After a childhood prank goes wrong, a young teen awakens from an 8-year catatonic state – still maintaining an imaginary friend – and those who bullied him meet terrible ends.

(PITCH DECK AVAILABLE) 

SYNOPSIS:

A game of hide-and-seek is ruined when innocent JESSE JOYNER is distracted by his imaginary friend. LEIGH ANN stands up for her kid brother when small-town South Shore, South Dakota kids – TODD, RAINER, KIMIKO and COUNTESS – turn bully. But she can’t stop a retaliatory scare prank from backfiring. Jesse lands in a catatonic state.

Eight years later, Jesse (now 15) revives. DR. MAKU, the family physician, warns that developmentally Jesse remains a child on the inside. Jesse returns home, room-bound and fully dependent on Leigh Ann, who now supports the family. Their alcoholic and walked-out-on mother, DEB, blames her and is repulsed by Jesse. Older gay neighbor MR. ORLACH offers sympathy. But the neighborhood kids – now teens, their records ruined – are unapologetic. Leigh Ann discovers Jesse unexplainably in the attic, playing peek-a-boo with his imaginary friend.

Leigh Ann expresses remorse to Jesse, vowing to protect him. That night, the bullies settle into sex and drugs. Although his remorseful dad, PROFESSOR KERSE, is spared, Rainer is stalked, scared stiff by someone wielding Jesse’s toys as weapons and threatening “peek-a-boo” messages. KIMIKO’S MOM and COUNTESS’S SISTER join the body count. When DEPUTY WALTON reveals his agenda for watching Leigh Ann and her house, he does, too.

Leigh Ann discovers Orlach in Jesse’s room, and her brother missing. Orlach phones far-off county police. He admits to spying on Jesse – his son by a drunken, distraught Deb forcing herself on him. Orlach is killed as Leigh Ann runs to Maku’s. She finds his office ransacked. Deb’s file reveals an apparent misdiagnosis: carrying twins both times, but giving birth only to Leigh Ann, then Jesse. Maku appears. As they flee South Shore, despite Deb being broken because of it, he maintains his diagnosis was correct – a case of Vanishing Twin Syndrome. Unaware of Orlach’s fate, Leigh Ann orders Maku they go back for him. Deb crashes into them, killing Maku and herself.

Leigh Ann discovers the dead bodies. Convinced she’s exploiting the imaginary friend angle to exact revenge, the surviving bullies target Leigh Ann. Unable to find Jesse, she locks herself inside her house. During the break in, Countess is killed. Once inside, revisiting the fateful game of hide-and-seek, Todd and Kimiko end up as body count. Unaware, Leigh Ann finds Jesse in the attic playing with his imaginary friend. Phantasmically, Peek-a-Boo’s face manifests through Jesse’s: she’s the vengeful, protective, unborn older sister who vanished into him. Leigh Ann falls out the window, landing in a catatonic state.

At the hospital, the police tell Professor Kerse that Jesse was never found. After they leave, Jesse’s face phantasmically manifests through Leigh Ann’s.