Logline: With the world at war over a mysterious new oil, a troubled young painter discovers how to make his frightening creations come to life and address his miserable existence. Before long he’s forced to battle his personal demons to rescue the girl he loves and defend the private school of privileged teens that torments him.
Synopsis: Patrick is a joyless loner stuck in a middle class hell surrounded by the cruel and obnoxious “fortunate sons” that attend the nearby private school. Ever since his older brother was drafted to fight in the mining wars, he’s haunted by a reality where his mother works four jobs to enroll him in a school he hates, his step-father is a war vet brute, his uncle is an unemployed alcoholic who never returns a loan and his chances of qualifying for continuing education and avoiding getting drafted are as slim as his chances of getting laid. Fortunately, Patrick possesses a prodigious gift for painting. However, art isn’t encouraged in a world more in need of fresh bodies to feed the war machine than the fantastic and horrifying characters of Patrick’s imagination. For him, life is hardly worth the trouble, and when faced with the prospect of constant torment in the hellish halls of his new high school, he’s prepares to do something very permanent about it.
Then, when he accidentally stumbles upon an ancient magic directly connected to the precious crude that turns anyone exposed to it into murderous monsters, things suddenly take a mysterious and mind-blowing turn. His macabre creations are coming to life and are quite eager to take effective action on his pitiable circumstances, evident when one of them takes it upon itself to remove his bullying stepfather with a bit of creative violence. Soon after, Patrick learns how to control his new friends with the help of a brainy, fellow misfit who not only shares his hatred for their schoolmates, but who also holds the key to a budding romance with the mysterious red head that visits the school’s computer lab assigned to his charge. And when peace talks are announced that could see Patrick’s brother returned, almost overnight the artistic alchemist’s world seems to be changing for the better.
But in a power-hungry world where few can be trusted and nothing is what it seems, “better” quickly becomes “worse”. When Patrick’s brother’s unit is believed sacrificed in order to salvage the all-important mining operations on the same night his new romance goes bust, something snaps. No longer interested in cultivating his power to correct the problems in his life, Patrick refocuses his ire towards a plan to take revenge on the sons and daughters of those he feels are directly responsible for his never-ending pain. In keeping with the unexpected twists of his tortured existence, he finds himself in the middle of a plot involving a couple of unlikely adversaries with their own sinister plans for the school. To his horror, he realizes that if he doesn’t find a way to stop their potentially tragic scheme, he could put his family, his true love and his exasperating country in a situation where no amount of talent or magic can save them.
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