A troubled teenage girl’s life is turned upside down when she becomes enthralled with the diary of a 19th-century socialite who is everything she wishes she was and would kill to be.

SYNOPSIS:

The Film

A supernatural horror that incorporates a number of genres including: Coming-of-age, high school movie, family drama and psychological thriller. The tone is dark and there should be a constant menace about what’s going on but the work should also be seen as a look at family dynamics and the true horrors of growing up. Thematically the piece is about the fantasies of youth and the loss of innocence.

The Plot

A wood shrouded in darkness, the oncoming patter of running feet. BETHANY, 17, a worn DIARY clutched to her chest runs as fast as she can, fear strewn across her youthful face. She trips, the diary sprawling to the ground, as she lies on the sodden floor, eyes penetrating the darkness, to find…TWO GREEN DOTS. Pulling a knife from her bag, she closes her eyes, raises the knife to her throat, and we cut to…

GEORGIA, 17, standing in her room, critically analysing herself. Extraordinarily ordinary. A typical teenager in every possible way - middle of the pack, average looking, self-conscious and not yet fully bloomed. She shares a tempestuous relationship with her Police Officer Father (WOODROW), a dwindling connection with her younger sister ABIGAIL, both exasperated by her burgeoning womanhood, and a doe eyed love for ALEX, a class mate. Georgia also frequents online messaging services where she shares sexually explicit written exchanges with a poster known only as BigLover23.

At school her best friend is OLIVIA, a much prettier, more popular girl, who uses Georgia as her lackey – there to offer support to Olivia’s arguments and as a forum for her barbed insults at every other member of their class (as well as Georgia herself).

That afternoon, Woodrow is called to the site of Bethany’s death. Where they find her with her throat horrifically cut, instantly ruled a suicide. Woodrow visits Bethany’s mother for extra insight into the teenage girl, but is met with a rather close to home excuse of “who knows what their teenager children do in their rooms”.

One night, alone and bored, Georgia ventures to Hollow Point, a fabled piece of woodland close by, which in yesteryear served as the meeting point for lovers to confirm their affections. Georgia hangs out in the dark, cold woodland when she sees a car pull up. Through the barricade of branches and fog she makes out the two figures writhing around in the car – Olivia and Alex. Georgia is instantly heartbroken, but a sound from within the pitch black darkness sends her running for the car. Disrupted in their love making, Olivia forces Alex to drive off, leaving Georgia alone in the dark woodland. Noises swirling, the cold air biting her…then everything stops, and Georgia finds THE DIARY, dropped by Bethany.

Looking through the diary she notices that each entry is labelled as a chapter and it goes from Chapter 1 to Chapter 3 to Chapter 5 and then finally, Chapter seven. The title page reveals that the diary belonged to “Margot Duell, 1873” and next to the name is a rule for reading the diary “you can only read the entries on the date stated”. Georgia, intrigued, takes the diary.

The next day at school Georgia confronts Olivia about her relationship with Alex, knowing that Olivia is aware of her feelings for Alex. Olivia brushes it off and states that it was a one off thing and that she has moved on.

Georgia returns home, and while up at night, she remembers the diary, and the rule. Finding that the first entry is dated for today, she begins to read, and we finally meet…

…MARGOT DUELL, 17, unbelievably beautiful, the most striking green eyes that you will ever see. A member of society and the lady of a huge 19th century estate, she introduces herself in the diary “My name is Margot Duell. Jew like the people, El like the Spanish”…and then leads us through her fairy tale life. At an exquisite ball she meets ROBERT KENNER, 17, a man who matches her attractiveness, as well as her distinctive eye colour. We are drawn into their burgeoning romance – Robert chases Margot through a maze, embrace in a fit of passion before Margot cools it (never giving too much away). Georgia is drawn in, entranced. The diary entry tells Georgia to act superior to her conquest and that she has to tell herself that men are “no better than the dirt on her shoe”. It finishes by telling Georgia to “make him notice you”.

At school the next day, Georgia attempts to complete the diary’s task by making Alex notice her, but she flounders, and as she tries to make her escape he laughs…which evokes something from within, that makes her spin around and declare, in front of the whole class, that Alex is “no better than the dirt on her shoe”. Needless to say, Alex now notices Georgia.

