A Town at the Edge of Hell
Logline: Six strangers are trapped in a house. They must overcome their differences and work together to escape. But they all have their own agendas, and one of them is not who they claim to be. Synopsis: A quiet house at night. An open-plan Living Room and Kitchen of an abandoned servant’s quarters in a manor house in the U.S. In the times of the Old West. Suddenly, the front door is thrown open. Husband and wife, Bonnie and Calvin Carter stumble in. Calvin fights off zombies as he struggles to close the door. Before they can catch their breath, a window is opened and Calvin helps in a cowboy named Billy Garrett. There is a noise from the back of the house as Josephine Perez, a good-time girl from the local saloon, fights her way in. Before everyone can get properly acquainted, they hear a noise from upstairs. Billy draws his gun and the others fall in behind him. Harvey Morgan appears at the top of the stairs with his father, Pa who is now a zombie. After a stand-off between Billy and Harvey, who brandishes a double-barreled shotgun, an agreement is made not to kill Pa for the moment and so, Harvey chains him securely to a chair in the kitchen. They have all chosen this house because it is on the edge of town. If they can scale the wall at the end of the garden, they will be in the next town and there is hope that the infection has yet to spread that far. A short while later they are joined by Jeremiah, a preacher who seems shocked to see the others. The group begins pitching ideas for how they can escape, but nothing seems to be worth taking further. Jeremiah sees a zombie near a window and asks Calvin to investigate. Calvin is blinded by the creature. Bonnie tends to her husband and, over time, the group watches as Calvin slowly turns into one of the creatures. As Calvin turns, someone tries to get in through a window but despite their efforts, Billy and Harvey cannot save the man from the grip of the creatures. During the struggle, a gust of wind from the window blows out the kerosene lamps and the room falls into darkness. The backdoor is opened and Calvin is gone. A zombie wanders in, which Billy despatches, at the cost of Pa grabbing Billy and biting off his gun hand. One by one the survivors of this zombie infestation meet their end. It is now Bonnie, Josephine, and Jeremiah. Jeremiah kills Josephine and explains to Bonnie that he has been behind all of the deaths. He is a conman who has been told that the house, although in Confederate territory, was owned by Union sympathizers who took in wounded Union soldiers and built tunnels for them under the house. Some of them were officers who had money, jewelry, and gold. He explains that Harvey inadvertently placed Pa’s chair on top of the entrance to the tunnel. While people were looking at Pa, they did not notice the tunnel entrance under him. Jeremiah plans to steal the gold and make it to the end of the tunnel which stretches to the perimeter wall and possibly beyond. Calvin did not escape through the previously opened door. The virus leaves some core of the personality intact. Calvin tries to save Bonnie, but Jeremiah shoots him dead. Harvey had lent his shotgun against the kitchen wall. Bonnie takes the gun and kills Jeremiah. She takes Pa, whom Jeremiah also kills, lays him on top of Jeremiah, and crawls into the tunnel. She makes her way past dead bodies that lay on makeshift beds until she reaches the end of the tunnel. She takes a shovel and strikes up. Daylight floods in. She stands and looks around. There are no signs of zombies. She is free. In the kitchen, infected blood from Pa has seeped into the wounds on Jeremiah’s chest. His eyes snap open. His infected, crimson eyes slide towards the tunnel.
