Treatment

Blurb:

Sam was a normal wife, with a normal husband and kids.

Until one night changed everything.

She was the only witness to the terrible murder of her beloved husband.

And now, she is out for revenge.

Character summary:

Sam Thompson is a mother and wife in her 20s, with two very small children, Rosie and Matt, and a husband Matthew in the police force. They live in a small town where nothing really happens. She is an estate agent trying to earn her living by selling rich people her dream houses. Her mother and father live nearby, regularly taking care of the kids while Sam and Matthew go on their ‘date nights’. Sam can be very feisty and usually gets into arguments with her husband over his job, saying its too risky. She can stand her own, and will do anything to protect her family.

Norris is the nosey neighbour, he is always wanting to know what goes on with everyone, not satisfied with his own life, he needs to know what everyone else is up to, so that he can pass judgement on it all. He frequently looks into the Thompson's back garden to see what they are doing. Mainly the kids playing but sometimes he might hear Sam and Matthew argue from the kitchen, if he listens hard enough.

Storyline:

Sam and Matthew are getting the kids ready for school. Packing their lunch boxes in a much synchronised way. Sam reminds Matthew to be back from work in time for their dinner. They have been going through marital problems and it was suggested that they should go on regular 'date nights' without the kids to rekindle their love.
Cuts to night, and the dinner scene. They are very dressed up and seem to be enjoying each other’s company. They talk about the kids and their plans for when they retire.
They are in the car on the way home, driving on a long road with no street lights, very secluded and by the woods, quite a spooky place to be if alone.
Radio alerts that there is a murderer on the loose; Matthew turns the radio up, focusing all his attention on that. Cuts to Sam screaming 'Watch out!' as there is a man jumped in front of the car crossing the road. Matthew slams on the breaks and watches the man cross the road; something in the man's pocket alarms Matthew and catches the lights of the car. Matthew then says to Sam that he is 'just gonna see what the man's problem is'. Sam gets very worried and tries to convince Matthew to stay in the car but he says he won't be long. He gets out and follows the man into the woods. Sam is getting very anxious after a couple minutes and gets out of the car, shutting the door quietly. She follows her husband into the woods, and gets her phone out of her pocket to give her light. She sees two men punching each other and fighting. She runs over screaming Matthew's name gets up behind Matthew and sees blood on his shirt. He falls back into her arms, she cradles him in her arms and sees a stab wound in his chest. She looks up to find the killer is gone. She screams out Matthews name and starts to cry. Swearing to Matthew that she will 'get him' (the killer). Repeating that same line over and over again. The sky then goes white and cuts to 'a few days later'.
It is the funeral scene in a church, some of the police force is there, and so are the children and family and friends. One of the sergeants makes a speech about Matthew, very moving; Sam is not crying just staring into space, in deep thought.
Cuts to wake back at the family home. People keep coming up to Sam to offer their condolences and saying they are 'sorry for your loss'. Sam retorts back to one of them, 'not as sorry as the son of bitch who did this'. Everyone is silent and starts looking at each other in a curious way, for it the first time she has spoken throughout the whole day. She flips out and orders everyone to leave, shouting, scaring the children. Sam's mother comes up to her and tells her to calm down and brings her up to Sam's bedroom, where she lays her down to sleep.
As the night falls, Sam is still lying there in the same black dress and seems to be having a nightmare; she calls out Matthew's name and is suddenly sweating. She turns to look at the time and it is 3 am, she is no longer tired. She goes into the kid's bedroom to check on them, to find her mother sitting on a chair at the side of the bed asleep with a children's story book in her lap. Sam stands at the door for a few more moments; she turns and goes to have a shower. As she steps out she sees the two toothbrushes in the holder, reminding her of her husband. Memories are everywhere in the house, as she goes in their bedroom she sees the picture of them on their wedding day. She walks over to the picture and holds it in her arms as she goes back to bed and whilst holding it she softly cries.

