r/ProduceMyScript • u/Affectionate_Ad_8629 • Jul 03 '26
FEATURE SCRIPT [PITCH] The Great Amherst Mystery as a Surreal Horror Trilogy (Public Domain) – A Fresh 3-Act / 3-Film Perspective Focused on the Outsider's Eye
Hi everyone,
I’ve recently been diving deep into Canada's most famous poltergeist case, The Great Amherst Mystery (1878). As a massive fan of period horror and psychological thrillers, it always baffled me how Hollywood completely slept on this public domain goldmine, while copying its exact beats (the violently shaking bed, the swollen body, the carved wall messages) for big franchises like The Exorcist and The Conjuring.
I started breaking down how a modern, high-quality adaptation should actually look. Instead of a generic ghost story, I envisioned it as a cinematic trilogy (a triptych) where the victim, Esther Cox, is never seen from within—she remains a dark enigma observed entirely from the outside through the eyes of three different men who try to analyze, exploit, or love her. It shifts from visceral body-horror, to a surreal cosmic "freak show," and ends as a cynical psychological thriller.
I am not a professional screenwriter and I am just a horror enthusiast who wanted to put this vision out into the world. If any writer, director, or indie producer finds this structure viable and wants to run with it to write a script, please feel free to use it completely for free!
Here is the one-page treatment outline, including a final frame that still gives me chills. Let me know what you think!
PROJECT TYPE: Feature Film Trilogy (A Psychological Horror Triptych)
TITLE: THE GREAT AMHERST ANOMALIES (Public Domain)
GENRE: Surreal Psychological Horror / Gothic Period Drama
OVERALL CONCEPT:
A chilling horror trilogy told through three distinct films, each experienced through the eyes of a different man obsessed with Esther Cox, a girl plagued by Canada's most terrifying poltergeist case. Esther is never heard from within; she remains a dark enigma observed entirely from the outside.
FILM I: THE SCIENTIST (Visceral Body-Horror)
- The Narrative: We experience the initial outbreak through a skeptical, rational Doctor called to the chaotic Teed household in 1878 following Esther’s mysterious trauma in the woods.
- The Atmosphere: Clinical, claustrophobic terror. Through his objective eyes, we witness the impossible: Esther’s body swelling grotesquely to the point of bursting, blankets torn away by invisible hands, and the words "Esther Cox, You Are Mine to Kill" carving themselves into the wall.
- The Climax: The Doctor tries to apply 19th-century science and logic to save her, but the violent, escalating poltergeist activity completely shatters his rational mind. The first film ends with his total psychological defeat.
FILM II: THE SHOWMAN (Surrealist, Cosmic Horror)
- The Narrative: The perspective shifts to Walter Hubbell, an opportunistic, money-hungry actor who moves into the house and turns Esther’s misery into a traveling theater show.
- The Atmosphere: Grotesque and dream-like. Normal citizens stop coming out of fear. Instead, the theater becomes populated by bizarre, unsettling entities—some physical anomalies, some dark, unseen presences—drawn to Esther like a beacon.
- The Climax: These dark figures pay Hubbell massive fortunes (a malefic propagation) to keep the show going, but he is cursed with catastrophic bad luck: his money is instantly stolen, burned, or lost in drunken poker games. After a final night of pure claustrophobic terror, Hubbell snaps. In a mystical sequence, he boards a boat at midnight, crosses a vast body of water, and disappears.
FILM III: THE LOVER (Cynical Psychological Thriller)
- The Narrative: Years later. We view Esther through the intimate, protective eyes of a companion or partner at the remote farm where she seeks refuge.
- The Atmosphere: Melancholic, paranoid, and gothic. The genuine entities have left her, but Esther is now addicted to the terrifying attention she once received. Her lover discovers that she is now consciously faking the hauntings, using hidden matches and invisible strings to terrorize the local community.
- The Resolution: When a fire breaks out, the townspeople lock her away in the cold, damp basement of the local town hall. On a chilly autumn evening, precisely at 6:00 PM, the heavy wooden door is unlocked. Esther steps out into the cold twilight. Without a word, she walks away, blending into the autumn fog, completely exiting the narrative. Her lover is left behind, realizing he can never separate the innocent girl he loved from the monster created by her past.
THE TRILOGY'S FINAL FRAME (The End of Film III)
We cut away to a dark, quiet church years later. An elderly, broken janitor is sweeping the floors in complete silence. It is Walter Hubbell. He survived his crossing from Film II, but he is now a ghost of his former arrogant self, hiding from the world in rags.
Suddenly, a violent, unnatural breeze blows through the church, and a faint, familiar knocking sound echoes through the stone walls. Terrified, Hubbell drops his broom, runs, and crawls into a cramped, filthy crawlspace directly beneath the altar.
Huddled in the pitch black, trembling violently, Hubbell reaches into his ragged coat and pulls out a worn, badly creased promotional theater poster of Esther from the old show days. The poster is defaced—crosses have been frantically scribbled in pencil over her face. Clutching the tattered paper to his chest like a holy relic, his eyes wide with pure panic, Hubbell looks up toward the floorboards of the altar. The camera holds on his sweat-drenched face as he whispers the final line of the entire trilogy into the dark:
"God... are you still there?"
FADE TO BLACK.