A Film with Me in It

Mark, living in a basement flat under his writer friend Pierce, struggles to find work while caring for his paralysed brother David. Sally, Mark's girlfriend, remains part of the household but overdue rent creates tension with landlord Jack. Mark's fear of eviction keeps him silent about the flat's dilapidated state.

Sally decides to end her strained relationship with Mark. She informs landlord Jack of the repairs needed and arranges to move out. This triggers a reckoning with the rent and the state of the flat.

The tension erupts when a bookshelf falls, killing Mark's dog. Mark witnesses the accident but cannot fix the mounting debt or danger. The incident marks the first deadly turn in the unraveling events.

While the living room scene worsens, the chandelier collapses, crushing David. The event devastates Mark and heightens the sense of impending disaster in the cramped flat. This tragedy pushes the situation from accident to murder-tainted crisis.

Jack appears to repair a high lightbulb atop a wobbly stool, but he falls and pierces his throat with his screwdriver. The landlord's death removes a barrier to Mark's survival and deepens the lies surrounding the flat. Mark watches as the consequences of neglect spiral out of control.

Pierce arrives and comes face to face with the corpses, and he panics. He realises the scale of what has happened and worries about being implicated. Mark's presence beside him anchors the moment as they confront the aftermath.

Mark and Pierce hide in the bathroom to avoid discovery, and Sally suddenly returns to the ruined flat. She confronts the carnage, and her reappearance forces the conspirators to improvise. The tense moment raises the stakes as their plan slowly begins to fail.

Sally discovers David's body, faints, and impales herself on Mark's clarinet stand, killing her. The deaths continue to multiply as Mark's world collapses around him. The event drives the survivors further into a web of evasion and fear.

Pierce formulates a plan to relocate Jack's body to an alternate location to avoid suspicion. Sally's father arrives and a police officer shows up due to a noise complaint. The mounting danger forces the conspirators to act.

Pierce panics and takes the officer hostage. He uses the hostage to stall, buying time to execute their cover-up. The decision intensifies the risk and tightens the noose around their plan.

Left unattended, the officer attempts to escape through a faulty window, but the window closes and crushes her head. The killing removes a potential witness and helps seal their alibi-fraught actions. The room becomes crowded with corpses as the conspiracy grows bolder.

Pierce and Mark prepare to dispose of the evidence by placing David, Sally, Jack, and the dog in his car and driving to a secluded area to explode it, leaving minimal forensic traces. Mark also contributes by staging his own death to mislead investigators. The violent plan shows how far they are willing to go.

Mark cuts his hair and is dressed as David, while the two attempt to pass Mark as his disabled brother with Pierce acting as his carer to provide an alibi. The deception is crucial to keeping their violent escape hidden from authorities. The mood is grim as the last real chance of evading suspicion fades.

Mark's agent rings with an attractive role offer, which he cannot accept while living as David. Meanwhile, Pierce directs a film to a script he wrote based on the tragic events. The pair convert their crimes into a form of art, bringing the nightmare into the public eye.

The story ends with the criminals attempting to maintain control over the situation, even as their actions have spiraled beyond repair. The film within a film mirrors the tragedy they created, leaving no clear escape from the consequences. The final image lingers on the idea that some horrors are better kept quiet.