Sinking Souls / Sinking souls
2019, 20 minutes
Logline & Treatment Logline: A son enacts a ritual to bring his mother back from death. Only to find, in order to keep her alive, he has to kill someone.
Treatment: Murph, a timid 17 year-old boy with a black eye, lights candles on a table in the middle of a dark room, the light illuminates an ornate box placed on the table. He reads from a book with the title "The Summoning Box". After he pours a bucket of water into the box, he pulls out a torn photo of a woman that reads "Dear Mum," on the back before placing it in a jar and leaving it to float in the box. He places a lid over the box. A moment later, taking the lid off, the water and jar have gone. He peers into the box only to be met with bottomless blackness. The sound of footsteps clambers up a staircase that comes from inside the box. Murph steps back. An umbrella rises out of the box, it opens up. A figure, clad with a silky white face obscured by red ribbon tassels hanging off the umbrella. Murph falls to the floor. He is armed with a pen knife in his pocket. The figure reaches out their hand to Murph and presses on his cheek. The figure is revealed to be his deceased mother, Cathy. Cathy realises that it is her son. She reveals her face from behind the umbrella, pale and cracked. The two embrace one another, holding each-other tightly. Murph enthuses with relief and delight of the ritual success. However, Cathy raises her hand and explains that the ritual is not yet complete. In order to return to mortality, Murph must kill another life in return for another, thus the balance of the world is paid. Murph breaks into a bedroom of a sleeping, elderly man. He is holding a knife above him a sleeping elderly man. Behind him, Cathy holding the umbrella watches from the shadows of the room. Murph's hands shake in trepidation, He thinks he can do it but Cathy questions his actions. Murph raises the knife above, Cathy backs away. Murph clenches his teeth, and drops the knife to the floor. The ritual ends.
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