1. Situation – The Starting Point
The film opens with footage explaining chronic wasting disease in deer, showing how the disease affects their bodies and behavior. The footage introduces the idea of a living creature slowly taking over a body. After the title appears, the video ends with a television turning off, transitioning into a graveyard scene.
Maverick is shown standing in front of his parents’ graves. He is grieving their deaths but hides his emotions from his friends. The film then flashes back to two children discussing reincarnation, a theme that will continue throughout the movie.
2. Desire – What the Character Wants
Maverick wants to move forward with his life, even though he is still struggling with the loss of his parents. He tries to distract himself by going to parties and spending time with his friends. He also wants his relationship with his girlfriend, Carmen, to work, but they have been arguing because she dislikes his friends and avoids attending their parties.
After their argument over the phone, Maverick goes to a party without her. Meanwhile, Carmen leaves her home with her keys, suggesting that she may be on her way somewhere.
3. Conflict – What Gets in the Way
The next morning, Maverick wakes up hungover and learns from a friend that Carmen has died in an accident involving a semi-truck. Shocked and confused, he checks the news himself before attending her funeral.
After Carmen’s death, Maverick becomes increasingly isolated. His apartment falls into disarray, and he spends his days looking through old pictures of them together. He struggles to accept that she is gone and begins spending more time alone in nature.
During one of his walks, he hears Carmen whispering his name. He follows the voice and discovers a strange worm near his feet. The worm seems to speak to him in Carmen’s voice, making him question whether he is imagining things or if something supernatural is happening.
4. Change – What Shifts Something
Maverick realizes that the worm can communicate with him and appears to know things that only Carmen would know. Although he initially thinks he is losing his mind, he begins to believe that the worm might somehow be connected to her.
He takes the worm home and creates an enclosure for it, believing it may be a way to reconnect with Carmen. As he spends more time with it, he becomes convinced that he has found a way to speak to her again.
However, the worm is not Carmen’s reincarnated soul. It is a demon that copies the personalities of the dead to trick grieving people into caring for it. At night, it crawls into its host’s ear and lays eggs. Over the next two to three days, the eggs hatch, and the worms begin consuming the host from the inside while gradually taking control of their body.
5. Result – How It Ends
As the worms begin to control Maverick, his behavior changes. He becomes increasingly unwell, both physically and mentally, while continuing to believe that Carmen is communicating with him. Eventually, the worms leave his body after laying their eggs and seek out another host.
The film follows two or three different people who experience similar losses and are deceived by worms that imitate their dead loved ones. Their stories reveal that the creature has been repeating this cycle for a long time.
The opening conversation between the two children about reincarnation becomes more meaningful as the film progresses. The audience is left questioning whether people can truly return after death or whether grief makes people vulnerable to believing something that only wants to use them. This is still a work in progress and my story will be changing consistently.
Storyboard: https://www.canva.com/design/DAHXQjCBk1A/efdTnM79Hon0WU6CXrEUYw/edit?ui=eyJBIjp7fX0