The Lost Pianist

PRICE: Negotiable

GENRE: Short/Horror/Faith

LOGLINE: A concert pianist is caught in a nightmare when a relentless creature pursues him.

SYNOPSIS:

Gunther is a concert pianist who harbors a secret from his childhood. Now, at the age of twenty-nine, he arrives at Boston Symphony Hall, where Gunther is set to perform. But his performance will be abruptly interrupted before the finish.
Across the street stands a dimly lit four-story building, the Boston Institute of Animal Behavior Predatory Center. Here, the scientists conduct the types of experiments on the animal kingdom, that was never intended by God. An intermittent TONE emanates from an open window, provoking primal howls.
At the symphony hall fashionable patrons have gathered, creating an atmosphere filled with anticipation. The pianist, Gunther, approaches the ebony grand piano. An applause begins as he adjusts the bench. He then begins Franz Liszt Hungarian Rapsody No. 2. The sound travels out through the lobby and into the streets. A flash of light is seen on the fourth floor of the animal institute, accompnaied by the sound of shattering glass.
A dangerous Alpha Male black panther, larger than an average man, with uncommon protruding canines, can be seen leaping to a tree. Two smaller female panthers follow closely behind. They enter the symphony hall where the sound of the piano hits certain high notes that are similar to the TONES at the animal institute. This agitates the beasts and repels their advance. When the sound of the piano stops the Alpha Male enters the symphony hall.
Chaos breaks out as the Alpha Male lunges for a woman in the front row wearing a Lynx fur coat. It begins to pull her to the side, then pauses. The beast releases the woman when it spots Gunther and lunges toward him as he rushes to the rear exit. He retreats to an open elevator that's out of order. Gunther gets the elevator working and partially secures the doors.
When the elevator TONE sounds, the charging Alpha Male recoils from the doors and shows signs of distress. The elevator ascends and the beast sees the up arrow light and it dashes out the stairway door, as if it could read signs.
The elevator stops on the second floor, but the doors fail to close completely. The Alpha Male unexpectedly bursts through the stairway door and stops in front of the partially opened elevator doors. Gunther leaps onto the handrail, but the Alpha Male is too large to fit through the door opening. At that moment, the first female slips through the opening and attacks Gunther. He yanks down a flourescent bulb, shattering it against the wall, and drives the sharp edge into the beast's eye.
The elevator ascends and stops between the third and fourth floors, with the doors still jammed open. The second female aggressively attempts to jump through the opening to reach Gunther. It becomes ensnared, thrashing to get free. Gunther throws his shoe at the control panel, causing the elevator to jerk upward resulting in the severing of the beast's head.
The elevator stops again with the opening revealing a brick wall between the fourth and fifth floors. Gunther climbs through the elevator's trap door and collapses onto the elevator's roof, completely drained, as he shuts his eyes. Then Gunther is awakened by falling pieces of mortar, just in time to see the building's air vent drop near his position.
The Alpha Male has found a way to Gunther, leaping onto a ledge close to the elevator's roof, but falls into the gap between the elevator and shaft. Gunther grabs a pipe wrench and strikes the beast, resulting in it falling to its death in the basement.
Gunther climbs the ladder of the elevator shaft to reach the roof, using caution as he looks for anymore threats. He opens the roof door, and begins searching the area and suddenly sees the black tail of the first female. He leaps onto the sole ladder leading to the elevator motor room's roof feeling safe there. But a metallic creak echoes, then another, and Gunther sees the jagged fluorescent bulb rising above the ladder. The first female comes into view climbing the ladder, seemingly still having enough strength and only one eye to destroy Gunther. All he can do now is pray for a quick death.
REVEAL: The sun streams through the grimy, shattered windows of an apartment building. A man with long disheveled hair reclines on a tattered sofa, raising a nearly empty whiskey bottle; it is Gunther. He gazes at a photograph of his younger self in school, sitting on a piano bench, before he slips the picture into the bottle, causing it to become soaked and the bottle to fall to the floor shattering. Overwhelmed by tears and the blinding sunlight, he collapses back onto the sofa, as a crucifix hanging on the wall falls to his chest.