The next morning she reluctantly goes downstairs into the kitchen to find her mother putting things in a box. ‘What you doing mum?’ she asks walking towards her, her mother replies by saying ‘Oh you’re up, how you doing this morning honey?’ Avoiding the question, Sam asks her again, she walks closer to find her mother packing up Matthew’s things, including his ‘Best Dad in the World’ mug, she grabs this off her telling her to leave his stuff alone. The mother tells her she needs to go back to work and move on with her life, for the children’s sake. Sam then says ‘not till I find him.’
A couple days later the Detective Fletchman (one who made the speech at the funeral) calls Sam to tell her to keep safe as she is the only witness. He says he is sorry for her loss, telling her what a great member of the force he was, and that he will do all that he can to find the man who did it. There is then a pause, as Sam says, ‘not if I find him first’. She then hangs up the phone and leave it by the picture of Matthew.
Scene cuts to night-time. Sam has just put the kids to bed and is going down the stairs when the door bell rings. There is then a loud bang on the door, she gets quite scared. She slowly walks towards the door, with the focus on the door handle; she then swings the door open to find her nosey next door neighbour Norris at the door, dripping wet as it is raining outside. He is quite out of breath and looks worried, he asks if she is alright and then says he saw a dark figure in her back garden. Without saying a word she runs to the kitchen to find the window wide open and muddy footprints all over the floor, leading up to the stairs. She then looks up to the ceiling and hears creaking in the floorboards. She hushes to herself ‘the kids’ and scrambles around looking for a knife. She grabs one and runs up the stairs, storms into her children’s bedroom to find them safely tucked up in bed. She sighs relief and slowly walks out to close the door. She turns around and sees her bedroom door creak open. She slowly walks towards it.
Sam walks in the room, finds the window open, sighs relief. Walks to close the windows, as she reaches out to close it a gloved hand grabs her. The two of them start to fight; there is fast paced camera movements and music. She grabs the knife she previously put in her pocket and threatens the killer to leave them alone. He starts to laugh at her, very sinister, she then says, ‘you have no idea what I am capable of’. She is on the floor, she stabs him in his foot, he yells out. Then there is a sudden siren coming from outside, he kicks her in the face and she tries to grab him but he limps away out of the window.
Baby cries from other room, she runs in to see if they are ok. Police storm into the house. She runs down the stairs and screams at the policeman shouting ‘I had him!’ Policeman then walks to her to try to console her, and says if there is anything he left behind, she looks up and says ‘the knife’, the policeman follows her upstairs and where the knife had once been is no longer there. Sam says ‘he took it; the son of a bitch took it.’
For the kids safety the police then say that they are going to take the kids away from Sam. Sam says ‘You can’t take away my kids, just give me one night with them so I can say goodbye’ and the police say ‘we’ll be by in the morning to pick up Rosie and Matt’. Once the police leave Sam turns frantic packing some of her and the kid’s things. Rosie asks ‘Where are we going mommy’, and Sam says ‘Some where safe’. Sam and the kids manage to leave before the police come in the morning.
Sam and the kids are in the car and they drive through the same road where her husband got murdered. She tries to concentrate on driving but it’s too overwhelming so she pulls over. She leaves her kids in the car as she goes to where her husband was murdered. She can’t help herself because she needs to see it again. However the area is taped off for investigation, she rips the tape and proceeds to the spot and falls to her knees and cries. She then stops when she hears the car engine start; she runs through the woods and catches her foot on a branch which makes her limp. Limping she walks back to the road in a panic and see’s the car driving away with her kids in it still. She screams and runs after the car. She stops out of breath and feeling hopeless as she lost sight of her car. She then is standing in the middle of a road; a car in the distance is driving towards her. Determined she starts walking towards it and pushes her hand out in front of it to stop. The car stops and she runs over to the driver side and yells ‘get out of the car’, the driver refuses so Sam punches him through the window and drags him out of the car into the road.
Sam gets in the car and is now speeding up to 100mph after the murderer. She starts to catch up with the car, the murderer seeing this then drives directly into the lake. Sam then gets out of the stolen car and runs towards the lake and jumps in after her kids. Underwater shots show Sam swimming to get her kids out of the car, the murderer is not in the front anymore, but Sam still tries to save her kids.
She manages to retrieve the kids and is swimming back to the surface with them both in her arms, until the murderer then grabs her leg and drags her and the kids down. Rosie is screaming whilst Sam is struggling to get out of the hold of the murderer. The camera goes to the foot and reveals the stab wound. You then see this murderer still drag the family further and further down into the lake. Rosie is screaming and Sam is crying, the baby Matt is already unconscious and is lying in his mother’s arms. The camera is now looking down at the lake as the family drift downwards; the screen then fades to black.
The police then turn up after tracking Sam’s car with ambulances and detectives. The camera then pans outward to a bird’s eye view of the lake and the police cars. A news clip voice over is played which reveals that Sam killed her husband after at their dinner she found out that he was having an affair. The police were unaware that she was the culprit in this ongoing investigation, family and friends have reported they knew nothing about Sam’s mental issues. This investigation ended when in the early hours of this morning Mrs Thompson and her two kids bodies were found in the local lake. Investigators say that she drove her car into the lake, drowning herself and her two kids aged 3 and 1 year old. Our condolences go out to the family and friends of the family. This is a tragic event and has shocked the nation.