THEME
Scorned is a non-linear narrative about vengeance that moves back and forth in time, dropping breadcrumbs along its path, weaving a tapestry of tension and horror that ultimately reveals its overarching theme; a woman scorned is not only a force to be reckoned with, but someone no one should underestimate.
SYNOPSIS
The doors of OLVERA HOTEL open revealing a dusty art deco lobby in the midst of heavy renovation. Everything appears normal until a pair of lifeless HANGING LEGS come into focus. AVA SCOTT (30’s) suspends from a rope cinched around her broken neck from the railing above the grand staircase. TROY SCOTT (30’s) lays in bed with TATUM YOUNG (20’s), his mistress, when the phone rings and he is alerted his wife is dead of an apparent suicide.
While being questioned by the police, it’s revealed that Ava was 6 weeks pregnant when she died. Troy is stunned. Tatum is angry because he was supposed to be divorcing his wife, not still sleeping with her.
For the first time, Tatum looks like she has regrets about what has happened…
90 DAYS BEFORE DEATH
Ava and Troy walk through a hotel with a REALTOR. Troy flips old properties and is interested in renovating the hotel. A realtor reveals some of the hotel’s dark history explains and that a murder occurred in ROOM 212. Ava, a true crime enthusiast, asks for more details.
The legend surrounds LILLITH BLACKWELL. (30’s), a maid who worked there in the 1930’s, who discovered her husband SETH (30’s) was having an affair with another maid, VERA (20’s). Lilith bided her time…until she’d had enough. She walked into Room 212, caught Seth and Vera in bed and shot them both to death. Then, Lilith turned the gun on herself.
Troy, his sister LAUREL (30’s) and her husband ROB (30’s) work together, renovating the hotel. Laurel rips into Troy for moving his mistress in before his wife is even cold in the ground. She blames Tatum and Troy for driving her best friend to suicide.
1 DAY AFTER DEATH
Later that night, Tatum tosses and turns in bed. She hears a baby crying and follows the sound to Ava’s old sitting room, Room 212. The door is closed…but, a light shines beneath the door’s crack.
She looks inside, but there’s nothing there.
60 DAYS BEFORE DEATH
Ava confides in Laurel that she found some incriminating photos on social media from Rob’s bachelor party—one being a scantily-clad girl sitting on Troy’s lap. She does some digging and finds out the floozy hanging on her husband is Tatum. Laurel tries to assuage her, claiming Troy wouldn’t cheat.
Then Troy walks in reeking of cologne and dressed-up like he just came from a date.
10 DAYS AFTER DEATH
Troy gives Tatum a sketchbook and encourages her to draw again since she’s been frustrated that her graphic art business isn’t taking off.
Later, a crying baby wakes her. She wanders back down to Room 212 where the windows are all open and a freezing cold breeze blows in, killing the herbs and plants that Ava kept in there.
Meanwhile, Troy has a nightmare that he sees Ava right before she steps off the landing to hang herself. He tries to stop her, tells her to take his hand…and, she looks up with WHITE EYES, blood gurgling out of her mouth. She lunges at him and he jumps awake.
The next morning, Troy and Tatum admit to each other that they’re not sleeping well. Then, he tells her that Room 212 used to be Ava’s special place where she liked to read and garden.
55 DAYS BEFORE DEATH
Ava talks on the phone with Laurel, reading texts from Troy’s phone—some steamy sexting that occurred between him and Tatum. She’s freaking out when Troy walks in, looking for his phone. She confronts him and he admits that he’s having an affair. He apologizes and begs her for forgiveness, promising that he will break it off.
Ava wants to believe him, but she’s extremely hurt.
Ava takes refuge in Room 212, drinking a smoothie which she makes every day with fresh herbs from her garden. Troy tries to talk to her again, seemingly sincere, but Ava tells him that he needs to give her time.
15 DAYS AFTER DEATH
Tatum is sketching when she hears a strange noise. Once again, she’s drawn to Room 212. For the first time, she explores, looking through all of Ava’s things— books, drawers, photos, closet.
She finds a picture of Ava on her wedding day and sets it up on the dresser.
40 DAYS BEFORE DEATH
Ava reads a book, looks up and sees the GHOST of Lilith Blackwell, the maid who murdered her husband, his lover, and then killed herself. Her uniform is splattered in blood and half her face is blown off. She clutches a gun in her hand. Ava and Lilith stare at each other for a long moment.
Then, Ava blinks and Lilith is gone.
