The Bedlams
Marty O’Brien, Midnight Light
Language: English
Based On: Original Screenplay
Project Type: Feature Film (Scripted)
Genre: Horror
Stage of Development: 2nd Draft of Script
Estimated Length (minutes): 90
Director: Marty O'Brien
Director Bio:
Marty O’Brien is a Producer/Director/Cinematographer based in Whitehorse, Yukon. In 2018, his award winning debut film; Camera Trap, screened at Hot Docs as well as 15 international film festivals. His follow up film, The Arctics, won the multicultural award at Yorkton Film Festival in 2021 and was nominated for Best Direction. In 2026, Marty produced his first scripted feature film, From Me To You, which wrapped production in the summer after being awarded Telefilm’s Talent To Watch program in 2025. He is the co-founder of Midnight Light, the Whitehorse based production company he owns with his partner Naomi Mark. Marty constantly challenges himself, seeking new and dynamic ways to tell immersive and unique stories.
Proposed or Confirmed Talent:
Marty O'Brien (writer/director), Braden Brickner (Script Editor), Hailey Birnie (Producer)
Total Budget: $750,000
Percent Confirmed: 0%
Currency: $ CAD
List names of confirmed partners:
Canadian Media Fund, Yukon Media Development, NorthwesTel
What is this project seeking?
Financing, Distribution, Co-production Partner
Logline:
In an attempt to abandon their troubled drummer at his estranged uncle’s remote ranch, small town Yukon band ‘The Bedlams’ become entrapped in a dangerous cult.
Synopsis:
Twenty-two year old ANT wants her damaged cousin OWEN out of her life. Owen is the drummer in Ant’s metal band, The Bedlams, and has made it impossible for the small town pariahs to get gigs. After a horrific incident leaves their grandpa dead, Owen is determined to tell their hermit UNCLE ADAM about the loss. Ant, and fellow bandmates SLOANE and JESSE see an opportunity to ditch Owen at Adam’s remote property before they finally leave the Yukon for a fresh start in Toronto. The band travel in their gig bus to Adam’s property by the Yukon’s southern border and discover a semi-conscious hypothermic young man in the shallows of a vast lake. With the half drowned man in desperate need of medical attention, the band are forced to enter Adam’s property together to seek help. At the ranch, a strange community of transient seasonal workers tending to the vast array of crops, take the semi conscious man into a trailer in their rustic compound to sleep off the drugs he supposedly took. Everyone but Ant becomes entranced by the hypnotic beauty of the surrounding wilderness. Adam arrives from the lake by boat and takes Owen to a large, wooded island at the centre of the lake as the feel-good-hippy veil of the community dissolves. Ant and Jesse discover Sloane has been drugged and leave in a panic, only to find a violent stow away on the gig bus. As night falls, the workers entrap Ant, Sloane, Jesse and their stowaway on the gig bus as a chaotic standoff with threats from outside and within unfolds. Adam introduces Owen to the violent inhabitants held captive on the island; a group of damaged family members of the workers from the ranch. Ant learns of Owen’s potential fate and is used as a bartering tool by the workers in an exchange for their family members on the island. As Ant finally faces her deranged uncle in a bloody confrontation on the lake, she is presented with a choice; pursue her own freedom or rescue Owen.
Contact Information: marty@midnightlight.ca
