Shutters Down

Microbudget Thriller

Status: Option expired - Available

Pitch

When a demoralised checkout clerk finds herself trapped in the corner shop with a corrupt cop and a desperate criminal, her choice of whom to trust will be the difference between life and death.

Key selling points

Tense thriller in a single location in Midlands
Three strong diverse characters, with a female protagonist.
The story has no time cuts

Short synopsis

Mela is a checkout clerk who has to deal with the regular visits of corrupt cop PC Baxter, who extorts money from her uncle´s corner shop. When the shop is robbed by an unstable young ex-convict, Daryl, she manages to hide in the storeroom with the key to the cash register around her neck, and a game of cat and mouse begins, only to be interrupted by a BOOM in the distance from a nearby demolition, creating a cloud of dust so thick it makes the streets unpassable. Now the two are forced to work together to secure the shop, lowering the metal shutters and isolating themselves from the rest of the world.

A sudden BANG against the shutters shows that someone is out there. They raise the shutters just enough to drag the choking, dust-covered lost soul into the store. It is PC Baxter, who starts a brutal confrontation with Daryl in which the cop gets wounded. Mela initially agrees to a deal with Daryl, giving them both a second chance, but as the air clears and he squeezes under the shutters to freedom, she lowers them down onto him, pinning him to the ground to await justice.