thriller treatment

8/13/2019 Thriller Treatment

1/5

Thriller Treatment

Title

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Logline

A fourteen-year-old girl whos only passion isdance, get brutally attacked and

abducted. As we follow the investigation, we uncover the truth about her

kidnapper.

Synopsis

We open with a winters morning. Bright and sunny yet a thin layer of frost covers

this middle-class, suburban area. This neighborhood looks like a normal residential

area.

A fourteen-year-old girl wakes up and gets ready for school. As we are

introduced to her usual morning routine (brushing teeth, brushing hair, shower etc.)

we see that she is just a normal teenage girl with a sensible yet confident nature

about her. She has a necklace of two ballet shoes and as she puts it on, it is

suggested that this is of great importance to her. Along with the necklace, scattered

items such as leotards and ballet shoes also suggest that she is a dancer. Her familyis introduced (both parents, a younger brother and sister) to the audience as she

prepares her breakfast and leaves for school. The girl walks to the bus stop where

she is greeted by some of her school friends. They are all talking, laughing, and

giggling, emphasizing the normal teenage life that this girl has.

At the end of her school day, the girl and her friend run excitedly to their

dance class. The dance class is the first time we see her come to life. We can see that

her talent is one of great beauty. Both ballet and contemporary dance styles are

exhibited. This is the first time that the audience is introduced to an eerie

atmosphere. P.O.V shots looking in through the window at her dancing suggest that

someone is observing her. She heads home with her friend.Due to the season, it is already dark outside. Halfway home she says goodbye

to her friend and they part and go different ways and a classically eerie atmosphere

swamps her walk home alone. Around 10 minutes into the film, an attack scene

occurs. Someone jumps on her from behind. We never see the attackers face. After

seconds of major struggle, the girl is violently thrown into the back of a van. The last

we see of this scene is the vans back door slamming shut. We then see the attacker

dragging the girl across a kitchen floor and down into a basement. As the attacker

closes the basement door behind him, we pan down to the floor where we see that

the girls necklace has fallen off. Whilst showing the image of her necklace on the

floor we hear faint screams of the girl. We immediately cut to black, still not knowingthe identity of the attacker.


2/5

We fade in to the front of the girls house. A policeman stands waiting for the

door to be answered. We see the flashes of police car lights being reflected on the

windows. With no dialogue and only music we see the father react to the news and

rush into the living room to tell the mother. We hear her scream. A montage then

occurs including images of the parents in the police station, friends coming round to

give their support as well as the parents giving their TV appeal for help. We see

searches through the streets and through nearby fields happening. The fathers best

friend, an ex-police worker, is at the forefront of the investigation. He is the familys

crutch and would do anything to help find their daughter.

We cut to black. Still with no image, we hear the sound of footsteps walking

above, along with the kettle being boiled and the faint sound of daytime cartoons in

the background. As our eyes become used to the dark, we see the girl. She is trapped

in a basement of some sort. Its dark, damp and isolated. Although a terrified look in

plastered across her face, we can see that this girl has already been in the basement

for a while and she is familiar with her new surroundings. We tighten in on her pale

face and we see flashbacks of her thinking about her family. Scenes of familydinners, where everyone is laughing are shown. These are intercutting with images

of her brother and sister being told the news about their sister. These two

contrasting images bring us back to the reality of her situation.

We cut back to her parents looking pale and thin, sitting at the kitchen table

with the fathers best friend. He is claiming that the police arent doing enough to

help the cause. He urges them to get more help. We see shots of the fathers friend

walking around at night, pinning up posters of the girl, and it is clear that he is

determined to find the girl.

We cut back to the girl who is still tied to the pipe and is sitting slumped

against the wall. Suddenly the door is unlocked, the light streams in, and a manwalks down the stairs towards her. The figure places a plate by her feet and returns

back upstairs. We still dont know the identity of the attacker. The girls arms are

tightly tied to a foundation pipe and she is left with the ability to move her hands

only slightly. A scene occurs where we see her struggle to eat. Her hands are too

restricted to reach her mouth and she ends up having to awkwardly bend her neck

to reach the small amount of food. After we see the girl take one bite of the bread

we cut back to the parents who are at the police station talking to an officer.

