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Day 3 Assignment
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I learned how to rearrange events to create tension that leads to an open hook.
Binge Worthy – Mod 3, Lesson 3 – Creating Plot Structure
SERIES INFO FOR OZARK
• World: The dangerous world of Money Laundering for the Cartel.
• Main mystery: The history of Del and Marty.
• Impossible Goal: Launder $8 million in the Ozarks.
• Main Conflict: Del will kill them if they don’t. The FBI will arrest them if they do!
• Second Mystery: How are Marty and Wendy going to accomplish this when they hate each other?
• Season 1 Arc: From having his entire office killed and moving to the Ozarks to finally establishing himself there and brokering a deal with the local mob.
• Season 1 Protagonist Internal Journey: From disconnection to his family to reconciliation with his wife and a loving relationship with his kids.
1. Present the first draft of your pilot Acts.
Teaser:
• Essence: Savage, the history teacher opens the door, allows in a person he knows and is shot to death. Who shot him?
• Turning Point: Savage enters, drinks out of his mug, and collapses.
Act 1:
• Essence: Baer driving Marta to work at the bank and Page to school.
• Turning Point: Paige describes the shooting of the girl at the school.
Act 2:
• Essence: Baer goes to interview with Margaret Gilgood
• Turning Point/Midpoint: She hires him which sends him on his journey.
Act 3:
• Essence: Baer drinks with Savage who shares his sad story of baby’s death and divorce.
• Turning Point: Baer invites Savage home for Sunday dinner
Act 4:
• Essence: Baer meets Leylah
• Turning Point: Baer perceives that Leylah’s presence enhances his writing ability.
Act 5:
• Essence: Savage and Marta are attracted to one another. Paige threatens Savage to leave her mother alone. (Protecting her father)
• Lock In: Paige comes home and accuses Savage of raping her.
PILOT INFO FOR ELEMETS OF BETRAYAL
• Pilot Conflict: Baer takes job teaching literature where he becomes entwined with Leylah and Christian Savage.
Main Characters Introduced: Lane, Marta, Paige, Margaret Gilgood, Leylah Hafez, Christian Savage.
• Inciting Incident of Season 1: Lane Baer must take and keep teaching job as well as complete manuscript by the publisher’s deadline despite horrors of two shootings.
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Tracy El Pueblo Pilot Structure
What I learned doing this assignment is that the pilot probably needs to be 90 minutes – two hours to get 5 stories established. I also realized that the entire first season is really Act 1, for all the characters aren’t together yet. The two pirates are menacingly poised to enter <st1:state w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>California</st1:place></st1:state>, which will be the second act adventure for all of season two. I am playing with the structure at large.
Teaser:
Essence: A woman shorn of hair and one eyebrow, is made to
stand in front of church as example of sex out of wedlock though she is a widow.
Priest says women must remain “Christ’s bride” for entire life.
The man is in the stocks. The couple is sent to opposite ends of the
province. <div>Turning Point: The grinding mill breaks and the man who was
sent off was the only carpenter to fix it. Now women in El Pueblo must use
the old metates to pound corn by hand for hours. They are angry the priest subjects them to this rather than bringing the carpenter back.<div><div>
Act 1:
Essence: Antonia Moreno wants to have choice who she’ll marry
or not — but resistance makes her less desirable to the moneyed older men
seeking a docile teenage wife. The thought of having an older man touch
her is repulsive. </div><div>Turning Point: Antonia rejects a “younger” suitor, a 38-year-old
widowed ranch supervisor with young children. Grandma is furious. Antonia runs over to her pregnant aunt’s house,
where the husband is grievously ill (former military – comment about war
in <st1:country-region w:st=”on” style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Mexico</st1:place></st1:country-region>?
