Awaken the Medium is a feature-length script that follows the story of Maggie Samson, whose latest near-death experience thrusts her into discovering her gifts and powers. Maggie is a librarian in her forties. Married to Chris, a professor, with whom she has a son, Justus Samson, now eleven years old. Maggie arrives at a crossroads, unaware of the challenges and mysteries that await her.
CAST LIST:
Narrator: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Female Paramedic: Hannah Ehman
Male Paramedic: Geoff Mays
Get to know the writer:
1. What is your screenplay about?
Grief, family, love, fear, supernatural events, spiritual awakening.
Stanley Kubrick once said – while filming Stephen King’s The Shining – ‘anything that says there’s something after death is an optimistic story.’
Awaken the Medium is a feature-length script that follows the tale of Maggie Samson, whose latest near-death experience thrusts her into discovering her gifts and powers. Maggie is a librarian in her forties married to Chris, a professor, who is rooted in science-based belief, with whom they have a son, Justus Samson, eleven years old. Maggie arrives at a crossroads, unaware of the challenges and mysteries that await her.
In the aftermath of her parents’ tragic death, Maggie decides to move her family into a beautiful house. However, soon after they move in, things begin to happen, strange things. Noises, shadows, unexplainable visions, mirages – every minutiae like this becomes so overwhelming that Maggie realizes she must stop the evil forces nested in the house before it’s too late and she or her son and husband are harmed.
Maggie meets a medium, Roberta, who helps her acknowledge her gifts. She discovers that she is a medium, a psychic, and a believer, hence the mirages, the telepathic conversations with her son, and the ability to converse with her deceased parents. With this newly found knowledge, Maggie, joined by her skeptical husband, and loyal son, embark on a quest to close the portal to evil she opened, and shut the evil down, once and for all.
This script is loosely based on my near-death experience, and our family’s transformation after my parents died.
Awaken the Medium has been described as ‘an elevated supernatural thriller which includes multicultural and spiritual intersectionality: Indigenous wisdom, Catholic doctrine, and parapsychology converging to shape the thematic framework. The use of the “liminal veil” as a metaphysical threshold is a compelling symbolic anchor, deepening the narrative beyond a haunted house cliche. The inclusion of generational trauma, grief, and psychic-medium inheritance gives the story emotional weight and thematic resonance.’ J.R. Elliott, Script Adviser
2. What genres does your screenplay fall under?
Thriller/Suspense, Supernatural drama, Family values, Spirituality
3. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
Our protagonist, Maggie, and her POV has been described as a rare character with a tremendous arc. She is a passive protagonist in the beginning – starting with the hospital scene – to a fighter and saviour in the end at the last hospital scene when Maggie flees the hospital to get home in time to fight. Bookends! Chris and Justus and Maggie are likeable so the audience can connect to them. The family love and support is refreshing to see them pull together in one of the worst times people can experience in their lives, loss of family. There are key elements grounded in realism and at the same time supernatural elements that work in cohesion with one another. Together, they don’t arouse suspension of either set of beliefs because they’re completely believable. It’s also been described as a rich world building that we have created. We set the stage for the supernatural elements to gel together without interrupting the flow and this adds more context. Script readers love the atmosphere and have stated, “There’s something special about it. You have this minutiae and attention to detail that enriches the world of your story … the world we’re going to spend our time in for the next couple of hours. Your foundation you created is really beautiful! It’s dramatic. It’s unique and complex. The ending is perfect.”
4. How would you describe this script in two words?
Grief, Transformation
5. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?
Constantine starring the ever talented Canadian actor – Keanu Reeves, Bless the Child starring Kim Basinger, Stephen King’s It, Carrie, The Shining, Matt Damon stars in Hereafter, Jurassic Park, Poltergeist, Amityville Horror, Hitchcock’s The Birds, to name a few. We LOVE watching movies and learning from the talented screenwriters.
6. How long have you been working on this screenplay?
We wrote our first draft six years ago, during COVID. We’ve revised it with help from quality feedback through International Screenwriting Competitions, and, David Trottier, author of The Screenwriter’s Bible. He’s been one of the script advisers and a mentor. It’s been a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, and some belly laughs. Most of all, it’s been very rewarding for us as husband and wife to write a screenplay together. Growth… transformation.
7. How many stories have you written?
I wrote 3 novels: Wake Me Up Inside, Book 1, Paige Maddison Series; coauthored Destiny’s Gate, Book 2; and Shine Your Light, Book 3 with our loving son, J.R. Matheson. Numerous short stories and biographical articles, two of which are included in John Robert Columbo’s, The Big Book of Canadian Hauntings. He stopped the presses to include my two articles for the ending of his anthology. My loving husband and cowriter, Kevin, writes more health and wellness articles. He was featured in several monthly newspapers for many years. Together, we are storytellers from the moment our son, Justin, was born in 1992. We made up bed-time stories to help him fall asleep. Then, we created stories as we hiked along many trails winding through bear country. Kevin and I are currently working on a comedy script.
8. What motivated you to write this screenplay?
I lost my parents in 2004 & 2005, nine months apart. The grief overwhelmed my family as my dad was my husband, Kevin’s, best friend. I was close to both of my parents and helped them through some very tough times. And, our son, Justin, was the apple of their eyes. The love for family drove us to write this spec script. Everyone can relate to losing someone they dearly love. We suffered from the loss of three parents, aunts & uncles, and a close friend within 3 years. Grief is a topic everyone can relate to. And, then, we had some interesting events occur from the other side. My grief was a catalyst for change for my family on how to interact with the world at large and on being a ‘sensitive’. We wanted to share how people can harness their innate abilities to sense things and use their gifts for positive change. There’s a movement, worldwide, of people curious about mediumship, and the afterlife. What happens to our loved ones when they die, when we die? It’s still an ongoing controversy to this day. It’s a burning passion for my husband, Kevin, and I, to get this story to the screen with a post-pandemic audience that is more spiritually curious, open to narratives about unseen worlds, grief processing, and the possibility of life beyond death.
9. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?
We work full-time in our chiropractic clinic. We love helping patients. So, we wrote after work at night, lunch hours, and on the weekends during COVID. Everything was shut down so it was hard to connect with others. We wrote our script every day no matter what the weather! Winter, spring, summer, or fall.
10. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
We love to watch movies and critique them! Also, we love to inspire others, listen to music and dance. We are avid readers. Most of all we love to help people. And, we’re both committed to a healthy lifestyle, wellness, and fitness.
11. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?
We were invited to enter the festival and are so very honoured to be included. We’re thrilled with the festival so far and more is yet to come such as this guest blog post, to a podcast, and many more opportunities. We love the best scene screenplay performance reading of our first scene in the script! We’ve had overwhelming feedback from friends, peers, and family that love it, and want more! Our hats are off to the actors that performed it! Thank you so much. And, we’ve commissioned a live performance of one of our fav scenes with our protagonist, Maggie. We really appreciate all of the positive feedback and encouragement the reader included which was truthful, inspiring, and priceless. Thank you so much to the WILDsound Thriller/Suspense Festival organizers, staff, readers, narrator, and actors. Your attention to detail is exemplary.
Festival Reviews 