Through dialogue we learn that the local police department are unhopeful. After a

full week of searching, they have had no leads and it is unlikely that they will ever

find her.The girl has now been in the basement for a week. We see a variety of

flashbacks showing her dancing. We see her having fun in her dance class, playing

with her friends and also the time she was given her necklace by her grandmother

after a dance show. These happier, lighter, and more familiar moments will contrast

to her current situation in the dark and chilling basement. Angrier now, we see her

begin to get more agitated. She starts to struggle more, trying to break free of the

rope restricting her. Due to the force that she uses, part of the pipe breaks off the

wall. The loud sound of it breaking travels far and causes her to stay silent for a few

minutes. She untangles the rope and crawls over to a blacked out window in the

corner of the basement. She struggles due to her weak muscles but manages to pryopen the small window. Only her head fits through the window. Although blinded by


3/5

the light, she faintly sees someone walking on the other side of the street. She

begins to scream for help and immediately hears the attackers footsteps running

across the floor and down the stairs. As she desperately tries to get the attention of

the passerby she feels two hands on her ankles. She is brutally thrown back onto the

basement floor, causing her legs to be seriously hurt.

We then cut to the perspective of the girl. She is lying down. A car hood is

shut above her head. We hear an engine start and the car starts to drive away. We

cut to a close-up of the girl in a dark confined space. She is blindfolded, bound and

gagged. We see a tear rolling down her cheek. As the movement stops we cut to a

wide shot of a van parked outside a run-down farmhouse. We are now in a much

more derelict area where this house is surrounding by nothing but marshes. We see

the girl being dragged into the attic by the attackers hands. She has been moved

because the attacker realises that it isnt safe to be surrounded by neighbors,

especially if she draw attention to herself.

We cut to the family awkwardly watching TV. A daytime slapstick comedy is

playing. All of the family members have blank expression on their faces. We cut tothe mother who has tears silently streaming down her cheeks. We see that the

father cant handle it. Hegets up to go for a walk. He stops when he sees a letter on

the floor in the hallway. He opens it. We see a look of horror on his face. The letter

says that if they want their daughter back they have to leave 200,000 in locker

number 35 in Coventry train station by December 11. If they tell the police or any

other member of their family the safety of the girl will be jeopardized. He

immediately calls his wife out of the living room. She starts to cry. The father

suggests that they give the money but the wife says that she doesnt think its a good

idea so he calls his best friend. After hearing the situation and the consequences he

recommends that they go to the police. The father refuses to go to the policebecause he fears that his daughter will be harmed. They have a loud and violent row

about what to do. His best friends keeps trying to persuade him to go to the police

but eventually leaves the decision up to the father.

We see scenes of the father getting money out of the bank. Before driving to

the station he visits his friend to aware him of his decision. His friend opens the door

and invites him in for a cup of tea. Halfway through the conversation, the father gets

up and starts to look for a spoon for his tea whilst his friend is in the toilet. As he

pulls open a draw and reaches in for a spoon, he sees his daughters necklace. This is

a big moment during the film, as the attacker is now revealed to be someone

extremely close to the family. Confusion enters his expression as he suspects his bestfriend for the disappearance of his daughter. His friend comes back from the toilet

but the father doesnt mention anything about his suspicions, which leads into a

rather awkward conversation. By the end of the encounter we see that the best

friend senses that the father might know but he doesnt give anything away.

The father quickly returns to his house and shows his wife the necklace. We

see the strain on their relationship as they fight about the best thing to do. The wife

suggests that they dont tell anyone until the next day. They go to bed. We see the

image of both parents lying in bed on opposites sides of the bed facing away from

each other. They are both wide-awake. We see the dad turning and tossing, unable

to sleep, eventually rising from bed and driving to his friendshouse. He pulls upoutside the house but remains seated in the car as he sees the television flicker


4/5

through the curtains. His best friend is in the living room watching TV. The father

waits there all night hoping that there will be some movement. We see night turn

into day. The dad wakes up draped over the wheel of his car. Immediately we see

the best friend open his front door and head off the work. The father runs up to one

of the back windows, smashes it, and breaks into the house. We see a montage of

him looking in every corner of the house for his daughter. He finds nothing and goes

home confused as to whether his best friend is the attacker and if so, where his

daughter is.

