Beautiful Nightmares Screenplay

Abstract

My senior project is a full length 93 page screenplay. It is a mix of drama, thriller, and horror. When writing this script I really wanted to explore themes of reincarnation and psychological trauma. I challenged myself to write and do research on something the subject and incorporate them into my script. The screenplay is about George Langston, a mild mannered and well respected 41-year-old high school teacher living in suburbia with his wife of 15 years and two young children. He has been haunted by vivid and disturbing nightmares since his 41st birthday. His dreams feature a violent man who murders people, and George has not been able to have a proper night's rest because of them. He decides to seek professional help from a sleep/dream therapist after he falls asleep behind the wheel of his car due to sleep deprivation, and gets into an accident. He sees his therapist a few times a week and they work to decipher his dreams in order to stop them. Unfortunately, the therapy is failing and the dreams become even more gruesome. Yet, George keeps going to therapy because it makes his family happy. George soon decides to take drugs to keep him awake so he doesn't sleep and dream. His wife finds out about the drugs and kicks him out of the house. Suffering without his family, George and his therapist decide to try hypnosis as a last resort to help him get control of his dreams. They soon realize George's dreams are memories from a past life, in which he was a prolific serial killer. He struggles with this knowledge briefly but soon accepts the truth and his life spirals further out of control and people around him wind up dead.