards dinner, as his charity work is lauded in public, Andrew is compelled to reveal the full story and the tragic events that inspired his crusade. It was his campaign of bullying that caused the terrified boy to take his own life. Andrew tries to kill himself, but Peter steps in for the last time. How is it that Peter is always there? Who is he and where has he come from? As Andrew discovers that his champion is his own creation, manifested to do what Andrew cannot, he heads off for one final act, alone…. ENDS