We’ve Been Waiting

Ben Brooks, Undeterred Pictures

Language: English

Based On: Original Screenplay

Project Type: Feature Film (Scripted)

Genre: Horror

Stage of Development: Packaging

Estimated Length (minutes): 90mins

Total Budget: > $2M

Percent Confirmed: 0%

Currency: $ CAD

What is this project seeking?

Financing, Distribution, Sales Agent, Co-production Partner

Logline:

A Senate candidate and his wife fake a pregnancy to hide a surrogate birth—then learn their visibly pregnant surrogate was never impregnated.

Synopsis:

Edward Wilson, 40, is a rising U.S. Senate candidate whose public image is built around faith, family and the apparent pregnancy of his wife, Claire. After years of infertility, the couple announces they are stepping away from the campaign to prepare for the birth of their long-awaited child.

At a secluded country inn, Claire removes the pregnancy prosthetic she has been wearing for months. Their real child is being carried by Maria Vincent, a surrogate due to give birth within days, accompanied by Ruth Sampson, an older, highly capable midwife.

Then Claire calls the fertility clinic and learns something impossible: no embryo was ever transferred. The procedure was cancelled after the embryo failed to survive.

Maria is pregnant anyway.

Claire wants facts. Maria has stopped looking for them. After months of fear and uncertainty, she has come to believe the pregnancy happened for a reason. Ruth, calm and medically credible, reinforces that belief without ever seeming fanatical.

Edward initially shares Claire’s skepticism. But after praying beside Maria and learning soon afterward that his political opponent has suddenly died, he begins seeing providence where Claire sees coincidence.

As Maria goes into labor, the inn becomes increasingly claustrophobic. The baby is born healthy and completely ordinary, but the adults’ need to explain him becomes dangerous. Maria believes Claire has a role she cannot simply refuse. Ruth begins deciding what everyone else is allowed to know, believe and do. Edward, increasingly seduced by the idea that events have meaning, stops protecting Claire from them.

Maria dies during a sudden medical crisis Ruth can explain, but Claire no longer trusts her. Ruth drugs Claire, removes her phone and keys, and leaves the newborn beside her as though the future has already been decided.

Claire escapes into the night, only to be struck by a passing car. The driver stops to help. Ruth arrives through the fog, looking exactly like a trusted medical professional—until she kills the stranger and silences Claire.

Weeks later, Edward wins the Senate seat and tells the public that his son was born healthy and Claire died soon afterward.

Both statements are true.

The film never explains Maria’s pregnancy. It does not need to. The horror lies in what certainty permits people to do.

Contact Information: thebenbrooks@gmail.com