This week I was struck by the quote from Paul Auster, on Scott Myers Twitter feed:
Paul Auster: “Becoming a writer is not a 'career decision' like becoming a doctor. You don't choose it so much as get chosen, and once you accept the fact you're not fit for anything else, you have to be prepared to walk a long, hard road for the rest of your days."
It’s great when something unexpectedly comes along and resonates with you. I came to the conclusion long ago, that I was not fit for anything else, other than writing.
However limited that may seem, that is an illusion, because being a writer means that you may also be an avid and proficient investigator, not just of character, but of the constituent parts of your world-building design.
You may have noticed a theme developing in my ‘On Writing’ articles, that of the visceral and the psychological and whilst Seeing Rachel and Prodrome were decidedly psychological in mood, I concluded that it was about time I explored the visceral and entered the domain of urban fantasy and horror! Now, let me say that this is another adult-themed story from me; very sexy, violent and it contains elements of serious threat and dread.
Enter Death Spirit - or Todgeist as it first was conceived - (WGA REGISTRATION NO: 2028605) where the plan is to have a limited series of four two-part stories set in four European cultural cities: Paris, Bristol, Gothenburg and Berlin.
The tagline for this limited series is:
“There’s only one species on Planet Earth dedicated to its own destruction.”
Here’s the Premise:
A Watcher seeks redemption for his past crimes against humanity. There are only two things in his way.
The Watchers of Duda’el. And the woman he loves.
And the Designing Principle (yes, I’ve read Truby’s book): Harry and Caroline travel deeper and deeper into a corrupted society that promises so much, but delivers so little; creating victims in its wake. Will Harry be one of them?
Death Spirit has a distinctive Nordic Noirish cinematic style; the stories unfold in the darkness and are exposed in the light. Each city will bring its own atmosphere and culture, visual impressions and spiritual expressions of conflict, to the stories.
If the fairy tales of old were there to help people deal, or at least rationalise the presence of evil, then today the tales of Crime Scene investigation, of Behavioural Scientists confronting evil, are an up-to-date version of those desires; to help us cope with a growing sense of evil, of violence.
The psychopath is no longer an old hag preying on innocent children, or of evil stepmothers extorting the birth-right from a stepdaughter, nor a stepfather violating a sleeping beauty. We have a new set of caricatures; profiles for those who disturb us, threaten our peace and social well-being.
To this is added the filter of urban fantasy, for we enter the world of The Watchers, who are mentioned in The Book of Enoch, and are both good and evil natured. (We of course focus on the evil ones!) The good taught humanity the ways of YHWH, the evil ones coalesced with human women, 'married' them (a euphemism for rape) and then the women consequently gave birth to giants, malevolent beings who hunted humanity. Twisted Watchers, desiring an end to the race they coalesced with. Irony in despair, irony in desire.
The Watchers are the catalyst for chaos in the four cities plagued by the Death Spirit, through acts of terrorism, child abduction or biological espionage and the pandemonium of the pandemic.
You may not believe in the world of the Death Spirit and the folklore of the forest (the Bristol episode), but once you enter their world, you have to live by their rules.
And so it is for two of our protagonists, Harry Mårtensen and Caroline McCairn. He is a Criminal Psychologist, his practice inspired by Aaron B Davies’ book ‘Jungian Crime Scene Analysis: An Imaginal Investigation’ and to quote the author. "...[this] takes place in frontiers, edges, and in-between. It unfolds in-between waking and dreaming, civilization and depravity, and life and death." It also leads Harry to Crime Scenes wherein he assesses the images of the scene, that the killers have left for him.
Caroline is an Educational Psychologist and the darling of the Press, for her breakthrough book ‘The Education of Despair: Murder and Mayhem in State System Schools’. She also has a very young following, of kids who see her as an advocate for their problems. In the context of the stories of Death Spirit, she is Harry’s advocate especially when the crimes of chaos, involve child victims.
Back to the Premise and the story behind this story. Whilst Harry and Caroline are dealing with the chaos that the Watchers bring to these four cities, we see another relationship, between Gregore and Emmanuelle.
Gregore is a Watcher, unbeknownst to his lover, Emmanuelle. As he seeks redemption for his crimes against humanity, their relationship comes under stress; their once blissful and erotic entanglement, is threatened by the nefarious activities of his fellow Watchers. There is no peace from the wicked.
In the world of Death Spirit, there is a resentment for the political class, for anything which smacks of controlling society, for those who hide behind institutions, whether temporal or eternal. Mårtensen and McCairn are nonconformists, mavericks in some peoples' eyes, but they get results when those who follow established practices don't. They have learnt to be present at the crime scene, to sift through the images of human destruction. The crime scene is an imprint of the perpetrator's wicked soul.
It is a story of conflicts; of the eternal and the temporal, the spiritual and political, of human and Watcher, for their work to eradicate humanity from the Planet has not yet ended.
COMPARABLES: Silence of the Lambs (1991), Se7en (1995), The Mothman Prophecies (2002), Bright (2017), Mindhunter (2017-19).
The Death Spirit Bible is available on my Loglines page.
Death Spirit Posters: Concept by Geoff Hall. Design by Colse Leung of ColseCreatives, Bristol.
To get a bit of a vibe for this series, check out this link to tomandandy’s ‘Half Light’, from the Richard Gere film The Mothman Prophecies: https://youtu.be/jLEVkahHCOw
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Oh, man - what a comparison! I remember seeing The Mothman Prophecies (thank goodness not in theaters) and thinking what a head trip! I really enjoyed the visualization the professor gives about how would we communicate with a cockroach if we saw it was about to die. SO poignant!
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Karen "Kay" Ross Hi Kay, just about to dash off to the train station, as I’m travelling up to see my Mum. The Alzheimer’s is sadly progressing and is difficult to watch close at hand.
But I had to reply to your comment. Yes, I love that scene with Alan Bates. His explanation and his character. It seems in good movies if this kind, there’s always a professor who knows too much! There’s such a character in Death Spirit! Had to write it!
I watched it at the cinema with a friend, and we drove home in the rain, with red tail lights bouncing off our windscreen. Very spooky!
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Oh, man - travel safe and be well on your visit!
And agreed, sometimes in these cerebral stories, we need an oracle or all-knowing (but uninvolved) character.
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Karen "Kay" Ross Thank you, Kay! The journey was okay, save for being on a very crammed train and many people not wearing their masks. Ah, well.
Yes, Alan Bates’ character, is really the link between the Mothman phenomenon and the ‘secret’ knowledge of their existence and dealings with humanity. I just love those characters who live on the edge or liminal space and offer clarity to the mystery that those in the thick of it, can’t see. Thank you Alan Bates!
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Geoff Hall sounds like a spectacular creative experience, what an adventure; very good for you delving so deeply and it's great to read more details about your work!
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Daniel Stuelpnagel thanks Daniel. More to follow. This week is another hiatus in the writing, as I look after Mum. But I took the time last night when Mum had gone to bed, to pull out the notebook and put pen too paper, for the next instalment which covers my sense of social responsibility as a writer.
And thanks for your kind words, again.