A physiatrist seeks redemption for failing her sister by helping four unique clients -A Vampire Werewolf, Frankenstein-ish man, and Invisible Man- who come to protect their only link to sanity when she's threatened as a result of their investigation of those going after their underworld.

SYNOPSIS:

Comps: Grimm, Angel, Poker Face, Being Human (and yes, The Breakfast Club)

Format: 1-hour, limited, fantasy-mystery (6-8 episodes) with potential to become a regular series, each season having a different case and sub plots.

What is it: A vamp, werewolf, Frankenstein and the Invisible Man walk into a bar…

Well actually, a shrink’s office.

The Dreadful Club centers around a doctor whose unusual clients -based on the classical horror movies many grew up with- come together too not only to save her and their fellow mystical beings, but in the process themselves. It twists the genre: supernatural beings investigating a human mystery versus humans investigating supernatural ones. We humanize monsters, give each the same problems many face, make them amateur sleuths, and throw in a shrink motivated by a personal failure.

All of this in an underworld hidden in plain sight, full of all the creatures that go bump in the night.

The Dreadful Club maintains the essence and stories of those quintessential creatures while adding modern twists. A return to the core of what Shelly, Wells, Siodmak, and Stoker envisioned: tormented souls seeking peace in a world that doesn’t understand them. Give them issues in a modern world a fan base each already has can relate to. But it also reflects 21st Century adult angst using those very characters many grew up with. Each represents a fear -or failure- many adults feel now that they face middle age in a world they no longer feel they fit into.

When this underworld begins seeing attacks and murders on their kind, our club goes from miserable loners to reluctant heroes finding the culprits. More so when it threatens the shrink keeping their sanity in one piece. During their ad-hoc investigation, they come to discover not everything is as it seems. A far more sinister being is behind their troubles: a group of monster hunters calling themselves the Bösejägers who themselves are led by a shadowy figure called Mr. Knight.

It also examines the themes of hope in the face of fear, forgiveness when confronting the past, and compassion in a world that knows very little of it.

A Twist on the Genre: We take the trope of humanizing monsters, minimize interspecies hanky-panky (sexual tension though), drop the interminable vamp vs werewolf struggle, and throw in a shrink who’s willing to help them from destroying themselves.

Added to this is the tried and true amateur sleuth plot. While not leaning toward the comedic elements of Only Murders in the Building, it does pull together strangers who take on the challenge of solving a crime. These strangers possess abilities, which gives them a leg up -at times- against the perpetrators.

The Dreadful Club will combine a mystery, elements of a thriller, and bits of humor.

Tone: The gothic horror genre is enduring: fear, redemption, mystery, the supernatural. It says more about us than the monsters.

Main Characters

• Doctor Celine Ponce (36): Wife, mother, and psychiatrist. Striving to get her sister out of a vampire cult, she discovers a real underworld. Shunned by society, she helps real monsters in need of care, motivated by her failure to truly help her sister. She discovers helping them comes with a price she never expected to pay.

• Vampire Sancho Peláez de Cea (~30): Former conquistador. Once typified knightly traditions but suffers from PTSD after the death of his wife and monk/vamp burned at the stake. Seeks that worthy cause to give him a reason to go on. An unflashy Bela Lugosi who doesn’t use his vampiric powers.

• Werewolf Tania Wilks (25): A once aspiring athlete, her bright future gone, she harbors a hatred of her kind and herself what she’s become. Celine provides an outlet she cannot find –nor want- with other Lycans, whom she uses as tools, motivated in finding a ‘cure’ and regaining her old life.

• Frankenstein Creature-Like Pavel Levitsky (35): Product of post-Soviet genetic engineering. Areas around his joints appear reddened and cracked, as though stitched on. Intelligent, techno-savvy but driven to be antisocial and isolated. Celine is his only connection to any semblance of a normal life. Boris Karloff sans neck bolts who can’t take revenge on his creators.

• Invisible Man Bryson Fletcher (41): Invisible due to his own experiment amplified his narcissism. Feelings of inferiority make his bipolar tendencies starker. A bellicose patient, he respects Celine as an intellectual. At times too tactless. Wants to reconnect with his ex-wife to give her the life she deserves but denied by his actions.

Pilot- A client murders psychic ZINA after a cryptic conversation. Celine sees Sancho, who vents about faux vamps. She counters it’s a coping mechanism. At Zina’s wake, Sancho runs into Pavel, telling him Celine asked about him, but leaves without responding. He also meets BRENDA (20), a boorish vamp turned in 1989, with whom he has a terse relationship. She wants help in finding the killer, but he refuses. Tiana runs a yoga and fitness gym. A friend/pupil asks her out. She declines: that night would be a full moon. Returning to her office, Celine discovers Bryson, who sits invisible. His medical records show he hasn’t refilled his bi-polar meds. Claiming he feels better, she’s not convinced. Pavel’s evasiveness during a video call with Celine speaks volumes to her. MAXWELL BOOTH (40) leads a group of monster hunters (Bösejägers) and plans their next attacks. He sends each out to follow leads, including using business cards from Zina's home. One of them is Celine’s.

Season- After violence on their kind, Sancho becomes suspicious. Going to the police is not an option. He enlists Pavel for his intelligence and hacking abilities. Concerned too, Celine suggests using Bryson for his invisibility. Bösejägers set upon Tania and a support group for Lycans. They kill several but with her help fend off the rest. During the melee, Tina discovers one of the Lycans can transform at will. As Sancho and Pavel investigate, she joins them. Their personalities -and mental health issues- nearly break them up on several occasions. They also come across the bias we see in today’s world not as monsters, but humans.

Pavel discovers information on a dead Bösejägers pointing to something more sinister. Through their ad hoc investigation, they come across Rudolph (real name Melvin Smith), a self-proclaimed psychic with knowledge of their underworld. Offering his ‘abilities’ they are doubtful, until one of his ‘visions’ prevents an attack on vampire club inhabited by real and fake ones.

Celine and her husband raise a five-year-old son under modest circumstances. While a loving husband and father, he takes a mind-one's-own-business approach to life. He even refrains from helping a woman of color badgered by a group of racist. Such actions produces marital friction.

While it appears Maxwell’s the mastermind, actually he receives instructions from a Mr. Knight: a shadowy figure claiming to represent a consortium of monster hunters providing funds and weapons. It was he who had Zina killed, believing she would have warned others about them. Posing as a patient, Max discovers Celine knows more than she’s letting on. Knight orders her and family's kidnapping, to draw in and kill the others.

The kidnapping galvanize what Bryson christened their “dreadful little club.” Not to mention the need for the help Celine provides them. While fearful of what she is, Tania seeks how to become a werewolf on demand. Bryson starts taking his meds. Pavel comes out of his shell even if just for the club. Sancho fights his depression with the goal of saving her.

In helping her, they discover not everyone is who they claim to be...

THE DREADFUL CLUB