how’s that playing out in El Pueblo?).Act 2:
Essence: Lucas Polanco is a university student in <st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Mexico City</st1:place></st1:city> in 2nd
year law. He intends to work in
government or politics. He attends a trial of insurgents, borrowing the
prosecutor’s speech as his own in class to support his loyalist position. </div><div>Turning Point/Midpoint: Receives word that his father has been
injured, but Lucas decides to stay in the capital rather than going home
because of the girl he likes. After dance class, Lucas is approached to
join military and spy on friends.Act 3:
Essence: Father Diego Perez is newly-ordained and his family
proudly attend the ceremony. Father Diego doesn’t want to serve in his
family’s remote parish. He wants to serve where the action is, supporting
the peasant revolution as other priests have done, though they were shot
for it. </div><div>Turning Point: Before heading home from the seminary for a
respite, Father Diego visits the political couple in jail who started the
revolution. He admires the courage of the wife. Diego’s father is
horrified. He asks for a secret meeting with the bishop to make arrangements
to protect Diego.Act 4:
Essence: Thomas Fisher, a fugitive slave, is getting as far
away from the <st1:place w:st=”on”><st1:country-region w:st=”on”>United
States</st1:country-region></st1:place> as possible. In <st1:city w:st=”on”>Buenos
Aires</st1:city>, celebrating its first anniversary of <st1:city w:st=”on”>Independence</st1:city>
from <st1:country-region w:st=”on”>Spain</st1:country-region>, Thomas
signs onto a warship heading to <st1:place w:st=”on”>Africa</st1:place>.
The goal: destroy the Spanish spice trade. The locals refuse to sail for the
war hero Captain Bouchard, but Thomas signs up to get to <st1:place w:st=”on”>Africa</st1:place>! </div><div>Turning Point: A fight breaks out among the new deckhands
before they’ve even left the harbor. Captain Bouchard shoots two sailors
dead and whips the others as his form of leadership. Thomas has an awful
inkling he made a mistake and looks to get off the ship in vain.Act 5:
Essence: Joseph Chapman is done with the dangerous miseries of
going to sea, ready to settle down with his sweetheart, and build ships in
dry dock as a master carpenter. He wants a routine dawn-to-dusk job. </div>Turning Point: After he’s “pressed aboard” a whaling
ship heading to the south Pacific against his will, Joseph accepts his
circumstance. It’s better to stay afloat and live to return. Besides, he
knows the eastern seaboard well from his years as an apprentice. He’ll
find a place to jump ship and get back home. With <st1:city w:st=”on”><st1:place w:st=”on”>Boston</st1:place></st1:city> in the distance, he turns his
face forward to the open sea.</div></div>
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Jack’s Pilot Structure
What I learned from this assignment is I need better turning points to end the Acts
Teaser:
Essence:
Kayla, confident she can handle royal-blooded Victoria, flees when she
sees her roll her jet to a stop. Supercilious Victoria steps from her Lear
Jet and confronts Sir George about the emergency that required her to
change her schedule and fly to Florida. <div>Turning
Point: The unflappable Victoria faints when she finds out the child she has been raising in
England for 7 years is not biologically hers.Act 1:
Act 1 Essence 1:
The time is seven years earlier. </div>1. Kayla
watches Victoria excel at polo, then meets her and they share the
experience of witnessing female turtles lay eggs on the beach, not realizing
they are being watched by Victoria’s bodyguard Charles.<div>
Turning
Points: Victoria upsets Kayla by taking a
turtle egg from a nest. Kayla says she’s messing with nature but Victoria tells her of a gene-editing lab that might help the turtlesAct 1 Essence 2:
2. Santiago, the Argentinian captain of Victoria’s polo team, presents the granddaughter of Adolf Hitler to Sir George.
Turning Point: Santiago wants Sir George to be the lawyer who represents the company that will sell her genes to neo nazis in the U.S.
Act 2:
Essence 1:
Kayla accepts Victoria’s offer to fly to Miami to meet Sir George for the
purpose of using his law firm to help Kayla’s efforts to save the
Everglades.</div>Turning
Point: Sir George represents the sugarcane king whom Kayla is suing so he can’t help her<div>
Act 2 Essence2
We meet Billy Osceola, shaman of the Indian tribe living in the Everglades and his daughter Windy Moon as they catch a huge python
Turning Point 2 Billy gives Victoria python eggs to be added to her turtle egg for the lab’s experiments with eggs
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Act 3:
Victoria’s Fund is hacked and she keeps it a secret because it is Saturday and nobody will learn until Monday.
