Sum of Existence

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• 2005
• 1 hr 26 mins
• Suspense, Drama

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LIZ MURPHY is a normal teenager. Goes to school, has friends, has enemies. Has parents, MACK and KAREN. While she may not come from a wealthy family, they struggle through, and do care for each other. But Liz also has the unwanted attention of a stalker, ALEX MILLER, an orderly at the hospital who's wife has just left him. Against the backdrop of her unemployed father's struggles with her mother's newly ended affair, Liz is attacked and raped, and left to die. Rescued and brought to hospital, she is unable to deal with the assault, and tries to kill herself. Seeing no other solution, the parents enlist the help of Dr. JULIET KING, young and ambitious psychiatrist, who uses a new therapy to cure Liz. It is not revealed as to what the therapy is... Two months later, and Liz seems fine, believing that she was in a coma for two months in hospital, and that the scars on her wrists are the attacker's attempts to kill her. But all around her, the people who knew about the rape are still dealing with it. Her best friend, MICHELLE YORK, still blames herself, as she didn't walk the whole way home with Liz. Her mother and father struggle with what happened to their daughter, as their marriage falls apart. While Mack buries his feelings, avoiding confrontation, Karen lashes out as she fails to cope with the changes in Liz. Alex, angered that the hypnosis means his victim will not suffer and remember him for the rest of her life, sets his sights on Juliet, pretending to be traumatised by the sight of Liz when she was brought into the hospital. Juliet believes he is perfect for the therapy. As she continues to treat him, she slowly falls in love with him, something she has done with several prior patients... and Alex knows this. Alex also kidnaps, SARAH, the young actress who played Liz in a recreation of the crime, hoping Liz would see it on the news and remember who her attacker was. But with those around her protecting her, Liz never sees anything. Meanwhile, Liz suffers nightmares and flashbacks, freezing up when a boy at school flirts with her. But she doesn't remember any of it the next day. Her mother, believing the hypnosis has fundamentally changed her daughter, lashes out at her when she behaves like a normal teenager, inadvertently blaming her for what happened. Liz, shattered by this betrayal, tries to kill herself, and this returns her to hospital. As the sub-conscious reasserts the true memories on the fake ones, Liz has a series of fits, hitting and injuring the nurses trying to help her. For her safety and that of the staff, she is strapped to the bed. For her, this is terrifying as one minute she knows why she's there, but the next, she is a frightened child with no idea why she being restrained. Juliet, knowing that Liz's brain is destroying itself, removes the hypnotic block, making Liz aware of the reality of the assault. Liz finally gets home, still recovering, but wanting time away from her parents, who are 'hovering round her like she's gonna flip out'. She persuades them that she and Michelle can take care of themselves for a weekend, and they head to a local hotel, to talk through their own problems. Alex decides to finish his quest to destroy Liz. He pretends that Juliet's hypnotherapy has worked on him. He fools her into playing a kinky game with him, rendering her unable to stop him as he torments her for arrogance to assume she could control the human mind, accusing her of stealing Liz from him. Throwing her in the boot of his car, he drives to Liz's house, knocks out Michelle, and so starts a game of cat and mouse between Alex and Liz. Michelle and Juliet free themselves, chasing after the other, leading to a devastating final confrontation between them; where hypnosis is not all it seems.