When rumors of a hidden bar of gold derange a property manager and three wealthy couples renting a snowbound lake house, an inexperienced sheriff’s deputy is sent to recover two bodies before he becomes the third one.

SYNOPSIS:

Poor, sweet ANGELA MESTAS (23), a rental manager, housekeeper, and orphan, lives on the elegant lake house property in Lake Tahoe. The house is for sale, and she must move from the only house she has ever lived in because she can’t afford to buy it. Enter GLEN CHAPMAN (50s) claiming to be a utilities surveyor, but who is looking for a rumored bar of gold hidden 50 years ago in the house or on the property. Angela’s wealthy renters for her last weekend include three couples: businessman BRANDON (28) and his gorgeous wife and model, KAYLA (28); a bully San Francisco cop, SHANE (28), and his Asian wife, TAYLOR (28); and former priest, MATTY (28), and his African American husband, EVERETT (30s), a comical history professor and the only one not an alumnus of North Tahoe High School.

The old rumors of a hidden gold bar circulate like the huge snowstorm heading their way. Despite Glen’s warning that “Envy festers into greed, and greed leads a good person to do very bad things,” gold fever spreads among the group. Suspicions fester when Glen is found dead of a head wound and his metal detector is missing. Enter an inexperienced Deputy Sheriff and Coroner, JIMMY SHEA (26), an irreverent kid from the same high school. He’s smitten with Angela.

Glen’s accident scene is compromised by the mad search for Glen’s metal detector, and the power goes out from the storm. Chaos reigns as liquor flows. Conniving Shane exposes his violent tendencies and Taylor wants a divorce. As Jimmy gets statements from everyone, he gets more suspicious about Glen’s accident, but he can’t take the body over the pass to the morgue because the roads are closed. Everyone is snowed in. Tensions rise even more the next morning when Shane is found dead of an apparent suicide from drinking and prescription drugs.

Jimmy reexamines Glen’s body to see two contusions instead of one. Glen’s metal detector is found in Brandon’s BMW, Taylor admits to stealing Glen’s tablet computer, and two shovels are found in Shane’s Jeep. Kayla has a meltdown and sticks a knife in Brandon’s leg, and no one gets any sleep sharing the family room. By morning, the storm passes, and everything brightens. Jimmy announces there is no foul play in the two deaths, and everyone is free to leave. Angela borrows the metal detector and finds not one, but five gold bars. Jimmy, who may have suspected Angela all along, sets an elaborate trap to catch the serial killer. In the end, Angela is doomed. What happens to the five bars of gold? Let’s just say, greed leads a good person to do very bad things.

*Ask for the 8-page film proposal. Thanks.

LAKE HOUSE MURDERS