A brilliant young programmer, desperate to save her mother from cancer, enters a psychologically terrifying and suspenseful journey beneath an evil company’s headquarters.

SYNOPSIS:

“Hacking Fred” is a dark and suspenseful sci-fi thriller set on earth in the year 2059. This nail biter combines AI and robotic concepts from “Westworld”, the tone of “Severance” and shocking horror revelations found in “Event Horizon”. Requiring only a small core cast and primarily set in one location, the film is a great value proposition offering an exciting low-cost story in a proven genre.

“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.” – Aristotle

The year is 2059.

The quest for Artificial Intelligence is dead, the world finding that the spark of imagination could never be replicated by machines. A new biological engineering firm, Ideation Inc., has found a controversial alternative to dominate industry - Collect the greatest scientific minds in the world and keep them alive . . . Forever.

CINDY LEE (late 20s), desperate to save her mother from cancer, joins Ideation Inc. in hopes of steering innovation towards a cure. Colorful and kind in contrast with the cynical surroundings, Cindy begins her first month-long stint as a night technician responsible for backing up the precious ideas and memories of the half-human ancient geniuses housed beneath the headquarters in a utopian neighborhood. She’s isolated in high-tech living quarters along an endless dark corridor haunted by nightly sobbing.

“Death lies on her like an untimely frost. Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.” Shakespeare

Cindy is assigned to FRED ERNSTWILE (150s), an outwardly kind and gentle soul thought to have been violated by his previous technician. She becomes fond of Fred and uses nightly virtual sessions in an attempt to inspire him and change the fortunes of the company. Attempting to fully understand the simple yet illusive genius, she discovers Fred’s historical records have been blocked. Cindy becomes suspicious. But when Fred informs her that he is working on a serum which may cure cancer and save her dying mother, she ignores her growing suspicions. She should have trusted her instincts . . .

Cindy’s idealism is shattered when she discovers the company, portending to sell cures, is secretly selling biological weapons. No one knows what happened to the previous CEO nor the five missing geniuses. The once utopian subterranean neighborhood is haunted by the mournful cries of a one-eye droid cat and a face-torn dog madly sniffing and scratching the floor of one of the abandoned homes.

Fred manipulates Cindy, setting her on an unauthorized investigation into the innocent android gardener, SIMON. Cindy takes the bait and, with the help of the reclusive HAROLD STOOGES (70s), discovers shocking CCTV footage suggesting Simon’s part in horrible crimes. But the footage is only a cover for deeper, darker secrets.

Even as she seeks to report crimes to authorities, her own nightmares, authored by Fred, begin – virtual sessions turn to nightmares, half-eaten apples spawn worms, Fred’s whispering image glows large on the TV screen above a sleeping Cindy.

Cindy meets the source of the nightly sobbing, CHRISTIAN FALLON (40s). He decries that Fred is source of evil. Cindy’s terror ride culminates in Fred’s “red wedding” style vengeance, Cindy’s desperate flight from the maniacal genius and an action-packed hacking showdown providing irony for the film’s title.