Turning Point/Midpoint- She discovers the ransom demanded is for her to obtain Queen Elizabeth’s skin – she doesn’t understand why
</div><div>
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Act 4:
Essence:
Victoria flies Kayla to New York and introduces her to her parents and
Professor Matthews. </div><div>Turning Point 1 : Kayla is not welcome at her parents home
Turning Point 2: Professor Matthews convinces Victoria and Kayla to freeze their eggs
Act 5:
Essence:
The two women freeze their eggs </div><div>Lock
In:1. Professor Matthews reveals the actual skull of Bran The Blessed and his plan to steal Victoria’s eggs to have a child with her as the biological mother
2. Victoria learns the ransom demanded means someone wants to clone Queen Elizabeth but still doesn’t know who wants this or why. She thinks maybe it’s someone in the queen’s family. Charles overhears her conversation and makes a call.
</div>
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Janeen’s Pilot Structure
What I learned doing this assignment is that structure really makes this easier and makes acts quicker and easier to define. This will definitely be handy when we start adding secondary story lines as ways to add “value” between Turning Points and the main point’s progression through an act.
Teaser: The accident
Essence: Mike and Mindy leave for a NYE party, Mindy chats with Cara about her boyfriend and desire for a baby. They crash into a train when there are no brakes on their car.
Turning Point: The word “Molly” uttered between Mike and Mindy as they crash.
Act 1:
Essence: Cara and Mindy’s lifelong friendship; Cara’s life and practice in CA and current boyfriend/Mr. Right?; Mike and Mindy’s life on the farm and concerns for the twins’ future;
(Ordinary life in CA and on the farm and Cara/Mindy’s friendship)
Act 1 Turning Point: Randi tells Mindy about her Alzheimer’s;
Act 2:
Essence: Mindy convinces Mike to put Cara in charge of the kids and talks Cara into it; They meet in Chicago and Mindy says she has premonitions and they have decided they want Cara to be the executor so his brothers in Alaska can’t take the farm in case Randi goes first or they all go together.
(Mindy uses her mind control to do this against Mike and Cara’s initial wishes)
Act 2 Turning Point: The NY’s Eve accident.
Act 3:
Essence: Cara comes to the farm; meets Jim, Hunter and Gabe; Randi insists they not make any decisions about the farmland yet;
Act 3 Turning Point: Cara tells Randi she will take the kids back to LA and she is aghast.
Act 4:
Essence: Randi explains rental land to Cara and what it means to the farm; Cara’s boyfriend says he will not come to Iowa or do long distance; Kids don’t want to leave the farm;
Act 4 Turning Point: Jim vamps Cara a little and says he will help her; Randi is livid and explains about Molly’s accident/suicide;
Act 5:
Essence: Hunter says he’s helped Mike’s dad and Mike with the equipment for years and can help Cara too; Randi guilts Cara after looking at her Alzheimer’s diagnosis; The Twins guilt Cara;
Act 5 Climax/Turning Point/Lock In: Cara does some mind control work and decides she must honor her commitment to Mindy/Mike and thinks about Jim as a replacement for her boyfriend.
Act 5 Lock In: Hunter says he’ll help her and Jim is furious with Hunter; Gabe flinches; the twins shudder; Randi gasps; Cara is shocked;
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Jean’s Pilot Structure
What I learned doing this assignment is that having specific goals for each act helped me develop a more interesting plot structure, to make sure the important turning points and reveals are present.
Teaser:
Essence: Tanner saves a young Ben Franklin from certain death.
Turning Point: Tanner vanishes into thin air.
Act 1:
Essence: Sharra collides with Lazarus, he loses his pocket watch which Sharra finds. Sharra gets passed over for a promotion. She looks for a new job, something more adventurous. Dash offers her a position with his office but she’s not sure.
Turning Point: Tanner gives Sharra Vault Agency’s business card.
