“A paranoid veteran, a demonic billionaire, and a government kill squad trapped together in a Mississippi mega-storm — The Z is a darkly satirical psychological thriller that asks who is truly sane in a system designed to destroy its own.“
KEYWORDS: screenplay, psychological thriller, horror, Lucifer, Marine Corps, Psy Ops, healthcare reform
135 pages 6x9 Trade book Available as a Paperback, PDF book, or ebook Read a 15-page preview at Blurb.com
About the Book
When the richest man in America decides a paranoid veteran is a loose end worth eliminating, he sends a team of government “Collection Agents” into the teeth of a Mississippi mega-storm — and straight into the most dangerous place any of them have ever been: the mind of Zajax.
The Z is a darkly satirical psychological thriller screenplay from William H. Clark II, set in Vicksburg, Mississippi, during a catastrophic weather event. Zajax — a Force Recon Marine, dishonorably discharged after a botched black-ops rescue mission — has barricaded himself in his home, convinced that “Hell Care,” a predatory dystopian healthcare initiative bankrolled by the demonic billionaire El Ron Luzifer, is coming for him. He may not be wrong.
As the storm rages and the agents close in, the line between Zajax’s paranoid delusions and terrifying reality collapses entirely. In a savage irony worthy of Kafka, the agents sent to neutralize a “madman” are the ones who slowly lose their grip on sanity — while Zajax sharpens into something lethal, lucid, and righteous. The Z is a searing indictment of the V.A., billionaire power, and the America that discards its warriors.
Target Audience
- Screenplay readers, film industry professionals, and independent producers
- Fans of dark psychological thrillers and speculative satire
- Veterans’ fiction readers drawn to PTSD and military trauma narratives
- Audiences of Clark’s prior political and cultural works
- Adult literary collections with an interest in surrealist or conspiracy-driven drama
Key Themes
- Trauma and subjective reality — PTSD and schizophrenia portrayed as a lens that may distort, but also sharply illuminate, the truth
- Predatory healthcare — the “Hell Care” initiative as a savage satire of the American medical-industrial complex and V.A. system failures
- Billionaire as villain — El Ron Luzifer embodying the unchecked, quasi-supernatural power of extreme wealth over individual lives
- The disposable veteran — military service, moral ambiguity of black-ops warfare, and the institutional betrayal of soldiers
- Humanity under pressure — the central irony that the “sane” agents dehumanize while the “mad” veteran becomes more fully human
- Conspiracy and institutional distrust — government surveillance, classified operations, and bureaucratic predation as existential threats to the individual
Purchase the Book
Please visit the book’s landing page on Blurb.com for a 15-page preview and options to purchase the paperback or PDF.
Further Reading
Visit the author’s website Inviticus.com for more screenplays (synopses, one-pagers, pitch deck, reviews), including the latest drafts.
Further Reading
Visit the author’s website Inviticus.com for more screenplays (synopses, one-pagers, pitch deck, reviews), including the latest drafts.