Organized around the four-act structure. See Structure for the framework. Beats are working notes — to be refined in script development.
Act 1 — Arrival / Transition
Beat
Description
Opening image
Staten Island apartment in move-out state — their life before
Relationship baseline
Kendrie and Charlize in easy, warm domestic rhythm
The decision / transit
Moving toward the Bronx house; the ferry; the arrival
First look at the house
Exterior — ordinary; resist the ominous establishing shot
The family
Ground floor; Melissa, Alexis (briefly), the Uncle (who arrives and leaves)
Kendrie’s first notice
She registers him leaving; she doesn’t name it
First basement visit
She goes down once, briefly; feels something; comes back up; says nothing
Act 1 close
The house at night, first night; Kendrie doesn’t sleep well; Charlize does
Act 2 — Emotional Occupation
Beat
Description
Settling in
Domestic routines establish; the house becomes familiar-unfamiliar
Sleep pattern disrupts
Kendrie’s consistent mild sleep disruption; she doesn’t name it as such
First communication attempt
Kendrie tries to tell Charlize something is off; Charlize offers rational explanation
Charlize’s love
A scene of genuine warmth between them — do not forget the relationship
The Uncle’s second departure
Kendrie notices the pattern; catches Charlize noticing her noticing
Alexis deepens
First real conversation between Kendrie and Alexis; the space is opened
Second communication attempt
Kendrie tries again; Charlize’s dismissal costs more this time
First fracture
Something closes between them that had been open
Act 2 close
Kendrie in the house at night, more awake than asleep; the house very quiet
Act 3 — Escalation
Beat
Description
Alexis chooses Kendrie
Alexis makes the decision to tell her
The telling
Alexis shares the full history — both deaths, same room, years apart, she found them both
Kendrie receives it
Without dramatizing; she recognizes the name for what she’s been feeling
Kendrie descends
Alone, with knowledge — the long basement scene
After the descent
Something in Kendrie has shifted; she is more settled, not less
Charlize doesn’t know
The information has not reached Charlize yet; this gap is now a fracture
Charlize begins to feel
She loses access to her own certainty; cannot explain her fear
The transfer of knowledge
Kendrie tells Charlize what Alexis told her — but second-hand; the scene is different
Charlize’s break
She cannot rationalize; she is frightened; she does not have language for this
Act 3 close
The couple at their most separated — by knowledge, by fear, by different registers
Act 4 — Lingering
Beat
Description
Aftermath
Whatever crisis the third act arrived at — what remains
The park scene
Outside the house; in air; the most honest conversation possible
The mirror scene
Kendrie, or both; the long look; the question of who she is inside this
Return
Back to the house; the decision of whether to stay
Final image
The house, exterior, from the street, after the characters have left the frame
Notes
The beat sheet is a skeleton. The scenes that matter most in this film — the long basement scene, the telling, Charlize’s break — are scenes the script must develop from the inside. They cannot be written from structure. They are written from character.