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DENIAL

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Denial

Story and Screenplay by Robert C. Powers            

Genre: Drama/Horror (Woman in Peril-Single Location)                        Pages: 81

Logline: A young woman is held captive in a remote cabin by a deranged man who tries to make her admit she killed his son; she uses all her wiles to escape before he kills her (Coverage: A harrowing and taut thriller with a terrific premise).

Synopsis: Clara, a beautiful young woman, lies unconscious in a filthy cabin cellar, comes to and is terrified by her dark, confining surroundings in which she is denied the luxury life she has led.  She invents various way to preserve her sanity and attract help.

 

Clara’s thankful to hear a truck arrive outside the cabin, but taken aback when a rough looking man, Blade, shows up and lets her out of the cellar—but not out of the cabin.  He wants to know if she came to the cabin with his son, Freddy, which she did--a big mistake. 

 

Freddy beat her up and she ran into the forest and passed out.  Blade found her, unconscious in the forest, brought her to the cabin and put her in the cellar.  Now, Blade can’t find Freddy and he accuses Clara of killing him.  To make matters worse, Blade tells Clara that Silas, a mad man, is trying to kill him and Freddy.

 

A girl who works in Blade’s store, Susie, goes out with a strange farm hand, Silas, and disappears.  Blade and Freddy tell Sheriff Billy that they followed them and saw Silas kill her and race away in his truck. Sheriff Billy puts Silas in jail, but a hot-shot lawyer gets him out—not enough evidence. Now, he’s on the loose and Blade thinks he’s trying to kill him and Freddy in revenge for what they told the sheriff.

 

Blade keeps Clara in the cellar until she’s willing to tell him where Freddy is.  But she doesn’t know where he is. She nurtures her relationship with Blade to stave off whatever evil intentions he may have. Clara tries every trick in the book to communicate where she is to her father, Frank, and older brother, Randy.  Nothing works until she opens a tool shed in the cellar and the body of Susie, encased in a game bag, falls out.  Clara take the pearls around Susie’s neck and puts a ring her father gave her on the string. When Blade gets rough with her, she sticks them in his back pocket, unknown to him.

 

Silas finds the cabin, attacks and kills Blade. Now, Clara has to face the wrath of Silas who says he is trying to find Freddy and Susie. She denies any knowledge of Susie or Freddy. This all comes to a climax when Sheriff Billy, Frank and Randy see the pearls and ring in Blade’s back pocket, figure out what may be happening, and find the cabin. 

 

Locations (1): A cabin in the forest.

 

Characters (7): Two primary, five minor.

Coverage: (Screenplay Readers, a professional coverage service) A harrowing and taut thriller with a terrific premise. The script keeps the reader off-balance until the end with a series of clever twists.

Penned by optioned screenwriter Robert C. Powers, this is a classic “woman in peril” thriller/horror/slasher script that maintains tension throughout and springs many surprises. May I send the script?

Robert C Powers

Powerful Publisher LLC

757 621 6846             robertcpowers@cox.net