Jo

An introverted, chubby, Japanese-American violinist named Jo finds herself day in and day out as being the quiet type and second rate among her musician peers. Days before the orchestra’s performance, Jo soon finds herself questioning her sanity while dealing with the pressure of the Director, Dr. Nicols and first chair nemesis, Bonny. Nightmares and weird sightings of spiders start to interfere with her work and things only get worse when Dr. Nicols begins to ridicule her in front of others and later seduce her in his office.

In between the struggle of keeping it together, Jo meets a new neighbor and friend named Rani. Rani is the opposite of Jo, she’s hip and loose and is an intern medical examiner at a morgue. During their first hangout, Rani learns that Jo was adopted from Japan, who was abandoned at birth at a forest. Jo knows nothing about her birth-parents.

Things take a horrific turn when the spiders begin to attack those around her who bring her harm. After being sexually assaulted by Dr. Nicols; he falls victim to a creepy spider known as the Joro-Spider and dies just the day before the final performance. Jo is also unaware that Bonny and Dr. Nicols were lovers and that Bonny witnessed his seduction on Jo before his untimely death.

With the stress of funding and future performances on the line, the board of the orchestra urges the show to go on without a hitch. Meanwhile, Detective Weaver begins his investigation of possible foul play and finds interesting information of how unnatural this attack was.

Jo, being close with her adoptive mother urges the truth to come out during a phone conversation in regards to her origin. Jo was discovered in the Aokigahara Forest known by the Japanese as the Suicide Forest. The man that discovered her was attempting to take his own life before he heard her infant cries. Horrified by the scene, the Suicidal Man later tells the authorities of where to find the infant. They soon find baby Jo in a spider nest next to her dead mother dressed in traditional Geisha attire, sucked dry of her fluids like an insect caught in a web. However, baby Jo remained healthy and untouched by the spiders.

After the orchestra is introduced to the new, young and handsome director named Kevin. Jo falls in love. Right before the show starts, Bonny vents her jealous anger on Jo in a back alley only to become another victim to the spiders. This time with Brown-Recluses that leads Bonny off in a panic onto traffic where she is hit by a bus and dies. With the orchestra unaware of Bonny’s demise, Kevin is left to have Jo do Bonny’s solo where she then shines and is a favorite among the audience. Hearing her musical artistry, Kevin is now falling in love with Jo.

After Dr. Nicols and Bonny’s funeral, Detective Weaver further feels these attacks are not natural since they all involve Jo in some manner. Bonny’s best friend, Frankie also feels that Jo is responsible and begins to plot her revenge on Jo. Chemistry begins to grow intense for Jo and Kevin and they plan a trip for a weekend getaway. However, her plans become temporarily derailed when Frankie breaks and enter Jo’s apartment with a plan to kill her. But once again, the spiders attack and drag Frankie under Jo’s bed to feed.

Staying at a cabin in the middle of the woods, Jo and Kevin become more in love after he gives her a beautiful gift, a brand new violin. After losing her virginity, she wakes up to find that her spiders have killed Kevin and that her mental instability is now physiological, she is now changing into something monstrous. Overtaken by the spiders in the middle of the woods, she succumbs into a web made cocoon and emerges the next morning as a beautiful and seductive woman.

Detective Weaver seeks to question Jo further, but finds her neighbor/friend Rani instead and informs her of his further research. The Joro-Spider was actually named after a Yokai, a Japanese Demon named Jorogumo (Woman-Spider). They both soon discover that a putrid smell is emerging from Jo’s apartment and they find Frankie’s body under Jo’s bed in a terrible state, slowly being devoured by spiders.

The new, improved and unrecognizable Jo finds herself in Paris, adorned and loved by all for her beauty and musical talent.

This screenplay won FINALIST for 13 Horror and Semi-Finalist for Hollywood Talent Summit! In addition, featured as a Halloween Special for the podcast, Script Shop Show.