pilot script

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Wife, mother and psychiatrist has four unique clients -a Werewolf, a Frankenstein-ish man, a Vampire, and the Invisible Man- who not only come together to find a killer but help her family as she understands their unique problems.​

Format
1-hour, limited, fantasy-drama (6-8 episodes) with potential to become a regular series, each new season would have a different case with stand-alone episodes.

What is it
A vamp, werewolf, Frankenstein and the Invisible Man walk into a bar… Well, actually a shrink’s office.

We take the trope of humanizing monsters, minimize interspecies hanky-panky, make each an allegory for problems we face, and throw in a shrink who’s willing to help them from destroying themselves. In the process of finding the murderer of a beloved psychic, they come to discover not everything is as it seems, and a far more sinister being is behind their troubles. With all this, The Dreadful Club is set in today’s world where a successful psychiatrist takes on clients based on classic horror monsters many of us grew up with, each with different issues.

They realize each can come together to do some good rather than cursing a world they're stuck in. Our caring psychiatrist struggles to hide their existence with the goal of understanding them as human beings. She also empathizes with their contempt for -and prejudice in- modern society, while helping them understand not everyone is against them. Our reluctant anti-heroes take on their own at times, but never prey upon them.

​It examines the themes of hope in the face of fear, forgiveness when confronting the past, and compassion in a world that knows very little of it.

Tone/Why Now
​The elements of the gothic horror genre are enduring: fear, redemption, mystery, the supernatural. Like good sci fi, it says more about us than the monsters. While putting a twist on this, The Dreadful Club also hints at contemporary issues. Each monster represents a social issue, amplified by their experiences:
Sancho- Xenophobia
Pavel- Anti intellectualism
Tania- Sexism
Bryson- Anti-science.

Comps
Grimm, Angel, Forever Knight, Being Human

Main Characters 
Celine Ponce (36): Graduate cum laude. Doctor of Psychiatry. Having discovered the supernatural underworld when studying vampire cults, she helps real ‘monsters’ in need of psychiatric care. 
Sancho Peláez (de Cea) (~30): Born in Spain and a vampire since 1100. Suffers from PTSD after witnessing the death of his wife and later good friend. Prone to bouts of persecution and regret. He lost religion, but never faith.
Tania Wilks (25): A werewolf turned while backpacking with friends in the Rockies. Attacked and left for dead, she harbors a hatred of her own kind and herself for what she’s become. Seeks a ‘cure’ for her condition.
Pavel (Pasha) Levitsky (35): Product of post-Soviet genetic engineering. Areas around his joints appear reddened and cracked, as though stitched on. Intelligent, techno-savvy but driven to be antisocial and isolated.
Bryson Fletcher (41): Becoming invisible due to his own experiment amplified his narcissism. This, and feelings of inferiority, make his bipolar tendencies more stark. Years for companionship but at times too tactless.​