The father goes back to his friends house the next night to see if he can see

anything. This night, at around 2 a.m. his friend leaves his house and starts driving.

The father follows behind in his car. We go on a journey around the neighborhood,

following the best friend and hoping to discover something, however, the bars and

newsagents give us no lead as to where the girl is. Again, the father heads home. He

goes back to the house the next night, determined to uncover the truth. We follow

the best friend in the fathers car as we wind down country lanes far from the

familiar neighborhood. As the land gets more and more derelict with only a fewhouses to be seen, the best friend gets suspicious about the car following him. He

slows right down, causing the father to panic that he will be found out. The best

friend pulls into the side of the road. The father carries on down the road making

sure that it is not obvious that he is following him. The father pulls into a driveway,

trying to convince the best friend that he is a resident of the area. He sits in the

driveway and watches the car drive away down the road and pull into a house a little

further down the road. The father waits for a good portion of the night for the friend

to come back down the road. He sees the car drive away back the way they came.

The father swiftly drives down to the house, gets out, and breaks in through the back

window. He searches everywhere and finally comes to the attic. He breaks the doordown and finds his daughter tied up, lying on the floor. She is in a state of shock as

the father starts to untie her. Once she is free, they are silent and they simply hold

each other.

We cut to the best friend arriving at his house, realising that he has forgotten

his house keys at the farmhouse. He drives back. He arrives at the house and sees

that the house has been broken into. He runs upstairs to attic opens the door and

sees the father sitting there on the floor. There is no sign of the girl. The father

immediately gets up and attacks his best friend. They have a violent and disturbing

argument about what has happened. We then see police car lights flashing outside

the window. We hear mens voices and footsteps running up towards them. Threepolicemen enter the attic and break up the fight that has now caused the best friend

to be violently hurt by the father. We fade to black as the best friend is handcuffed

and taken away.

We fade in to a hospital scene. The girl is lying in bed with her family beside

her. She has an expressionless face upon her. The doctor comes over and explains

the state of her legs to the family. He says that they have been brutally injured and

will take months, maybe even years to recover and may not ever be able to dance

again. The last shot we see is of her sitting in a wheelchair in her house, clutching her

necklace, not knowing if she will ever recover.


5/5

Summary of Opening Two Minutes

We see a close-up of the girls face. A blank and melancholy expression covers her

face as she stares straight ahead. No movements apart from a slight zoom out. We

see a sudden, split-second close-up of her violently brushing her teeth. We cut back

to her face. No sound and calm nature. The camera is still slightly moving away from

her. Another sudden and fast shot occurs, this time a close-up of her eye as she puts

her make-up on. We cut back to her face, the camera still revealing more of her

surroundings. We see that she is in a dark room. As the interrupting shots now get

more frequent, shots of her brushing her hair, the shower turning on and her

necklace being put on are all shown. All have a disturbing and violent nature about

them and the fact that they are all being shown very suddenly and closely gives a

sense of enigma as to what is actually going on. In between all of these shots we are

constantly cutting back to the girl in the dark room. Her face remains expressionless

throughout, however, as the camera gradually moves away from her we get more of

a sense of her surroundings. Now shots of the girl stretching her feet, legs and armsbegin to take place, all the while cutting back to her in the room. We also see

abstract and awkward shots of her dancing in an open space. We cut back to her

face. As the camera continues to move away from her, it is revealed that she is

sitting in a wheelchair. The sudden and fast shots of her dancing are now contrasted

with the still and slow image of her sitting in a dark room unable to move from her

wheelchair. We are now introduced to quick images of the girl stuck in the

basement. We dont really know what we are witnessing or how it relates to the girl.

The opening two minutes end with us cutting to black after a whirlwind of confusion

and sense of enigma. The shot of the girl sitting in the room, first a close-up that

then turns into a wider shot revealing the wheelchair, will be one continuous shottimed to two minutes so that I edit the other interrupting shots over the top. This

opening will resemble the girl sitting in her wheelchair after she has been rescued

from the abduction, thinking back to the morning of the attack. The dance shots will

represent her lack of freedom now that she is unable to do what she loves. When

the screen goes black after this opening, the film starts showing the frost-covered

neighborhood.

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