Georgia and Alex begin a relationship, though Georgia is chained by Margot’s instruction to not give herself up too easily, which leads to some tension between her and Alex (A red blooded bag of hormones). Georgia reads the next entry of the diary (Chapter 3), which informs her on how to dress properly, how to style her hair – slowly moulding herself into a replica of Margot – and it doesn’t go unnoticed by the male half of her class. Olivia’s jealousy mounts as Georgia continues to gain more followers, so she responds by creating a website, targeting Georgia’s deepest insecurity – her eczema riddled skin. The website goes viral amongst their class mates and Georgia is ridiculed, finding solace in the diary and Margot’s teachings. As Georgia changes, Woodrow begins to become more concerned, as he continues looking into Bethany’s death, which he deems suspicious. The diary entry ends telling Georgia that she should read the next entry when a black man has been burnt to death, something that leaves Georgia a little uneasy.

While attending the county fair with Alex, Georgia notices a maze – reminded of a moment from the diary where Robert leaves single red roses stuck unnaturally within the verdant foliage of the mazes walls, guiding Margot to him within the midst of the maze. Georgia’s interest is piqued. Her intrigue is too strong and she heads to the maze, leaving Alex alone and yet again frustrated, allowing Olivia to approach him. Within the maze, Georgia finds the red rose stuck unnaturally, and with her heart pounding she follows the map of roses, until she finds the final one – but no Robert, just a couple of fresh footprints where Robert would have stood. Is he real?

On the way back from the fair, Alex drives Georgia to Hollow Point. He tries to instigate sex, but she is initially reluctant. From the boot of the car, Olivia emerges and she runs to the woods, attempting to catch this all on her phone. Aroused by the thought of Robert having been there in the woods waiting for her, Georgia loosens up and the two of them come close to having sex, before stopping again, at which time Olivia runs from the woods, and throws Georgia out the car as Alex and Olivia drive away. Georgia is left shell-shocked and heart broken.

Georgia is in her room, distraught, when her online sex chat partner, BigLover23, begins talking to her. Needing a pick me up she tries to get something going online, but finds it too much. She runs from the room to the kitchen, where she hears some noises emanating from within the house. Following the noises from room to room, but finding nothing. Georgia returns to her bedroom, where she sees a pitch black figure sat at her laptop. The figure turns to look at Georgia with its BRIGHT GREEN EYES, before Georgia slams the light on. She goes to the laptop to see that the figure was leaving aggressively sexual messages to BigLover23. On asking him who left the messages, she consults her web cam, which was switched on, to find that it was Georgia herself sat at the computer leaving the messages while the real life Georgia had been downstairs following the noises. Freaked out, she slams the laptop closed and begins sleeping with a night light.

The next day Woodrow informs Georgia that there has been another body found within the woods – a black teenager who was burnt to death, like the diary stated. On edge and unsure if the diary and Margot were responsible for the death of the boy, Georgia, fighting her instincts, begins to read the next chapter of the diary:

Margot finds Robert, covered in blood, having just burned a black man to death in town, saying that the man had spoken ill of Margot out of jealously. Robert is paranoid that many of the townsfolk share similar envious feelings of the pair and instructs Margot to show that she is not weak by following his murderous ways. He tells her to take a suitor down to the river, stab him in the gut and then drown him until he ceases to breath. Although, initially unwilling, the strong love shared between the pair convinces her to do it.

Georgia falls back upon reading the entry, knowing that her next task is to follow Robert’s instructions in the real world. She refuses and goes to sleep, the night light on. While sleeping, however, an apparition of Robert appears in bed beside Georgia and proceeds to make love with her, Georgia embracing “Robert”. She awakes from this apparent dream, changed. She will now do Robert’s bidding.

She goes to her school the next day, on the lookout for a victim. She considers a number of options, including Olivia’s nerdy brother CRAIG, who has been pinning over Georgia and recently pulled a prank on his sister as payback for the horrible website she created about Georgia. Not satisfied with any of the available choices, she goes online and contacts BigLover23, asking him to meet her by the river in Hollow Point. He accepts.

BigLover23 reveals himself to be a rather awkward 17 year old called WALLACE. They meet at the riverbank, where after a brief flirtation; Georgia stabs Wallace in the stomach, and throws his head under the water, as instructed, her eyes flickering of green…

…Georgia awakes, thinking that the murder was all a dream, to find that she is still in the muddy, wet, blood speckled dress that she wore to the rendezvous. She goes to the diary, where the instruction of the time to read the next passage has been revealed: “Read when the truth is set free”. Horrified that the murder of Wallace will be revealed, Georgia grows distant from the diary.

Later, Georgia sits a mid-term exam. She opens her answer booklet to find that it is blank. Slowly, a handwritten love letter begins to appear that Georgia thinks is from her Mother to her Father, however, at the end it reveals itself to be from her Mother to her lover. Georgia’s image of her perfect mother is destroyed, but this proves to be the “truth” that needed to be set free before she could read the next chapter.