Act 2:
Essence: Sharra has an odd interview with Lazarus. She visits her parents’ gravesite looking for advice. Tanner watches close by. Faolan, a man from 1825, puts on a Vault uniform and vanishes to reappear at Vault headquarters to gather information on Sharra.
Turning Point/Midpoint: Sharra discovers her boss is embezzling money. Her boss threatens her.
Act 3:
Essence: Sharra researches Vault Agency. Comes up with nothing. Dash meets Sharra. He’s found a position outside the state for her. She goes to return the Vault Agency contract.
Turning Point: Sharra is mugged/stabbed by a Vault agent! Lazarus miraculously heals Sharra.
Act 4:
Essence: Faolan, another rogue agent, secretly starts to investigate. Tanner is sent back in time to stop the mugging, but Faolan is one step ahead of him. Sharra, thinking it’s her boss, stands up to him. Her boss sends goons to kill Sharra.
Turning Point: Faolan saves Sharra.
Act 5:
Essence: Forced to flee or be killed, Sharra agrees to go with Lazarus. Tanner packs a few of her belongings, seeing evidence of her loneliness and admiring her tenaciousness.
Lock-in: Running from an unknown assailant, Sharra, with the promise of information about her parents’ death, vanishes with Lazarus and reappears in a future otherworldly place.
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Rob’s Pilot Structure
What I learned doing this assignment is that I have plenty of material to play with but am unsure how much belongs in the pilot and how much needs to go into later episodes. Still trying to tie it into a coherent thread as opposed to a disparate series of loosely-related events.
1. First draft of “The Mirage” Pilot Acts.
Teaser:
Essence: A bunch of teenagers assault a young woman.
Turning Point: The “woman” is a demon who kills them all.
Act 1:
Essence: Julia is an archaeologist whose career is on the line after a failed archaeological dig. Her boss, Vincent Chamberlain, is furious. A mysterious figure known as “The Mirage” has the attention of the press and the police. Julia is being stalked by a wicked-looking stranger.
Turning Point: The stalker is a demon! The Mirage rescues her then flees.
Act 2:
Essence: The Mirage returns home where he lives with Madeleine and reveals his encounter with the demon and Julia. Detective White investigates the teenagers’ death.
Turning Point/Midpoint: Julia returns home and reveals that she has pictures of the demons.
Act 3:
Essence: The Mirage returns to the scene of the attack on Julia to collect the demon’s “DNA” from the scene, and experiments with it in his underground lair. He fails, and we find him on the moon, reflecting on the situation.
Turning Point: There is a pile of corpses on the dark side of the moon
Act 4:
Essence: The demons stalk Vincent Chamberlain. Detective White interrogates two hardened criminals who have been captured by the Mirage after abducting a child. They are remorseful and terrified. We can see him in the room with them, invisible.
Turning Point: Vincent is leading the demons.
Act 5:
Essence: Julia unwittingly leads the demons to the Mirage’s doorstep and they fight. The Mirage discovers his voice power.
Lock In: Madeleine is kidnapped and the demons force the Mirage to flee from his home.
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R. REID JR.’S Creating Your Pilot Structure
“What I learned doing this assignment is my structure and plots are constantly evolving into a more solid story with each and every rewrite and MY PLOT STRUCTURE is taking shape.
ASSIGNMENT
1. Present the first draft of your pilot Acts.
Teaser: An agent is talking about the perfect robbery that we think is happening right now.
Essence:
Turning Point: The agent is talking to his female partner who are both staking out the bank.Act 1: We see a sophisticated group of people work together to rob a bank in precision timing.
Essence:
Turning Point: <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>The group of sophisticated people get out of the bank and are about to drive away but they all decide to put the goods they have stolen in a van and just walk away. The agents grab them but they discover they </font>didn’t steal a thing. They also seem to not know who they are shortly after committing the robbery. Was it a bluff?Act 2:An insurance agent looks down at his bracket and realizes he is missing a class as he talks to the bank president about being robbed but will help him get to bottom of what happened to prevent it. Hie is hired to find out what happened on behalf of the bank.
