The Penalty

Liam Lamper, an ambitious high school hockey player, funnels into a dark depression after a teammate's suicide. Liam blames his despotic coach and wants to turn him in, but Liam's teammates disagree. With no team support, Liam wants to quit hockey. But one night, Liam discovers a mysterious cloak beneath his hockey helmet. He throws on the cloak and follows his clues to the zamboni room, fascinated by a cellar door that invites him into the dark. Under The Barn, Liam meets his mentor, Ghost, in the dark realm called Nightshade. Ghost wears the same cloak, informing Liam that the Shadows need his help. Ghost wants to teach Liam how to use his pain for good blessings, helping other hockey players in agony. And with Liam’s burning desperation to expose his coach, he agrees to vow to the Shadows in a ritualistic prayer. Liam’s girlfriend, Marie, and his widowed mother, Jenny, support him along his journey, telling him to give coach some time before quitting hockey. But when the Kielstad Knights travel to their away games, Liam finds the “other hockey players” who grieve from bullying and emotional abuse. He throws on his cloak and turns invisible to the real world, hence, a SHADOW. Liam spots the metaphorical signs of pain; one rink collapses in a claustrophobic trap, and another constricts a player’s body with a snake. Liam saves these kids from their suffocating emotions, but Ghost believes he’s doing it in the wrong ways-- Liam rebounds the pain to the abusers. “You know I can’t leave those bullies in peace,” Liam says. “I’ll do what needs to be done.” One game stuns Liam so hard from his coach’s on-going abuse that he exposes him with his words and quits in front of the crowd. Liam heads to the locker room, throws his cloak on, and prepares to unveil his wrath. But Ghost, he stops him. “Liam Lamper! Killing him won’t bring him back!” “Someone needs to feed the devil, master.” “You know this isn’t right!” “Then why don’t you stop me?” “Because I know you Liam! I know you like you’re my son!” After Liam’s emotional outbreak, Marie takes him for a hike. She raises an idea about their Snowball wardrobe, which she proposed to him earlier on. Instead of wearing normal attire, they rule the gymnasium in a Knight’s suit. And while everything works well in their boots, Liam’s emotions attack. One of his teammates didn’t attend Snowball and skates at The Barn. Liam and Ghost discover a bloody nose, luring them to the arena. Ghost arrives first, eyeing up the injured boy who lies on the ice—and the zamboni that crawls out of the garage with its side brush replaced with a saw blade. When Liam arrives with his best friend, Ash, to the rink, he discovers that his mentor sacrificed his life for his teammate. The boy hides under Ghost’s cloak. Liam throws the robe onto Ash. “You can see the pain in these cloaks,” Liam says. “Who’s pain?” Ash says. “My own.” In a big finale, Liam fights off his worse enemy that caused all his pain and haunted the arena. He heads into Locker Room One and lures Finn, the teammate who committed suicide, inside. “It’s time to let go.” Liam ambushes Finn with his red-eyed wolf pack, staining his blood in the snow. Liam heals with his team around the bonfire, announcing that their coach was fired. The new coach for their team—Liam’s mom. And in the dark, Liam initiates the prayer ritual with Ash’s bloody hands. “Apprentice Molta. Welcome to the Shadows.”