In Development
The Rat
Queen
Horror Thriller Pitch
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When Alice returned to her hometown to investigate ongoing passion killings, she found herself to be the reason behind them, driven by an infectious, otherworldly lust.
Alice is a thirty-year-old journalist who returns to her hometown. She investigates a string of ongoing murders that feel uncomfortably familiar, tracing back to her own trauma-ridden past, when she lost her friends to a mass murderer who was never identified.
As her investigation closes in on the source, she finds the only other survivor: her ex-boyfriend Tobias, who has transformed into a strange, sickly creature. Looking for support, she connects with a police officer, who falls for her. In the search for the suspect, her own mental health deteriorates and reality begins to merge with fantasy.
She lures the officer to the lair where Tobias has made his home, and sleeps with him. Her fantasy takes over, and she remembers, she was the killer all along. She turns on the officer violently, and finds herself pregnant with a rat mutant. Her lust was never desire. It was a method to carry a virus.
Alice finds herself back in her hometown. The ongoing killings seem familiar to her, and as she starts to investigate the murders, she also starts to uncover her own hidden past.
Learning about her ex-boyfriend, the only other survivor, the line between reality and fantasy starts to blur. Her past and the killings seem to be connected. She goes to the police and finds support.
She finds herself to be the author of the killings. Her dark fantasies are real, and she is infected by a rat disease she carries within.
Smart and clever, her trauma from the past keeps her on the edge. While trying to figure out what is going on, she has run from her own murderous desires.
A police officer who wants to help Alice. Moral and good-willed, he is seduced into fathering her child.
The only other survivor of the massacre. Alice's ex-boyfriend seems to be behind the killings, but he's a pawn to desire.
Mysterious, rainy, atmospheric. In contrast to the industrial backdrop, classy buildings, like Eros Cinema, the New India Assurance Building, and other Mumbai art deco architecture, cut through the fog.
The camera is the third partner in this sensual and erotic horror story.
Human characters with psychological wounds and relatable drives for action.
The film portrays and combines sexuality with horror.
Unchecked trauma can manifest itself darkly. The film looks at how the underbelly of our minds can dictate our actions.
Two visual storytelling masters. Reino is an awarded 3D artist and director, and Joosep is a director and DOP with over fifteen years of experience across music videos, commercials, TV and film.
Yet David Cronenberg's metamorphosis of Brundlefly in The Fly, and the luring sensuality of Sil in Species, are the stories we look to in developing The Rat Queen.
Body horror as slow, inescapable metamorphosis.
Sensuality weaponized as a predatory lure.