Essence:
Turning Point/Midpoint: The insurance agent is the only one who believes the people were “induced” with something and is only looking for that substance that induce them. The Agents are working with the insurance agent to get full cooperation of the bank.Act 3: a week before: a college woman is dumped by a guy in a bar and woman offers her a tissue and offers her some advice after telling her she is young and will keep getting dumped on in life unless she does something and the girl says, what is it? The woman leans over and begins to tell her something in her ear while this kind of purple mist breaths into the air around her. Two guys make a rude comment and the woman says the girl, you know kung fu and the guys come over to the young lady in a funny way and she flattens them out cold. Moments later the insurance guy is slowly walking to Robin’s Nest Pub where the 2 ladies are using a 3-D image from his bracelet, he wipes it and says lost signal. But goes into the pub only to walk past the crying girl who seems to be dazed. He asks if she is okay, the slightly hooded woman says, she got dumped tonight and had to then had some crazy guys hitting on her. It’s been a night. Let’s go!! The insurance guy goes into the bar and the door man is helping two guys on the floor and people just watching.
Essence:
Turning Point: The young woman wakes up and says what happened? She dresses with a hoodie and checks some device in her bag and clicks the sound on and heads out to meet someone. Meanwhile, the 2 agents are driving around in their car just past the bar the girl was at in the night. She arrives at a park and pulls out that device and hear something like a voice telling her all men are evil until they are stopped and she puts the device on a guy in the park who sitting alone checking his phone. A witness sees this and calls the police, it is intercepted by the Agents and they arrive at the park and see a girl with the hoodie matching the description. She sees them and gives pursuit. they corner her and she puts up a fight and then just doesn’t and kind of “wakes” up.Act 4: The insurance agent is talking with the agents over coffees and they try to compare what happened at the bar to the girl they caught in morning but had to let her go. The agents sees it as a dead end and cuts the meeting short cause of his next appointment is starting in thirty minutes. He leaves and enters a campus, he goes into a bathroom and changes out of tie and puts on a casual shirt instead of the formal one he has. He finally shows up at class. He checks in with the prof for the class and takes a seat in the class. After the class the prof asks people to turn to the people around them and form a study group with three others.
Essence:
Turning Point: Turning around the insurance agents sees the girl from the bar. The audience sees the flash back to THE AGENTS stopping the same girl. The insurance agent only knows her from the Bar the night before. She introduces herself and so do the other people. But she has no clue they met briefly the night before. And the insurance guy has no idea The Agents detained her briefly.Act 5: We have a brief flashback to one of the two Agents, the female agent while the insurance agent is using his bracelet outside the office to hear the Male agent talking. The female agent watching the cream in a cup day dreams and is reliving how she got to not trusting men after getting pushed around by another guy in a relationship /working colleague in a relationship. She got out of it and the agent was asking her to do something shady that ended up with him arrested and her with some bruising on her face. The other agent in present day is talking to a boss on the phone and says, he doesn’t care who he has to go through that includes coworkers to make the arrests. The boss agrees with him to do whatever it takes and step over whoever her has to to get that arrest and further his career in their bureau.
Essence:
Lock In: Bruce, the main character is on his way home and an old man stops him and asks him if he has made a decision. Bruce remembers back as he is going to group time with the group and sees Snowy’s smile as she flicks a paper at him vs. seeing the arrest style of the two agents and coffees with The Agents, essentially the female agent Rebecca who is he is comparing memories with. Bruce seems to make the decision to work more with the girl in the class than the female agent, thought in another flashback she is slowly respecting him for his work ethic and he doesn’t notice her checking him out. Even the other agent points it out while she is in the bathroom and he brush it off and says he is only professional. While at school with the other older students he is more himself. The old man says, it sounds like the decision is made. Yeah, for now, Bruce responds. The old man says, who is your memory? Bruce, still foggy. It is like I can’t remember anything except this job. The old man continues, do you really think this girl is going to help you find what you boss asked you to find? Better than working with an agency that only wants to get ahead ( he pictures the guy agent talking to his boss) or bust some heads ( he thinks of Rebecca who is tough as nails). I did meet this one woman Bruce remembers, he recollects at the put when Snowy, the girl from class went to the bathroom a mysterious woman sits briefly in Snow’s seat. Bruce is a little shocked and says, do we know each other? The mysterious woman, I thought you would remember me. Bruce, would I from…? The mysterious woman looks up and sees Snowy coming back. If you remember come and find me. She passes Snowy who looks at her like she knows her. She sits down. Who was that, the rest of the group comes back ready to tackle a bit more work. Suddenly Bruce does get a flash back. Are you okay? Bruce does remember this lady and they are talking about something technical and she brushes his arm as he asks her to pay attention. Bruce notices she left a handkerchief and says, wait a minute and gets up and picks it up to return it and goes to the door as he looks around and she is not outside or walking.Bruce in present time is talking to the old man again and says, I think I have made my choice. And while he is talking he walks back to the group and puts the handkerchief on his head and says what and all four of them laugh and he sits. Bruce, now where were we?….
