FINAL TREATMENT

 

THE SCHITZ: Treatment

 

The film begins with the entire screen opening up in pitch black and we hear absolute silence. The purpose behind this silence is to create and build up tension. Title cards appear with white bold letters called, “THE SCHITZ”

 

 Then the first thing we hear is a non diegetic voice taunting someone in the background. We can then see a long shot of a boy’s back with messy hair style. He’s wearing a white long sleeve shirt. 

 

He is sitting upright on his bedside. A shot following the boy’s hand opening a drawer on his bedside table. Close up on the hand holding the medication. We could add in maybe a close up on the label as well. The medication or prescription for patients with schizophrenia. We then hear the voice talking to him again as he gets up “You don’t need those. It’s going to take hell lot more than that to shut me up. Does your mum know about this or did you buy those yourself?” 

 

He stares out the window and sees a mysterious figure peering outside his house. He tries to make out who he is and starts contemplating. He’s seen him before on a number of occasions. His mother all of a sudden comes in not knowing. She asks him who she’s talking to and he says no one. She tells him that breakfast is ready. He eats his scrambled whilst the voice tells him it tastes like a piece of shit. Vince constantly thanks his mother for the breakfast, to keep him from saying anything horrible. His little sister constantly asks him who was he talking to and Vince lies to her about seeing a film.

 

As he waits for the bus, he sees the mysterious looking man from a far. He has messy hair, a long beard, ragged clothes, eyes. He looks homeless. Vince sees him everyday. He looks at Vince, slowly waves at him and walks towards him. Vince frightened, then walks away. Deciding he will have to walk, rather stay for the bus and let this mysterious man interact with him.

 

Due to walking all the way to school, Vince arrives late. As he bursts through the door and immediately disrupts the lesson. Establishing shot of the entire class staring at Vince, to make him look insignificant. You can hear quiet murmurs and whispers among the students. The teacher gives the boy a look of disappointment and asks Vince the reason of his lateness. Vince then hesitates as we then hear the voice keep offering Vince sarcastic and rude responses to say, which causes his response to delay. Close up of his worried eyes as sound of the voice builds up, as if he can hear nothing else. Vince then hesitates and stares at the teacher blankly. The teacher, who has had enough, tells him to find a seat to sit down and try to catch up with the lesson. So Vince goes around looking for a seat. The students will have to share some space so he can sit with them. The teacher then carries on with his lesson with his back turned. 

 

Point of view shot of students looking at him in a scared, creeped out, unpleasant way. This shows that in school, he often gets ostracised by the other students. Every school day, the students question his strange behaviour and start spreading rumours about him having demons inside his head. They give him a nickname which he really does not like to be called, “Schizo.” He can hear their whispers, “ugh, not on your life, Schizo,” “Why don’t you sit next to your demons, weirdo.” “Occupied, Schizo.”

Until one student, Sally, sympathises with him and his mental conditions offers him a seat. Sally, is the only student in school and probably in the entire school, that sympathises with him. She often tries to make friends with him and offers help whenever he needs it. Sally then volunteers as she shuffles to right and offers Vince some space so he can sit next to her. She tells him what page they are on. 

 

The teacher writes a difficult algebra math problem and asks for a volunteer. The voice then dares him to volunteer. Vince says no, so the voice makes him. Close up shot on his finger tapping on the desk. Vince stares confusingly at this because he is not doing it himself. The voice is. The voice is controlling him. Vince mutters to the voice to stop controlling him. All of a sudden Vince lifts his hand straight into the air, against his own will. Vince tries to drag his hand down with The teacher then sees Vince. Below is their conversation.

 

“Ah Vince, trying to make up for your lateness are you? Alright, let’s see if you can work this out.”

“What, but I’m not volunteering.”

“Yes you are, I believe you’ve had your hand up.”

“But I didn’t mean to. It’s not me, sir, I swear.”

 

Vince’s hand keeps rising up and he keeps restraining it with his other hand.This makes him look even more strange. The students begin to snicker at the sight. Vince then finally gives in. As he goes up to the chalk board and takes the chalk. He stares at the equation and tries concentrates. As soon as he puts the chalk to board, he then draws a long diagonal line. This was not his intention, he is being controlled again by an unknown force. He then fights over the chalk, causing him to scribble over the equation on the board. The entire class laugh at him except of course, Sally. 

Vince is sentenced to the principle’s office. As he nervously waits outside the waiting room, he hallucinates and sees a jazzy looking man wearing a top hat, a suit, and holding a cane. He starts singing whilst waving his cane around singing the chorus of Turn It Off by the Book of Mormon. 

 

As he talks to the principle about the incident which occurred, Vince sees the hallucination going through the principle’s book shelf. Vince keeps staring at the hallucination and what he is doing.

The principle is then called to do something so he leaves. Vince then charges at the hallucination. The hallucination wants to look for his filing cabinet to find his private profile. That way they, he can know what the staff think of him/ his records, etc. 

 

The principle then catches him and gets kicked out of his office.

 

Vince is in the bathroom and he begins a conversation with the voice inside his head. He then hallucinates a duplicate of himself. Only evil and more confident, he then begins to fight the hallucination maybe in the mirror. Then realises there is another person in the cubicle who then says, "Why are you talking to yourself, you freak?" with really puts him down, embarrassed. He quickly runs out in the halls bumping into people. He is in panic and shock. He then bumps into Sally who tries to console him, later about the whole incident but the voice keeps sabotaging his chances of speaking or even listening to her. Vince then lashes out at the voice, "Leave me alone, I don't have to listen to what you have to say!" but not at the girl. He also smashes his fist at the locker, they were both standing by.

Later we see him standing outside his home, the man from before arrives. Tells him he's from the future. He tells him that he needs to do something about the voice or he will hurt the people that love him and he’ll live a horrible life.

 

His mum tells him that he is in big trouble as his principle called and she also finds the pills inside his drawer. She demands to know what is going on. A hallucination then appears and stands with the mum and echoes what his mother says. Vince’s little sister arrives and Vince all of a sudden snaps which shocks his sister. Vince then rushes upstairs. 

 

Vince realises that when he listens to the voice, he doesn't only bring harm to himself but to the  people around him as well. His friends, his family and everyone around him. Vince goes up on the roof to commit suicide, but the voice in his mind then whispers, "If you do it, that means that I've won." 

 

Vince then replies back, "I'd rather let you win than keep listening to you for the rest of my life.” 

Sally then catches him up on the roof and calls him down. Vince then tells her that he has to do this because he’s evil and he will hurt people if he doesn’t. He explains his mental condition, Sally talks him down and he is sent to hospital.

 

 

Later

 

Vince then gets treatment he needs for his upcoming mental illness. A couple of months later, we see him sitting up on a hospital bed. He has a visitor it’s Sally and his mum and little sister. Vince’s condition becomes better, more confident. His voice begins to speak less and less.

 

“Look, Vince, I may not know what it’s like to have a mind like yours,” Sally says, “But we all have those sorts of voices inside our heads that tells us to do crazy things. That doesn’t always mean we have to listen to them.”

 

Vince spots the man from before who is now clean shaven, wearing a suit and clean clothes. The man smiles at Vince. Vince smiles back. This shows that Vince’s future heads in the right direction. Not the perfect one as he is not cured, but still bright.

 

Sally looks behind her, puzzled, and sees nothing.

“Who are you smiling at?” 

 

“No one, Sally, just myself.”