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Final Film Treatment

Film Treatment: By Hannah Ram, Arfa Shah, Leon Thomas, Jemima Luscombe

Monday 8th 2010 Rated “15” by the Author

NEUROSIS: Psychological Thriller – Completed Treatment.

Horatio Milton Baxter, a teenage genius who is isolated from his peers, has led a troubled life. Uprooted from his hometown in Essex, Horatio Milton Baxter soon develops a crush on a popular girl called Mia that spirals into an unsightly obsession. The dangerous path he takes and the facade that he becomes leads him into the heart of a love triangle, mental anguish and ultimately death.

“N E U R O S I S” by Hannah Ram, Arfa Shah, Leon Thomas, Jemima Luscombe

Synopsis and Treatment for A psychological thriller For film (Approximately 90-110 Minutes in Length)

COPYRIGHTED © BY PHANTOM RSTL INC

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Jemima Luscombe

Leon Thomas

Tasnim Rohal

Chelsea Osei-Owusu

George Jesse

SUPPORTING CAST

School Pupils

Police Officers

Teachers

Citizens of London

Main Characters Mother

SETTING OF STORY (suggested)

Tooting, London

TIME OF STORY

Past and Present

SYNOPSIS OF STORY

Horatio Milton Baxter, a teenage genius who is isolated from his peers, has led a troubled life. His parents spilt up leaving his mum heartbroken and contemplating suicide. When she is taken into a mental clinic for a nervous breakdown he is forced to live with his father in London whom abandoned him after the divorce causing him years of internal conflict and suffering.

Uprooted from his hometown in Essex, Horatio soon develops a crush on a popular girl called Mia that spirals into an unsightly obsession. He joins his school newspaper, the Graveney Express, in the hopes of capturing her attention by writing an article on her, highlighting her academic achievements and social status. However, whilst writing the article he finds himself infatuated with her life, his emotions spiral out of control and is thrust into a world of bitter romance in which he is willing to do anything to attain her.

His classmates soon begin to victimize him because of his academic achievements both inside and outside school. He tries out for the football team to try to win over peers and it is here that he sees Mia for the first time sitting in the stands cheering for her boyfriend, Noah. Noah, the captain of the football team, impedes him during the tryout, which leads Mia to ask him if he is okay. After talking to Mia for the first time Horatio develops a crush on her.

Horatio Milton Baxter suffers from undiagnosed psychoneurosis, which is a functional disorder characterized by feelings of anxiety, obsessing thoughts and compulsive acts that dominate his personality. It is triggered by the rejection he faces from his peers, Mia and his parents and it acts a catalyst to his own self-destruction and the decomposition of other people’s lives.

Despite Noah’s foul play Horatio gets into the football team. On a bleak rainy day after a match Noah and Horatio are the last ones left in the changing room, after scoring the winning goal Noah brags about Mia and being the best player on the team. The mention of Mia’s name triggers obsessive thoughts and believing that Noah is the only obstacle in the way of his and Mia’s love Horatio follows him into the showers and strangles him with rope, he then proceeds to tie the body to beam to make it seem like Noah had committed suicide. Before leaving Horatio steals Noah’s phone and texts Mia. In the text Horatio, whilst pretending to be Noah, creates a fictional affair between Mia’s best friend and Noah, claiming that the guilt that Noah faced everyday was too much to live with.

After Noah’s death Mia turns to Horatio, after being told by the school guidance councilor about his mother’s attempted suicide and their similar circumstances. Mia and Horatio soon develop a friendship, as Mia abandoned her social group after the alleged betrayal of her best friend, Amy. Their friendship soon turns into romance. Whilst being at Horatio’s house she finds Noah’s phone and proceeds to interrogate Horatio about why he has it. The argument between the two quickly becomes a power struggle, as Horatio believes that the only way to abstain from being thrown into prison is to kill the love of his life. However, Mia gains the upper hand and accidentally pushes Horatio out of his third story bedroom window and he falls to his death. Ultimately, the dangerous path he takes in order to attain her love leads him into the heart of a love triangle, mental anguish and ultimately death.

Roles and Responsibilities

Hannah Ram - Film Treatment writer and Editor

Arfa Shah - Production Manager and Scriptwriter

Leon Thomas - Equipment Manager and Actor

Jemima Luscombe - Story-boarder and Actor

Title of Film and Film Treatment Evaluation

We chose the title 'Neurosis' for our film for several reasons. Firstly, as the film is a psychological thriller we wanted to suggest some kind of psychological condition in the title to introduce to the audience straight away that this would be main idea throughout the film. Secondly, the condition 'psycho-neurosis' is what our main character Horatio suffers from in the film, we want the audience to understand this, and for the title to relate to the character's life. 'Psycho-neurosis' is defined as; "a minor mental disorder characterised by inner struggles and disturbed social relationships" according to depression-guide.com. The essential features of psycho-neurosis are that it is precipitated by emotional stresses, conflicts and frustrations. These features relate to the experiences Horatio has been through in his past, and so explain his mental disorder. The title of our film relating to the life of our character is an idea used in the film 'The Butterfly Effect', where the butterfly effect (or chaos theory) is a theory that says; "It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world." This theory relates the life of the main character in this film; and his condition or struggles throughout the film are due to this idea that a small action can cause a great corruption half way around the world. In this way we are following this convention of a psychological thriller and using the idea that the title of the film suggests a lot about the film's content and also the life of the character.

As well as the title fitting in with the codes and conventions of a psychological thriller, our treatment in many ways does as well. For example the film is set in a town, like many of the films we looked at, the film has flashbacks, jumping between past and present which again is another convention we noticed was common in films of this genre.

Genre

As a group we decided on the genre of Psychological Thriller as we looked at various genres and this particular one appealed to us the most. We also thought that psychological horror was very popular and wanted our genre to be slightly controversial and so we decided on a thriller instead of a horror.