Collaboration with Danielle Berger, Ryan Cho
Synopsis:
A young man named Toby Lee works as an actor of a children’s show. Toby has gone through a traumatic childhood where he has been abused by his father. One day, one of his producers of the show reprimand his acting when he is working on set. Toby sees a strong image of his father as he stares into his producer’s eyes as he is being lectured, and he answers with a calm “okay”. As he responds, he faces his producer again as the image of his abusive father starts to fade.
Toby’s show is unsuccessful due to monopolistic entertainment platforms such as YouTube and Netflix. He opens up about the bleak reality of his situation to his best friend Celine while they are in a bar. Celine is unsure of how to respond to his struggles so she suggests that perhaps some morphine would ease his troubled state.
Toby takes Celine’s advice and develops a strong addiction to morphine to avoid his reality. His obsession with morphine becomes serious to the degree of being sent to the hospital due to an overdose. This results in him appearing on the news and Toby gets fired from his show due to his drug addiction.
Sensing the seriousness of his situation, Toby works hard to turn his life around by starting working for small parts in advertisements, and attaining a part-time job at a café. One day, he meets his father when he coincidentally walks in to the café while he is working. Toby suggests to his father to meet in his apartment to talk about past issues in hopes of repairing their relationship. They start talking in his apartment and their conversation escalates into an argument where Toby’s repressed insecurities result in him impulsively murdering his father. Despite his shock, he reacts quickly by chopping off his limbs and disposing them in the Hudson River. After he gets rid of his body, he feels a sense of content.
After the murder of his father, he starts to find success as he is called for many roles in movies. He starts small support groups for children who suffered from similar backgrounds as he did. As he listens to the struggles of six of the children, he realizes that all of their parents are abusive and this provokes him.
He takes the children on a field trip but instead leads them into his house and locks them in the basement. The parents find out that Toby has kidnapped them. Toby kills each of the parents as they come to his house one by one.
Toby keeps the children in poor condition and he manipulates them into believing that his parenting is a form of true love. Toby eventually gets caught and he is questioned by the police. The children are saved, but they deny any of Toby’s wrongdoings.
The children all grow up, and they repeat Toby’s actions.
