The Spa (seeking representation)

James and Laura, a young couple in their late twenties, find themselves weighed down by financial struggles and past regrets. James, once a solicitor but now working part-time as a teacher, carries the heavy guilt of a past affair. Laura, a nurse, quietly mourns the dream she once had to become a doctor. Their relationship feels fragile, and when James’s parents surprise them with a stay at the luxurious Eternity Spa and Hotel in northern England, hoping it might offer a much-needed break, it seems like a chance to heal.

But the stay is far from peaceful. The staff all share the same striking red hair and behave with an unsettlingly polite demeanour. Strange noises echo through the night and there is an eerie feeling of being watched that neither can shake. On the drive home, they catch a fleeting glimpse of an old woman in the fog, but they brush it off, trying to hold onto normalcy.

Back home, Laura unexpectedly lands a spot on a highly competitive doctor training programme. At the same time James’s lesson materials are suddenly replaced by grotesque images of mutilated bodies. Blaming a student, he soon puts this behind him, later securing a job at a prestigious law firm through a new mysterious teaching colleague named Ben. But James falls back into old habits and enters into a relationship with a woman called Katie. This lead to the marriage falling apart. When they separate, James moves in with Katie while Laura starts dating again, relying on her best friend friend Maria for support.

Six years later, James and Laura cross paths again at a wedding. Laura is now in a relationship with Ben. James realises how much he misses Laura and soon leaves Katie to return to Laura. After he leaves, Katie makes a mysterious phone call to someone and says, “It’s almost time.” 

James and Laura reunite, but their reunion soon brings a series of strange and disturbing events. Laura’s health begins to decline, and eerie noises start echoing from the loft of their home. James also begins to experience terrifying nightmares tied to the spa that they visited many years ago. 

Laura hires a handyman, Jack, to inspect their loft. What Jack finds is so horrifying that he will not speak of it and he dies mysteriously that very day. James returns to the spa with Chris, Maria’s husband, but finds little except a heavy, unsettling atmosphere. In a nearby village, a bookshop owner reveals the spa’s sinister ties to the witchcraft history of Pendle Hill and sells James a old book called Arcana Maleficarum.

As James investigates the connection between the spa and a demon named Zahrab, Laura and Maria encounter a shadowy figure whilst on a night out in Glasgow. 

Things grow darker still when during a night out in London both James and Laura lose control of their actions. Laura sleeps with another man and James turns violently aggressive. The fallout puts their relationship under even more strain. Laura faces accusations of negligence at work, gets suspended, and is diagnosed with severe COPD. At home, James’s experiences of the supernatural escalate. A mysterious infestation of insects and terrifying visions of an old woman haunt him. They begin to see and hear the phrase “Soon be time to choose” everywhere they go, whispered by strangers, scratched into surfaces, and murmured in their dreams.

Their desperation increases as the full weight of the curse becomes clear. The spa’s dark legacy traces back to a pact made with Alison, a witch connected to Zahrab. Under hypnosis, Laura recalls they were promised success at a terrible price. The curse twists the minds of those around them, including Laura’s sister Hannah and her partner Ryan, who suddenly forget who James and Laura are. Their paranoia spirals out of control and in a moment of madness, James and Laura kill Hannah and Ryan. James immediately realises that the strange scene unfolding before him is the same as the grotesque images that appeared in his lesson six years earlier. Later that evening they are tormented by grotesque visions of Hannah and Ryan’s zombified forms.

Laura wakes the next morning to find she has aged twenty years overnight. In a final bid to break free, James and Laura drive back to the spa but crash near Pendle Hill. Laura wakes in hospital with no memory of who she is while James, imprisoned in a cell, transforms into a monstrous, insect-like creature. Driven by animalistic instincts, he kills Katie who inexplicably visits to taunt him. When his clarity returns, James learns that the villagers of Downham serve Alison. After rescuing Laura, whose memories have returned, they confront Alison as well Ben and Katie (who it turns out are her children), and the demon Zahrab at the spa.

They discover their suffering was all part of a ritual meant to strengthen Zahrab. The demon forces them to choose. One must be chosen and sacrificed, erased from existence. James volunteers, sacrificing himself to save Laura. He awakens outside the spa, an old man now, watching Laura, who is with a new husband, pass by but she does not recognise him. She explains that she is a doctor and that she will help him. She goes to get her medical bag but before she returns, James is dragged into Zahrab’s hell.

Nine months later, Laura gives birth to a daughter, Ellie. As she rests, Ben enters the room and takes the baby, cryptically telling her she will understand soon enough. Laura convulses, haunted by fragmented memories of James. When she wakes, her hair has turned the same fiery red as the staff at the spa. Smiling, she whispers, “Ave Zahrab.”

Currently seeking representation