Logline:
After discovering she's adopted, a college student & her punk rock best friend break into a strange library for answers- and are forced to untangle a trap set before they were even born.
For fans of…
Slow-burn suspense and intelligent scares.
A single-location reality-bending mystery in a confined space. Hidden rooms, emergency-lit stacks, forgotten archives.
Atmosphere over gore. Stomach plunging reveals, not torture devices.
A cast of characters oozing with personality and intrigue. Is Kefir the young street magician what he appears? What exactly is Edmund the librarian doing inside after hours?
Act 1:
When Charlotte's parents are brutally attacked, police reveal a secret that shatters her world: she was adopted. Obsessive, Charlotte drags her best friend Grace into an investigation of her origins.
The public library uncover disturbing fragments- edited newspaper records, a mysterious church fire, a woman who looks exactly like Charlotte.
Act 2:
The library closes for Memorial Day weekend, and they're barred from the Restricted Archives without a Historical Society pass.
Charlotte convinces Grace to hide inside after hours and steal the keys. They break in—but trigger a building-wide lockdown, sealing them in the darkened stacks.
Books fly off shelves in impossible patterns. Emergency lights flicker. A gaunt librarian prowls the corridors, guarding secrets buried for thirty years.
And then there's Kefir… the charismatic stranger performing magic tricks that shouldn't be possible, who knows Charlotte's name before she says it and seems to have been waiting for her all along.
Act 3:
The night spirals into psychological warfare: illusions that blur reality, Grace vanishing into hidden crawlspaces, unsettling card tricks… Charlotte discovers the library was built on top of a sealed church.
Descending into THE CHAMBER beneath Special Collections, she finds a stone altar and the remnants of a secret society obsessed with resurrection.
The devastating truth: someone orchestrated every clue, every trap, every revelation. Charlotte's estranged family member has spent decades preparing, and her need for answers has led her into a nightmare designed specifically for someone who can't walk away from the truth.
One of them must die for the other to find peace…
But the ending isn’t what you’d expect from a typical horror film.
There is light at the end of the tunnel. Not everyone dies. Not everything stays broken.
This is horror with a beating heart. Themes of forgiveness (Charlotte forgiving her brother in his final moments), acceptance (of truths that can't be changed), processing inherited trauma (cycles can be broken), and redefining what "family" truly means.
The film asks: Is blood thicker than water? Or is chosen family, maintained connection, and strategic compassion the inheritance that actually matters?
THE LIBRARY doesn't end in nihilistic darkness. It ends with two young women, alive, walking into daylight together. The horror was real. The scars will remain. But survival, especially together, is its own kind of victory.
World Building & Lore:
What makes this movie different from typical horror fare?
Kefir, the street magician turned antagonist.
David Blaine intensity meets Criss Angel theatricality, but weaponized by childhood trauma and obsessive belief.
Books fly off shelves in choreographed chaos. Is it wires? Magnets? Genuine supernatural power?
Card tricks become psychological torture. "Pick a card” becomes a way to build trust and sow doubt a the same time. Luring the girls into a web of confusion.
The library itself is his stage, rigged over decades with hidden mechanisms, remote triggers, and theatrical flourishes that blur illusion and reality.
Tone & Visual Style:
Main Location: Messiah University Library
(Kindly donated by the university, in return we’ll give their students internship opportunities on set)
The Messiah University library provides 90 % of our locations within one building: grand entrance staircase, sunken lower-level stacks, computer section, staff breakrooms, office spaces, and atmospheric corridors.
We'll transform sections into Special Collections (locked rare book room) and shoot night-for-night to achieve genuine after-hours atmosphere with emergency lighting.
“The Chamber” will be build on a soundstage in Lancaster since it contains multiple special effects like liquid dripping from the ceiling and large amounts of smoke.
Comparable Films & Target Audience:
With a blend of atmosphere, mystery, and emotional stakes, The Library appeals to audiences who crave "elevated horror" cerebral scares over gore, character depth over body count.
The perfect film for young adults, horror enthusiasts, and fans of intelligent genre cinema.
The R-rating positions it alongside recent indie horror successes (Talk to Me, It Follows, The Invitation), while the microbudget model minimizes financial risk, opening doors for platform theatrical releases, streaming deals, and a low threshold for investor returns.
