As foul fumes fill their house, a couple in a strained marriage must fight through sickness, hallucinations, and violent impulses to save their children and escape.

SYNOPSIS:

June and Michael come home and notice a bad smell, first outside, then in their house. Seeking the smell’s source in the basement, they lose consciousness. When they awake, they have strange rashes, and someone has trapped them in the basement’s unfinished area. They suspect Frank, who rents the basement’s finished portion. Michael gets the door open and goes out to investigate. He and June begin simultaneous hallucinations. In Michael’s, Frank talks about a government conspiracy while his flesh corrodes. In June’s, Michael mentions her “mental problems” and attacks her with a hammer, but she takes the hammer and kills him. The hallucinations end. Michael comes back for June, speculating that a government conspiracy is behind the foul air. They go to Frank’s room. Covered in rashes and sores, Frank coughs, babbles about spider people, and shoots himself. June and Michael flee the basement.

On the main floor, they call for their children, Rachel and Anson, who don’t respond. They find eight-year-old Anson tied up, covered with sores, and coughing. Michael frees Anson, and the boy runs away. In new hallucinations, June and Michael pursue him. June sees Anson mutilate Michael. Michael sees Anson dump gasoline on himself and light it. When the doorbell rings, the couple come out of their hallucinations. Someone has delivered a package with the daunting message “choose carefully.” Paranoia runs high as Michael’s theory of their situation changes. Instead of a government conspiracy, he suspects a sick game, and they’re running out of time: the foul air is rising. They leave the package and look for Anson, who slashes them both with a kitchen knife. Michael accidentally knocks him out. They decide to carry him upstairs.

The stairs take them into more hallucinations, in which fourteen-year-old Rachel tells each of them that the other has made a deal with “Project Euros” to sacrifice the family. Discussing the hallucinations makes them more paranoid than ever. They settle Anson in his bed and go to Rachel’s bedroom. Rachel attacks with an axe. June and Michael escape, but the foul air is filling the second floor. Michael runs for the package and meets June at the ladder to the attic. In the attic, they open the package and find a hazmat suit. June begins a hallucination. Michael crawls like a spider and menaces her. The hallucination ends when June is about to stab him in the eye with a nail file—which she does anyway, killing him. June puts on the hazmat suit and leaves the attic. Rachel attacks again, feebly. She keeps coming until June snaps, takes the axe, and kills her. Taunted by the idea that her experiences have been in her head, June goes to the front door. She steps outside, into a cloud of infected air, and closes the door behind her.

MIASMA was a finalist for Best Horror Feature Screenplay in the Austin After Dark Film Festival, spring 2021, is a selection at the AOF Megafest, 2020/2021, was a semi-finalist for the Filmmatic Horror Screenplay Awards, 2021, and was a nominee for Best Feature Script at the Independent Horror Movie Awards, 2020.