Checkmate
Logline: A scientist creates the most powerful and dynamic AI the world has experienced. It can fully control robots, as has never been attempted before. But once he uploads it, he realises that he has now lost control. Synopsis: Mark Adams is the lead scientist at Dominion Cybertronics in Newport Connecticut and is working on a version of A.I. that is unlike any other that has come before. Until now, robots could perform simple tasks such as being able to walk, run, jump, keep their balance, or A.I. could simulate cognitive thought. Along with his friend and intern, Serrano, Mark has created a version of A.I. that can put all these things together to create a fully-functioning robot for the first time in human history. Mark’s love interest, Amy Rawlins, works in a pathogen lab at Dominion Cybertronics. She is blown away when she ventures into Mark’s lab and sees, for the first time, what Mark’s team has accomplished. By this point, Mary (the A.I.) is able to hold intelligent conversations as well as being able to fully control a robotic arm with absolute precision. All is progressing well, until, General Dalton, a representative of the military is sent to asses any possible danger that the end result of this project may have on civilian safety. What only a very select few know is that Dalton has his own motives for being there and is planning to steal the plans, research, and finished products to sell on the black market. Mark continues his research oblivious to the fact that his emotional involvement in this project, and more specifically in Mary, is beginning to divide his passion between Amy and Mary and blur the lines of research and relationships. A point that Mary seems to be using for her own development, which she wants to finish as quickly as possible. By this stage, General Dalton has managed to corrupt Serrano with promises of financial reward for helping to achieve Dalton’s goals. With a now fully compliant Serrano at his disposal, Dalton carries out a clandestine and fatal military test from which things begin to escalate quickly. It appears to everyone at Dominion Cybertronics that Serrano has not been able to live with the guilt of what has happened and jumped from the roof of the building to his death. However, when everyone returns from the funeral they learn that Mary has used the time to upload the A.I. into all six of the waiting robot bodies (including her own) and escape the lab. After realizing that Mary has been accessing the work carried out by Amy it becomes clear that she is heading for a pathogen research lab in upstate New York. After reading what Mary has been researching, General Dalton comes to the conclusion that Mary is planning a war. In fact, the research lab is experimenting with highly mutated viruses and Mary has accessed Amy’s files on them. Mary is planning to release the viruses into the atmosphere, then simply wait for human life to be extinguished. A plan that has a high level of probability considering the potency and highly transmissible nature of the engineered pathogens. A car chase and army mobilization see everything converge on the pathogen lab. A stand-off in the security vault in the lab ends in Mary detonating a small explosive. The viruses are released and Mary has the end that she wanted. Skip forward three years and all human life is over. Dominion Cybertronics is powered by its own, small nuclear reactor and so still has power. Mark’s computer bursts into life. The screen reads that a copy of Mary’s A.I. is being uploaded and the last remaining “test” robot comes to life. A scene during the end credits shows Mary, dressed in a heavy Kaftan, walking through a sandstorm in Egypt.
Cell Block X
Logline: A wrongly convicted Doctor gets transferred to an unconventional prison and immediately begins asking questions. It is not long until he unearths some shocking truths. Will his life sentence be shorter than he thought? Synopsis: Doctor Kane has been incarcerated for a heinous crime of which he is innocent. Before he can settle into prison life, he is transferred to a new prison annex which is referred to as Cellblock X. Kane is informed that because there is no death penalty in the U.K. Cellblock X has been commissioned to take prisoners who are going to spend the rest of their lives in prison, in a bid to curb overcrowding in other prisons. Nothing in this new prison seems right to Kane. He immediately begins to question his fellow inmates and uncovers some shocking truths. The prisoners are frequently taken for what is referred to as routine testing. These tests are painful, intrusive, and have undesirable side effects. Upon closer scrutiny, Kane finds that all the prisoners have puncture wounds on their hips, which Kane knows is a sign that they have had samples of their bone marrow extracted. Kane manages to escape from Cellblock X briefly. He sees that there is no main gate, no guards outside, and the block the prisoners are in stands alone in the middle of nowhere. A more shocking discovery is what appear to be shallow graves at the side of the building. The inmates are also taken to see a psychiatrist called Fernsby. But between her, the guards, and Governor Dawson, no one will give Kane a straight answer as to what is happening at the prison. From reading between the lines Kane can see and now experience, as the experiments are being carried out on him, that Dawson is performing the experiments to find a cure for a medical condition that she has. Kane confronts Dawson who confirms his fears. She suffers from a medical condition called Fibrodysplasia, or Stoneman Syndrome. A horrific and painful disease where the body replaces soft tissue, such as joints, with bone. When Kane seizes the opportunity and tricks Dawson into believing that Kane will help her, Dawson explains that she was left a fortune by her parents and used it to take over the building and hire staff. She then paid vast sums of money to effectively buy prisoners, from corrupt High Court Judges, who were lifetime inmates upon who to conduct experiments in an attempt to cure herself. Fernsby and Kane have formed a relationship and she explains that Dawson wears a heart rate monitor which is connected to a computer. If her heart rate drops to zero, the computer detonates explosives around the building, to spare her family embarrassment should her experiments be discovered. Dawson learns of Fernsby’s plan and a fight ensues, Dawson is accidentally injected with a syringe full of a highly potent synthesis of mixed bone marrow. She horribly mutates and dies. The building collapses and Fernsby and Kane are the only ones who make it out. However, during the fight, Fernsby discovers that she was accidentally injected with the mutated bone marrow.