The Spector Collectors

Plot: Man learns his children have been interacting with the ghost of an old woman haunting their home. He sets out trying to capture the ghost with the help of friends and turns the obsession into a business. Filmed as a horror but written like a comedy, this would follow as spiritual successor to the Ghostbusters. The audience should be on edge while watching this much smaller, non earth-ending tale, with personal stakes on the line, yet find themselves loving the characters and laughing along with them.


Characters

·         Simon: Protagonist and lead. Single dad with 2 kids, who are interacting with an unknown presence. When things begin to escalate, he takes charge and works with his friend to catch the ghost.
     o   Miles (10 year old son)- Emotionally shut off. Keeps to himself.
     o   Emily (5 year old daughter)- Innocent, but aggressive.

·         Edward: Partially deaf friend who is an engineer. Helps to discover things about ghosts and build the weapons. Strong willed. Possibly autistic. He often speaks with certainty and dry humor.

·         Clara: Robert’s co-worker who is into new age philosophy, astral projection, and spiritualism. Robert asks her for help and her opinion. At first she acts confident in her claims, but after some time of interacting and witnessing the poltergeist for herself she realizes she doesn’t know as much as she thought she did and very little of the spiritualistic ideas she has have turned out to be false. Still, she is intrigued enough to do a lot of the research for the team, helping to discover ancient principals that are exploited through science to fight and capture the ghosts.

·         Robert: Clara’s husband. A skeptical busybody, who assumes Clara is having an affair. Is obnoxious but redeemable.


STORY

First Act:  The children are acting weird. Talking to themselves in empty rooms, and casually asking about the old lady who lives down stairs. They call her Granny Boots and say she chases them. Edward, Simon’s friend, comes over and notices a low pitch noise that is bothering his hearing aids. The two work out that the noise must be coming from the son, Jordan’s, magnetic motor science fair project. Little by little the dad, Simon, begins to learn that certain things draw out and affect the ghost. The levels of creepiness continue to increase until one of the kids gets hurt. Deciding to go on the offensive, Simon takes inspiration from the Ghostbusters, assembling a team of friends to fight and capture the ghost. Their first mission goes pretty badly but after a few attempts, and a few more inventions, they manage to catch her.

Second Act: After successfully collecting Granny Boots, the team makes a business out of capturing more ghosts. The missions become more successful with the introduction of better tech, and the team begins to build a ghost collection. Each ghost should be identifiable and have a lot of personality including some stereotypical movie ghosts…

- Asian ghost (the Ring)
- Murderer ghost
- Suicide ghost
- Sweet wide eyed friendly child (Casper)
- Lonely widow
- Full room. The team track down what they expect to be a little ghost and set off a thermal pulse only to find an entire room full of Victorian era ghost children.
- False haunting where nothing happens but they take commission anyway.

Third Act: The collection of containment batteries magnetizes and pulls together. The combined energy of the ghosts in close proximity begins binding together creating a new ghostly monster, The Collection. The containment fails releasing this super ghost which is angry with Simon. No longer bound to any particular haunt, The Collection seeks to possess Simon’s children to get revenge and to gain life.  

• Climax: Clara uses multiple thermal pulses to make the Collection fully tangible and overpowered. Edward engages the ghost in a fist fight, while Simon bypasses some of the equipment saftys and uses a combination of weapons to rip the Collection apart.

Themes: Collections have their cost; Time, money, and affection. Also, we have a responsibility for our creations, whether intentional or unintentional.


“Science”: The supernatural and the natural are split by a hair thin line. This line is exploited and allows the characters to interact in a way people wish they could.

• Electromagnetic fields: The movie will make the claim that ghosts are affected by electromagnetic fields and use that as the primary explanation for how the tech works with and against them. In the same manner ghosts affect electronic devices; they are also affected by high powered electromagnetic forces. Because ghosts are intangible, they can’t be manipulated by conventional means, but specialized magnets are able to push, pull, and even contain the ghost in a suspension of their energy.
• Thermal: Ghosts are often depicted in TV shows as creating low temperatures in areas. It is believed they draw out energy which creates these cold pockets. The team will use this to locate ghosts.
• Salt: Kosher Salt is often considered protective and spiritual barrier. This is used in the solution of the containment batteries to hold the spirits.
• Ghosts: Similar to most media, ghosts will be depicted as disembodied spirits. However, there will be a scientific spin on what the soul is. The soul is an electric element present within a person. We know that humans generate electricity and the brain functions by electric currents firing specific neurons in particular areas. So when certain people die during a massive collection of electricity accumulated within their body, they are able to translate those mental properties like a saved file into the electric current.

Weapons: New spins on familiar ghost fighting weapons.

·         The Ghaster Trap (version 1): A heavy garbage can sized barrel, difficult to move/use. Will be funny to try to bring ghost to the trap because the trap isn't mobile. Uses coils to create a high powered magnet. On the top is an electrode which arcs towards the ghost, polarizing it, so the magnet can pull it in. Only works in close proximity. When activated it has enough power to pull the soul out of a person.
 

·         The Ghaster Trap (verson 2): A weighted wheel, with coils creating a high powered magnet. On the top is an electrode which arcs towards the ghost, polarizing it, so the magnet can pull it in. Only works in close proximity. When activated it has enough power to pull the soul out of a person.

·         Dead Air Station: A special radio station broadcasting very low frequency sounds. The low frequency draws out paranormal entities. When in close proximity the Dead Air station picks up interference and begins to static.

·         Containment: Individual containers, consisting of glass, metal, and a salt soluble acid that holds the ghosts like a battery holds electric current. Kept neatly on a shelf in Edward’s house.

·         Thermal pulse: Thermal pulse sends a sharp sudden blast of electronic heat into an open room, which is absorbed by the ghost making them manifest into semi-tangible forms. Once the pulse is set off, the energy is forced into the ghost which makes them visible, vulnerable to the weapons and trap, but also increases their ability to act in a physical/violent manner.

·         Shield: Highly magnetized plate fixed to the users left arm. Pushes the tangible ghost with opposing magnetic poles. Intended for defense. 

·         Gun: A running issue in the movie will be that Simon really wants some form of gun to fight the ghosts… even referencing the proton packs the Ghostbusters have. However, Edward has problems making something that works. By the end he makes something but it doesn’t work as intended and through improvisation Simon gets a proton like stream to come out.

Explanations: brief explanations on conventional ghost themes and why they are standard in ghost lore.

• Night time: Supernatural activity is not increased at night, rather is perceived more as Night is the only time things are silent enough for our limited senses to pick up on the creaks and subtle noises/shadows.
• Energy Drain: Ghosts steal energy from the heat in the air as well as from electronics as a means of manifesting.  This is why they are constantly turning electronics on and killing batteries.
• Confined:  Ghosts become tethered to objects and homes, like an electron is bound to an atom.
• The hallway: Ghosts like hallways. A good passing through the hallway is like a trip to the beach for them.