A wealthy Latina mother discovers her son’s demon is real—and that the family’s exorcist is using possession to control their dynasty.
Interested in this script?
Reach out to Lukas Kendall directly.
THE DEMONOLOGIST is a sharp, nasty, highly marketable possession thriller with a real point of view: a wealthy Latina mother discovers the family’s spiritual crisis is also a class war. It gives a lead actress a killer role, an antagonist with real charisma, and a contained production footprint that still plays big on screen.
Carol is a star-making lead role.
She’s glamorous, funny, maternal, socially fluent, and then forced into moral combat. That gives an actor a full-spectrum showcase: comedy, fear, seduction, denial, and finally ferocious agency.
Evidence from the script
Carol’s party-host poise, her Swiss chocolate ritual, her escalating suspicion, and her final decision to take control with the gun.
The premise weaponizes class and assimilation.
This is not just a possession movie; it’s about who gets absorbed into power and who gets erased by it. That gives the material a sharper cultural edge and a more memorable thematic identity than a standard exorcism story.
Evidence from the script
Andrew’s “buying in” language, the Paxtons’ wealth insulation, and the repeated pressure around Hayden’s family and money.
Andrew is a delicious antagonist.
He’s charming, worldly, funny, and terrifying in the same breath. That kind of role attracts actors because it offers authority, menace, wit, and a late-story power reveal that keeps expanding.
Evidence from the script
His first warm reunion with Carol, his “foremost demonologist” pitch, and the final admission that the demon works for him.
The house is a pressure-cooker set.
The Paxton home is not just a backdrop; it’s a social machine where money, race, sex, religion, and family hierarchy all collide. That makes the movie feel producible while still feeling big and socially specific.
Evidence from the script
The party, the kitchen confrontations, the office, the master bedroom, the garage, and the driveway showdown all play off the same central location.
The script has a strong trailer spine.
It builds from domestic unease to supernatural revelation to violent escalation to a final moral reversal. That kind of escalation is easy to market and gives the film a clean audience promise.
Evidence from the script
Hayden’s injury, the exorcism reveal, the FBI call, the road escape, the climax in the driveway, and the final possession tease.
The tone is sharply ownable.
The script mixes upscale satire, family melodrama, and occult horror without losing its voice. That tonal blend makes it feel more like a pointed social nightmare than a generic genre exercise.
Evidence from the script
Carol’s social banter, Beverly’s cutting lines, the Swiss chocolate motif, and the sudden body-horror escalations.
The ending leaves a haunting afterimage.
Even after the apparent victory, the final possession beat suggests the corruption can survive in new forms. That gives the movie a memorable sting and a franchise-capable shadow without needing to announce itself as one.
Evidence from the script
D.J.’s final Andrew-inflected behavior and Carol’s last, uneasy recognition that the threat may not be gone.
The parts inside this script and why an actor would chase them.
Carol Paxton
Lead · Female · late 30s/early 40s · Latina-presenting
Carol is the social center of the house: polished, funny, maternal, and deeply practiced at making a world of privilege feel warm. She’s a woman who has spent years translating herself to survive, and the script turns that survival skill into both her greatest strength and her deepest trap. She can host a party, soothe a teenager, spar with a matriarch, and then slowly realize the entire family system is built on a lie. Her arc is about moving from accommodation to authorship.
Why an actor would want this part
This is the kind of role actors chase because it starts with charm and ends with moral force. There’s comedy in her social ease, pain in her compromises, and real catharsis when she finally chooses action over appeasement. The part lives in the same performance space as Frances McDormand in FARGO and Toni Collette in HEREDITARY: a woman whose emotional intelligence becomes a weapon.
Andrew Collinsworth
Lead · Male · 70s playing ageless · English accent
Andrew is the family’s elegant poison: a cultivated, worldly fixer who speaks like a confidant and moves like a predator. He carries himself as if he’s above the mess, but the script keeps revealing that the mess is his business model. He’s seductive because he understands everyone’s pressure points, and terrifying because he treats human identity like something he can edit. He’s the kind of villain who can sit at a dinner table and still feel like the most dangerous person in the room.
Why an actor would want this part
This is a showcase for an actor who wants to play intelligence, menace, and control without ever raising his voice too much. The role has the delicious authority of a Ralph Fiennes or Christoph Waltz type of performance space, with the late-story physical deterioration adding a second act of vulnerability and rage.
D.J. Paxton
Lead · Male · 16-18 · mixed/ambiguous ethnicity
D.J. is the son everyone wants to define: soulful, talented, affectionate, and vulnerable to the seductions of status. He has real artistic feeling, but he’s also a teenager who can be pulled toward entitlement, performance, and the easy logic of the house he was raised in. The script gives him a split identity that’s emotionally legible and dramatically volatile, especially once possession and privilege start to blur together.
Why an actor would want this part
It’s a rare teen role with actual danger and interiority. The part lets a young actor play sweetness, confusion, menace, and musical charisma, with possession scenes that are physically and emotionally showy. It sits in the lane of the best corrupted-youth performances, where innocence and threat keep trading places.
Beverly Paxton
Supporting · Female · 70s · white
Beverly is the matriarch as social weapon: elegant, cutting, and completely comfortable in a hierarchy she helped build. She can sound like a hostess and a colonizer in the same sentence, which makes her both funny and chilling. She’s not just an obstacle; she’s the family’s cultural memory, and she knows exactly how the system works because she helped design it.
Why an actor would want this part
This is a juicy supporting role for an actor who likes playing polished cruelty with comic precision. It has the same kind of pleasure as a great prestige matriarch part: sharp lines, social dominance, and the chance to reveal the human cost beneath the poise.
Who would direct this, and who would buy it.
Why a director wants this
A director who wants to make horror feel socially specific, elegant, and mean.
The material rewards someone who can stage domestic spaces as battlegrounds and make class tension feel as frightening as the supernatural. It also gives a director room to balance glossy production design, controlled scares, and performance-driven reversals without losing the movie’s satirical bite.
Why a buyer wants this
$5-15M feature
Premium genre lane with elevated social satire
This is sized for a contained, actor-forward horror feature that can travel on premise, tone, and performance. The house-bound footprint keeps it efficient, while the class-and-possession hook gives it a sharper identity than a standard exorcism title.