Psychosis (formerly Vivid)
Pitch
In 1992 a group of young Anarchists braved the snow covered wilderness to set up camp against the construction of a motor-way by-pass. A terrible fate awaited them.
15 years later Susan, a successful horror novelist and sensitive soul relocates from her native California to the rural English countryside in search of peace. The newly-wed finds it in an idyllic, remote Hamlet. It is here that Susan's living nightmare unfolds.
Psychosis is a multi-layered contemporary horror story which combines murder, mystery and the supernatural. Set within the forests of Somerset and swinging-London, it is a chilling journey which echoes and expands on the cult British horror films of the 1970s.
Synopsis
In the early 1990s, a small group of anti-road Protestors are stalked around their woodland camp and each slaughtered by a cold-blooded psychopath. One of the protestors escapes and the mad killer is shot – his lifeless body discovered the following day by scores of Policemen.
15 years later, when best selling novelist Susan, having recovered from a mental breakdown, relocates from New York to a secluded manor house in the English countryside with her newlywed husband David, her dream of tranquility unfolds into a nightmare.
Having successfully fled the rigors of city life – which had been the source of her collapse – but then unable to grasp the way of the country-locals, Susan is stalked by a creepy gamekeeper and is mystified by sightings of a mysterious young man around the grounds of her estate.
As the pressure builds for Susan to complete her long awaited new book, so her torment progresses and she is plagued by terrifying, successive visions of a massacre in the manor house. With David commuting to work in London, Susan’s isolation intensifies as reality and delusion transcend into one. Rapidly sliding to the verge of madness as the haunting increases and her persecution at the hands of the locals continues, David – Susan’s crutch – is revealed as not all he has made out to be.
In a last-ditch effort to convince David that the visions are not a revived symptom of Susan’s previous mental illness, a Medium tries to stop the haunting but Susan’s screams fall silent and she becomes as much a culprit to the ghostly ‘murders’ as the psychopath of her visions...
About
Psychosis is based upon the 1974 screenplay Dreamhouse written by Michael Armstrong (Blood on Satan’s Claw, The Haunted House of Horror) and adapted by director Reg Traviss (Joy Division). VIVID is a unique horror film in the way it combines the fast paced energy of modern horror with a classic British sensibility which draws upon the old Hammer Horror school of terror.
The cast combines new and recognized talent from the US and UK alongside established names – each with a background in the genre.
Project Information
Running time: 89 minutes
Format: Kodak Motion Picture stock
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Cast: Charisma Carpenter (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The Expendables), Paul Sculfor (Baseline), Ricci Harnett (Rise of the Footsoldier, 28 Days Later), Justin Hawkins, Sean Chapman, Ty Glaser, Bernard Kay
Director: Reg Traviss (Joy Division)
Writers: Reg Traviss and Michael Armstrong
Producer: Patrick Fischer
Executive Producers: Rupert Ingram, Richard Raynesford
Line Producer: James Harris
Original Music: Ilan Eshkeri
Cinematographer: Bryan Loftus BSC
Editor: John Palmer
Sound Designer: James Boyle
Production Designer: Melanie Light
Production Companies: Red Sparrow Limited, Kingsway Films Limited
Locations: Somerset and London, England
Rights available: All formats, worldwide
Sales Enquiries: Imagination Worldwide, 9107 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 625 Beverly Hills, CA 90210 Phn: +1310 888 3494
Date of completion: November 2009