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This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by r. reid jr.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by
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What I learnt from this is to really question and break down what is the actual conflict. Doing this has made it apparent that I really need to focus on this more in my outline.
SERIES INFO:
World: Hollywood Film Industry <div>
Main mystery: Who killed Elizabeth?
Impossible Goal:
Zoe wants to help her best friend without giving away her true identity. Zoe wants to connect with her mother who doesnt’ want anything to do with her.Main Conflict:
Eden trying to get an acting break but stress from her father becoming sick is stopping her.Second Mystery:
Who is the mystery man Alex meets? Why doesn’t Zoe’s mother want to know her?Season 1 Arc:
Zoe being ashamed and embarrassed by her family/family name now goes to owning it and putting on the biggest wedding, inviting the media.Season 1 Protagonist Internal Journey:
Zoe finds the strength to confront her mother only to be left with nothing but eventually learns to trust and let love in from other people.<div>
2. Tell us the basic Pilot Info:
PILOT INFO:
Pilot Conflict:
Eden can’t cut a break and must choose between caring for her father or going after her career. Zoe can’t handle her mother abandoning her. </div>Characters Introduced:
The Studio heads, Zoe, Eden, Alex.Inciting Incident of Season 1:
Elizabeth, is found dead.</div>
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What I learned is that I need to absolutely re-order what I have already done on my pilot. My endings in each act are not gripping enough. This exercise has been extremely helpful.
Mod 3. Lesson 3.
Teaser:
Essence:
Turning Point:1961. Joe is talking about the hiding spot. Being chased through the house. He hides. He listens to a young woman crying and pleading…
Turning point: The young woman crying and pleading is our protagonist. Its 2021. And she wants to get out of the house. (Later we find out it is Joe who has Brought her there).
Act 1:
Essence:
Joe’s dad gets a mysterious job offer. Then the family don’t see him for weeks.
Turning Point:
Joe’s mum tells him to believe its true and their father will come. She tells him she has been lying about going to work herself. She has met Micheal’s bosses and they come to watch over them every night, when they sleep.Act 2:
Essence:
Joe’s father picks up the family to move them to a new house in the country. Meanwhile, Abbey is pleading with Father Thomas to let her out.
Turning Point/Midpoint:
Abbey hears strange knocking at the door and is warned not to open it under any circumstances. They are testing her.
Joe realises the ghostly face he saw in his grandmother’s apartment is the real estate agent who is showing them around the property.Act 3:
Essence:
Joe meets all the neighbours, his new best friend and gets a dog. Abbey decides to rebel against Father Thomas and rips up his garden.
Turning Point:
Abbey receives a mysterious box. Joe learns that the previous owner died on the property and his new dog used to belong to him. He goes to sleep and someone is tapping on his window.Act 4:
Essence:
Abbey decides to escape the property. When Joe is threatened by two local boys, he meets his new best friend, Maude, who comes to his rescue.
Turning Point:
As Abbey makes her way down the country road, she is stopped by a frightening fire, holding an axe. Joe discovers his father burning his grandmother’s number and finds disturbing satanic books in his parent’s bedroom.
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