SCREENPLAY:
RATTLING CHAINS
written by ROBERT BRUINEWOUD
GENRE: psychological thriller
LOGLINE:
An untrained recruit arrives at a secret facility to help monitor a deep pit which holds a malevolent entity that has been bound in chains for over 250 years, unaware it is about to awake.
SYNOPSIS:
Rattling Chains is paranormal, psychological thriller about Tom, a new recruit, who is pulled out of training and sent to a remote, secret facility. On her arrival, she learns she is there to help monitor a deep pit, which is said to hold a malevolent entity that has been bound in chains for over 250 years.
Tom’s employer and owner of the facility is Netherward, a private, global organisation with a long history of protecting humanity from paranormal events and entities. Despite Netherward’s vast resources, the site is not the sophisticated, hi-tech containment facility she was expecting. This is because The Pit radiates a disruptive field that disables any electrical component more complicated than an incandescent lightbulb. But even lightbulbs won’t work in close proximity to The Pit, and so the Observers must rely on gas lanterns, while protected by a magic circle (aka C-Ring) drawn around its opening. Unfortunately, the C-Ring cannot protect the Observers from the field’s debilitating effects on their health.
Tom finds the paramilitary nature of the site both intimidating and irritating. And so is relieved to discover her new colleagues to be, for the most part, friendly, dedicated and professional. Although she does have difficulty connecting with her shift teammate Geoff, an older man who suspects she has been sent to spy on him. However the two do manage to build some rapport over time.
Despite nightmares and the almost constant headaches, Tom quickly settles into the routine of monitoring The Pit. But it soon becomes clear that the site is experiencing problems.
In addition to the nightmares, and the lack of sleep they cause, many staff are taken off the roster due to gastro-intestinal illnesses. Furthermore, supply deliveries are sometimes incorrect, while others fail to arrive at all. The situation only becomes worse when cultists appear in the forest beyond the fence.
And then Tom and Geoff hear something in The Pit.
Prohibited from sharing their experience with their colleagues, Tom and Geoff must endure the knowledge that the entity is awake, and the uncertainty as to what it may do next. Their concerns grow when the site is attacked by the cultists and people disappear. Tom begins to suspect that someone has sent her to the site as a ‘weak link’, hoping she will make a mistake that will inadvertently allow the entity to escape. Her fears appear to be confirmed, when she and Geoff enter the chamber for their shift as cultists mass outside the fence, demanding access The Pit.
Audiences will be taken on a journey into ever deepening dread, as Tom and the other characters struggle to do their job, despite suspecting they have been abandoned to face a potential, catastrophic event on their own.
Rattling Chains shares themes with Michael Crichton’s sci-fi thriller, The Andromeda Strain (which gave us both, the 1971 movie and the 2008 mini-series), and the various movies and series about secret organisations protecting humanity from the paranormal (see Pitch Deck), but with a more grim and grounded approach.
THE VIBE:
Based on the all-too-familiar experience of being dropped into a role you haven’t been properly trained for, Rattling Chains is set in a world where science and the paranormal overlap.
—
Screenplay and Pitch Deck for Rattling Chains are available to read at Script Revolution or you can request it directly from me via my contact form.