Project Type: Episodic TV Series (Hulu)
Genre: Psychological Thriller / Mystery Drama
Tone & Style: Grounded, intense, high-stakes. Think The Sixth Sense meets This Is Us. The horror isn't jump-scares; it's psychological weight.
Comparable Projects: The Sixth Sense (Cole Sear), Stranger Things (Will Byers), The Haunting of Hill House.
Scene Context: Allie is being questioned by adults (Xavier, then Gabi the therapist). They think she's playing or acting out. She knows something they don't. She is burden-bearing.
A 5-7 year old girl described as "hearing a whole different band." She is intense, observant, and fiercely independent. She isn't spacey; she is LOCKED IN.
She carries adult burdens (the knowledge of "Alex" and the danger) in a child's body. She is patient with the adults because they are slow to understand.
A messenger. A protector. She dug up the toolbox because she HAD to. She pushed the girl because she HAD to. It's not malice; it's duty.
Disturbing. Intense. "Startling." Adults are unsettled by her gaze.
I am Allie. I see things others don't. I hear "Alex." I am tired of explaining things to grownups who don't listen.
Scene 1: The Kitchen. My sketchbook is my only shield. Xavier is trying to take my evidence.
Scene 2: The Living Room (Therapy). Gabi thinks this is a game. It is not a game.
NOW. The danger is happening now. "We have to go." Not later. Now.
Evidence of the danger (my drawing). The toolbox Xavier is hiding. The feeling of "everyone" coming.
Xavier: He's nice but blind. He thinks he's protecting me, but I'm protecting him.
Gabi: She asks too many questions. I have to tell her the truth so she stops asking.
To make them LISTEN. To make them understand that we have to leave before "everyone" gets here.
They think I'm a child playing with toys. They think the drawing is just a picture.
By staring them down. By speaking the absolute truth in a whisper. By not blinking.
Most 7-year-olds fidget. Allie does not. Practice zero fidgeting. Her stillness is what makes her scary/intense. When she turns her head, it is deliberate.
The script says: "The intensity of her gaze is startling."
Technique: Pick ONE EYE of the reader and look deep into it. Do not scan their face. Laser focus.
It isn't a toy; it's a file. Treat the sketchbook like a detective's case file. Protect it.
Do NOT play "Creepy Movie Kid." Don't do a spooky voice. Don't try to be evil. Evil is boring. Certainty is scary.
Speak the scary lines as if you are reading a grocery list. It is just a fact. "We have to go." Simple. Flat. Real.
The script says "Voice almost a whisper." Don't be breathy. Just drop your volume so the adults have to LEAN IN to hear you. It forces them into your world.
Treat Xavier like HE is the child. You are explaining something simple to him.
You were drawing the picture. You felt the "click" of knowing it was right. Xavier interrupted your work.
After you say "Alex," HOLD THE LOOK. Do not look away. Let the silence hang in the air. Let Gabi be the one to break eye contact first.