My Film Treatment

HUSH HUSH

Jenade Webster-Watson

A widower, Alexander and his daughter Rebecca recently relocated to the outskirts of suburbia for a new start. After the death of his wife, Rebecca starts acting out, attacking his new love interest and blames her imaginary friend Lexi. He begins to question her new solace in her imaginary friend. Alexander uncovers that Lexi is not so imaginary after all. 

Key Characters

Alexander Hopkins- Middle aged widower and father

Rebecca Hopkins- Ten-year-old daughter

Lexi- Imaginary friend

Laura Charles- Love interest and Rebecca’s teacher

Key Locations

The Old House in Ann Arbor, Michigan

School

New House in Harbor Springs

Hallway

Rebecca’s bedroom

Garden, which leads to a forest open space

The Story

Act 1.

Alexander and his wife daughter Rebecca are re-locating to the outskirts of Harbor Springs, Michigan. Recently losing his wife, Alexander, just Alexander, never Alex, found himself and Rebecca's relationship to be stretched and strained. He put this down to the lost of their idol and tried not to dwell on it too much. He tried everything in his power to re-store normality to their lives. He figured a new start could be the beginning they both needed. A shadow of her former self, she began to express her feeling through an imaginary friend called Lexi. At 10 years old this was strange to say the least. Alexander attempted not to dwell on this allowed her to express her grief through Lexi. 

Act 2.

The introduction to Lexi was intriguing until Alexander began to show interest in a new female, Laura. Now Laura was a substitute teacher at Rebecca's new elementary school. As their relationship become more than what it should Rebecca's behaviour took a turn for the worst. She stopped speaking in class, playing up and distanced herself from all her classmates. She  began to blame her behaviour on Lexi. She drew demonic and evil pictures of Laura getting injured in class instead of her usual happy pictures. "It's your future" she tells Laura. Shocked by this Laura stopped by to talk to Alexander personally. 

Laura stayed over for dinner and all was well until the subject of Rebecca's mother was brought up. Rebecca glared over at Laura with evil in her eyes and excused herself from the table. Later, Laura went up to clear the air, as she reached the top step landing, she was pushed all the way back down to the ground. Alexander rushed out to find Laura sprawled across the floor, bleeding from her forehead, as he looked up to the stairs he witnesses Rebecca standing there. He screams his punishments and for and explanations while panicking looking for the house phone to call for the ambulance. As he hurriedly drive behind the ambulance, Rebecca continues to answer his questions with "It wasn't me, Lexi did it". Fed up and angry, he  gets to the hospital to find Laura is awake and unwilling to have him or his daughter anywhere near her. He trembles at just the sight of them both. 

Act 3. 

Weeks pasted and Rebecca has not improved and Lexi's involvement become more unbearable. He finds pictures of his wife scattered around the house with red paint all over it. One night he discovers messages written all over the bathroom wall in red paint "You did this, and Lexi knows it too". He goes to confront his daughter, yet she is nowhere to be found. He searches the house to find she is outside on the swing. He approaches he cautiously. "You know who Lexi is don't you Daddy" she says in a calm, cold voice, with a detached look in her eyes she turns to him. Alexander begins to have flash backs of the past. How he use to beat her mother, the alcohol abuse and drunken nights. He blinks furiously as he tries to shake the images from his head. The flashbacks become more furious now, of parts of his life he doesn't remember. He sees himself putting red paint on all the pictures, the red writing on the wall. He gets more flashbacks  of beating her mother and seeing her mother hung from their old rope tree swing. He re-reads the messages from his memory, the suicide note she left him which read "You did this". The bridges began to build and he began to piece together who  this Lexi was. All the things which seemed to be Rebecca acting up was really a reflection of his own mental turmoil. His own expression of the guilt he felt for his wife, in which he used Lexi to explore it. He relived flashbacks of pushing Laura down the stairs which explained why she cowered at the sight of him. Lexi was really him. Just then he heard a knock at the door. He opened it to discover the police waiting there. "Mr Hopkins we need you to come down to the station with us one of the officers proclaimed."I'm not Mr Hopkins, my name is Lexi" he replied.