THE STAGE 32 LOGLINES

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ANIMALS
By Terrence Sellers

GENRE: Family, Drama
LOGLINE:

After being cheated on by her longtime boyfriend, an aging bachelorette meets the man of her dreams and his ill-intentioned best friend.

SYNOPSIS:

Mandy, late 20’s, just wants to get married and have a family. After three years of dating the same man, her goal has finally come within reach. On their anniversary, he confesses to having cheated on her for the past several months. On the same evening, Jack, early 30’s, also experiences a devastating heartbreak when his girlfriend of three years confesses that she had been cheating on him. He storms out of the restaurant and immediately runs to his best friend Vincent for consolation.

At the suggestion of Carla, Mandy’s roommate, Mandy decides to go to a bar the following evening with the goal of no strings attached sex. Vincent convinces Jack to pursue similar goals the same evening at the same bar. By coincidence, and a little winging from Vincent, Mandy and Jack meet and begin the most meaningful relationship either of them has ever had.

Jack and Mandy are married and soon after have a daughter, Lauren. On her fourth birthday, Lauren receives a stuffed rabbit, named Hoppy, from Vincent. This rabbit has a built in camera that can capture both photos and video and never runs out of battery.

Carla and Vincent babysit Lauren. During Lauren’s nap, Vincent and Carla have sex. Lauren wakes up and secretly records them with Hoppy’s built in camera.

Lauren confesses to recording Vincent and Carla to Jack. Jack convinces Lauren not to tell Mandy. He then angrily confronts Vincent about having sex in front of his daughter. Vincent, shocked apologizes promising never to hurt the women in Jack’s life again.

Several years later, Jack gets cancer. In her depression, Mandy sleeps with Vincent, setting off a long term affair. Lauren finds out about the affair, but doesn’t tell anyone.

Eventually Jack dies and Mandy quickly marries Vincent. After a couple years, Mandy decides that they will no longer have sex for an indefinite amount of time while she gets her thoughts together, because she can no longer deal with his “perverse” sexual desires. Being left with no choice, Vincent angrily accepts her decision.

After a month of no sexual activity, Vincent begs Mandy for any sort of sexual contact. She declines in the moment but says she’ll consider it. After drinking almost an entire bottle of whiskey, Vincent rapes Lauren, but accidentally records the act by unknowingly turning on Hoppy’s recording function. Unable to cope with the assault, Lauren soon after commits suicide.

After the funeral, while packing up Lauren’s room, Mandy discovers the video of her daughter being raped by Vincent. In the final moments, Vincent enters Lauren’s room to check up on Mandy, unaware that she now knows what he did. She reaches for a pair of scissors with the clear intent to harm Vincent.

Nate Rymer

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