Weary of the diary, and distraught by the revelation, she fights against everything inside herself to read the next chapter --

Georgia is transported into the diary, standing side by side with Margot on the riverbank, as Margot’s victim lies, head first, in the water. Margot captivates Georgia. She talks about how Georgia was “failed” by her parents, and how she was “dealt a hand that left her destined to fold”. Margot’s request this time is for Georgia to let Margot and Georgia “be one”.

Georgia, now full on scared of the diary, realises that she has been changing, not just mentally, but physically. She now is as tall, and weighs as much as Margot (which she didn’t earlier) and her eyes are slowly turning green.

Woodrow continues to dig deeper into the deaths of Bethany and the burned teenager. He has uncovered eerily similar killings from years ago, mapping a correlation between the first killing (the burning of a black person) to the second killing (the stabbing and then drowning of a male) to the eventual death of the murderers the day before they turn 18.

Georgia wrestles with whether or not she should buckle to Margot’s request for them to “be one”, fulfilling her greatest dream (beauty and love). Georgia shares a close encounter with Margot in a fantasy as she sleeps while downstairs Woodrow discovers the truth behind Margot Duell. He uncovers that Margot was not the lady of the manor, and instead was a maid at the house. She was also not a beautiful woman, but instead she had horrific chemical burns down half of her body, a green glass eye and a wig. Robert is also revealed to have been a hideous cripple. Woodrow finds out that the real Margot and Robert killed the lady of the manor out of jealousy for her perfect life as well as numerous other people (including the burning of a black man) through envy.

Woodrow attempts to confront Georgia with the truth about Margot, but Georgia is unwilling to listen and fires back with the truth about her Mother’s lover. Woodrow, who had tried to shield this from his daughters to protect their image of their mother, is angered. This is made a million times worse when Georgia tells Abigail the truth, which leaves Abigail in tears. The family at breaking point, Georgia lapsing into madness as she fights her dad off.

Georgia escapes from the house and goes to a party at Olivia’s family farmhouse where she makes a desperate attempt to connect with Olivia, needing a friend to talk to – but Olivia spitefully rejects her. Georgia makes her decision, she will let herself and Margot “be one”. She reads the next chapter…

…the chapter tells Georgia that she needs to rid herself of the people who have ”failed” her, her family (Woodrow and Abigail), in order to live a happy life in love with Robert.

Georgia is taken over by Margot, sporting her own set of bright green eyes. She goes one step further than instructed and poisons the punch bowl that Olivia, Alex and all her other classmates are drinking out of.

While watching the teenagers drink from the punch, Georgia sees Robert standing by the house. She follows him around the house and inside, being led to a bedroom, where she finds THE DIARY. With her own book still on her, she opens up the other diary, to find that the chapters are numbers 2-4-6-7 (interconnecting with her own 1-3-5-7) – it is a second diary.

Craig, Olivia’s brother, then reveals himself to be the owner of the second diary, explaining that he has been reading the story from Robert’s perspective and he was responsible for the murder of the black man (as Robert instructed him to do) as well as for the footprints in the maze. Craig also reveals that he has already killed his parents and, thanks to Georgia spiking the punch bowel, Olivia is soon to join them, leaving only Georgia’s family left to kill before they can be perfect together. Side by side they stand at his bedroom window watching as all their school mates drink the poisoned punch.

Meanwhile, Woodrow has discovered that Georgia, under the influence of Margot, has murdered. He has also gone back to Bethany’s house and talked with Bethany’s sister, who informs him of the last instructions from the diary – kill your family and then yourself on the day before you turn 18 (which is today). Woodrow rushes back to get Abigail and takes her to GRANDPA’s farmhouse.

Leaving it until night time so they can attack under the cover of darkness, Georgia and Craig mount their siege on Grandpa’s farm house.

There is a big show down as Georgia and Craig try to fulfil Margot and Robert’s wish.

Wounded, and on the verge of death, with Abigail being attacked by Craig, Woodrow finally manages to get through to Georgia and tell her the truth about Margot, right before she is about to deliver the fatal blow. Georgia tries to fight Margot off as Woodrow saves Abigail from Craig.

Woodrow, Georgia and Abigail all help to fight Margot off…and eventually, as the entry lapses (midnight strikes on Georgia’s 18th birthday), Margot is banished away.

Sometime later, we see Georgia taking her end of year exams. It is shown that she has been imprisoned for the murder of all her class mates. She is led back to her cell once the test is over, reciting Margot’s often repeated introduction “My name is Margot Duell. Jew like the people, El like the Spanish”. She enters her cell where we can make out a pitch black figure in the darkness, which rests its hand on her shoulder – Robert?? Margot??. She closes her eyes, savouring it, and just as she is about to open her eyes (potentially revealing green eyes), we CUT TO BLACK.

MARGOT