18 DAYS AFTER DEATH
Troy tells Tatum how much he loves her and that he knows it’s been a rough month—and then, gets on his knees, and proposes. Tatum throws her arms around him with a resounding YES! Later that night, Tatum sees a ghostly apparition of Ava, holding a baby in her arms.
She runs to Troy—who THROWS A NOOSE over her neck and PULLS Tatum jumps awake and tells Troy that she dreamed he tried to kill her.
20 DAYS AFTER DEATH
Laurel flips out about the engagement and says it’s too soon and a disgrace to Ava’s memory. She blames them both for Ava’s death and claims they have her blood on their hands. Upset by Laurel’s rejection, Tatum tells Troy that she doesn’t think his sister will ever accept her.
They end up getting in a fight…and Tatum turns inward, constantly sketching in her notebook, slowly breaking down as the STRANGE ACTIVITY increases—more than just visions of Ava’s GHOST and terrifying STRANGE NIGHTMARES.
Tatum finds herself losing touch with reality and experiencing inexplicably horrific situations—being caught in the elevator with Ava’s ghost, getting pulled under by a corpse in a bloody pool and being dragged down the hallway by an invisible force.
She tells Troy she wants them to leave the hotel, but he refuses, telling her to wait because they’re almost finished with the remodel.
10 DAYS BEFORE DEATH
Ava sees Lilith again and follows her to the salon where the ghost points to the fireplace. Her mouth opens, as though trying to tell Ava something, but all that comes out is a moan. Ava jumps awake, realizes she was dreaming.
Nevertheless, she goes down to the salon and searches around the fireplace. She reaches up into the flue and finds a burner phone taped there. Furious, she confronts Troy and begins reading the text messages that prove he has continued his affair with Tatum. He tries to apologize, claims he loves her but,
Ava has had enough. It’s over.
23 DAYS AFTER DEATH
Rob sees Tatum scribbling in her notebook, talking to herself, and tells Troy. At this point, Troy is hanging on by a thread.
The deadline to finish the hotel has been moved up and he no longer knows how to deal with Tatum’s ravings.
5 DAYS BEFORE DEATH
Ava discovers she is pregnant. She sees Lilith’s ghost and follows her down to the basement where Lilith seems caught in a time-warp, just going about her normal day, folding laundry. Ava sees Lilith’s gun, hidden beneath a towel, and begins asking her questions.
Lilith encourages Ava to “do what needs to be done. He shouldn’t get away with it,” Lilith says.
25 DAYS AFTER DEATH
Tatum has gone off the deep-end and tells Laurel that she thinks Ava’s ghost is trying to kill her. Laurel thinks she’s nuts and doesn’t have much sympathy. “It’s not Ava, it’s your own guilt manifesting,” she tells Tatum. “You need to show you’re sorry and forgive yourself.”
Later that day, Tatum sits at the bar, talking to Ava’s picture. Consumed by guilt, she tells her that she didn’t know about the baby and that Troy isn’t even worth all this.
Troy finds Tatum’s sketchbook and he’s stunned to see all of her drawings are morbid pictures of Ava, a baby, nooses, etc.
He confronts her and tells her he can’t do this anymore. He tried to help her, but there’s nothing more he can do so while he leaves, she needs to pack her things up.
Meanwhile…
3 DAYS BEFORE DEATH
Ava buys a highly toxic monkshood plant to add to her collection.
DEATH DAY
Ava blends a smoothie, adding the toxic monkshood roots.
Then, she texts Troy and tells him she wants to talk. She gets a text back and agrees to meet her. But, the text is actually from Tatum who has Troy’s phone. Tatum shows up instead of Troy and demands to know why Ava wants to talk to him. “It’s really none of your business why I want to talk to my husband,” Ava tells her.
Tatum thinks that Ava wants Troy back but says he’s hers and that he loves her. Amused by Tatum, Ava assures her that she could get Troy back if she really wanted him, and arrogantly starts to walk up the staircase and away from Tatum. Tatum charges after Ava, throwing a noose around her neck.
They struggle, but Tatum’s rage gives her an inhuman strength and she STRANGLES Ava to death.
Then, she pushes her over the railing to make it look like a SUICIDE.
30 DAYS AFTER DEATH
Tatum has lost her mind.
She slips into Ava’s wedding dress and walks up to the spot where she shoved Ava over the railing. Tatum steps off the edge and drops, her NECK CRACKING.
Ava, holding her baby, stands in the lobby below looking up at Tatum’s swinging body with a smile.
2025