Just Deserts

Synopsis

Just Desserts is a provocative and intense psychological thrilling horror that explores themes of gender power dynamics, revenge, and justice. The script uses two simple locations and three characters to fit any production’s budget. Fonda Muhammad, a successful author, seeks retribution against Peter Brooks, a once-powerful director who sexually abused her. The unique hook is Precious, a 20-year-old black female who provides comedy to a serious topic, and we don't realize she's a figment of Fonda's imagination until the nightmarish climax. The story is in the vein of the movie Hard Candy, with aspects of Fight Club

?Synopsis The ethnicity and ages of any of the three characters can be easily adjusted to fit your production company. Fonda Muhammad is a Black Muslim female in her mid-40s and the author of a best-selling novel criticizing the MeToo movement for failing to achieve real justice for abuse victims. Peter Brooks is an Oscar-winning director whose career was derailed by a series of sexual abuse allegations; despite his five Oscars, he is desperate for another chance. Directing Fonda's adaptation is his only hope to revive his career and remove the MeToo stigma. Fonda, aware of Peter's desperation, deliberately puts herself in control of the project.

Precious, Fonda's sidekick, is a cute, sharp-tongued 19-year-old black female who dresses in a retro style that gives her the look of a member of Destiny's Child. We are unsure if Precious is Fonda's daughter, sister, or intern, as their relationship is a secret until the end.

Fonda systematically works to reverse the power dynamic with Peter. She is very touchy-feely with Peter but talks to him as a subordinate. Fonda uses social media to pressure Peter by announcing that several Feminist, Black, and Muslim directors have approached her about purchasing her novel's rights. Precious assists Fonda in this plan, which is obviously about personal revenge for both of them, as Fonda has no intention of letting Peter direct her film. Fonda also uses his age as a detriment, making him prove he can think young in the same way he made her young age force her to feel she needed to do more twenty-five years ago.

Peter visits Fonda's apartment to share his vision for the movie, but Fonda and Precious have prepared a horrific revenge. Fonda persuades Peter to act out three intimate and erotic scenes from the script with her. Fonda then switches the roles, and she will take the male lead, Pierre Ruisseau, and Peter will play the female character, Serena Taylor. Precious assists Fonda throughout the day as they turn a desperate Peter into their submissive. They abuse him in the role-playing as they want him to feel the same degradation his sexually abused victims felt.

In the climax, Peter discovers Fonda has been talking to an invisible Precious that only Fonda sees. He thought she was talking to the cat all this time. Fonda reveals that her birth name is Precious Garrison, and Peter realizes he abused her when she was an aspiring young actress. Precious, Fonda, at age twenty, is a coping mechanism that Fonda uses to work through her post-traumatic stress of being sexually abused by Peter at Precious's age. ? Fonda videoed Peter's entire degrading day for her lasting revenge. That video is her leverage to torture Peter for the rest of his life, just like sexually abused women are tortured for theirs. Fonda also divulges that the French name Pierre Ruisseau translates to Peter Brooks in English. Thus, the book is about Peter's evil doings. In the last scene, Peter walks away, dazed and defeated, and Precious says goodbye to Fonda as they have come to peace with their past. Fonda no longer needs her coping mechanism to appear to her anymore. Fonda finally gave Peter his "just deserts." ?