Poltergeist Online
A businessman searches for spirits in his Zoom meeting.
Do you feel like you’re in a dead end job? Maybe none of it matters, and you’re just a ghost in the machine?
Corporate grunt Franklin definitely feels that way when he's stuck on a Zoom call with boss Lamb. Especially when Lamb blows off the August inventory, and starts joking about urban myths and ghosts instead.
According to him, ghosts “mess up internet connections”. To prove it, he asks Franklin to step away from the computer and turn off the lights. That’s the way to “sneak up on ghosts” he claims.
LAMB
Sorry. Our connection sucks.
FRANKLIN
All the time this happens.
LAMB
You know why, right?
Franklin shrugs.
LAMB
The server's clogged with dead fuckers and poltergeists.
Franklin half-chuckles, picks at the edge of a spreadsheet.
LAMB
Honest to God.
Their souls get sucked into the ethernet and they glitch shit up.
If you look quick, you can see 'em.
You have to do what your boss says, right? So Franklin humors him. But when things quickly go awry, Franklin’s all the way across the internet… so what can he do to help?
Poltergeist is a quick horror that goes for classic scares, set to an all-too-familiar Zoom meeting. Sure, advances in communication are great – but do we ever really know who we’re talking to on the other end?
But here’s what we know for sure: Poltergeist requires just two actors in easy to get locations. It’s a script that wouldn’t be a “nightmare” to shoot, one that’s sure to get praise – and jumps!