MYSTIFIELD: THE TV SERIES (1 HOUR DRAMA)

MYSTIFIELD is an unproduced TV series that yearns to be on a network or cable channel to connect with the largest possible audience.

The tag? Zombies are people too.

In a nutshell:

A teenager named Ned, living in a small Midwestern town called Mystifield, falls in love with a girl named Nastasia, and gives her a kiss. He knew she was a zombie, but he kissed her anyway-- and now he’s one too.

She looks kind of like Fairuza Balk, which might explain it:

Sorry Fairuza. (She's going to sue us now.)


The World:

Contemporary time in a parallel universe where everything is the same, and everything is different.

We're asking (please?) you to forget what you know about “the living dead.” We're re-writing the rules, for a brand new flavor: No Halloween-mask zombies here. They look much more human-- at worst, like tired and depressed homeless people, with ashen skin and white pupils, and maybe a missing limb.

In this world they’re considered mildly dangerous pests by day-- the sun burns their skin and they’re blinded by sunlight, so their pretty ineffectual. Cities and towns are protected by laser fences that turn on automatically as the sun goes down. Zombies are more dangerous then, but still, this isn’t your organized army of the dead. They’re scattered across the countryside, some “living” together, some drifting. And periodic purges keep the population down.

Necrosia (the disease that turns people into zombies) is transmitted by skin-to-skin contact, and if you get it you’re considered dead and gone, worthy of a funeral and tears, and a symbolic interment. The fact that your “corpse” is walking around is kind of disgusting, and not discussed by decent folks.

Here’s how you know if your friend’s been “touched”: his voice gets hoarse and raspy, his skin goes pale gray, he wears a lot of clothing and sunglasses to protect himself from sunlight, he starts to smell bad, and if you make him take his sunglasses off, you’ll see that his pupils are white at the center.

If he doesn’t eat some living or recently-deceased flesh soon, then his thought-process slows down to almost nothing. That’s why they’re called “mumblers.” And if your friend doesn’t get exterminated, after a few years he’s got a lot of cuts and gashes, because their wounds never heal. On the up-side, he stops aging. More down-side though-- his bones and flesh are fragile. Sex is a delicate thing.

Zombies call humans “pinkies,” and those who eat regularly don’t deserve the term “mumblers”-- they’ve been able to maintain their smarts and evade the purges. They’re bitter about their lot-- but what are you gonna do? Attack your family and former friends?

Necrosia entered the human population around 1979. So far, all medical research has been fruitless, though (as with cancer) expensive quack cures are available. Eventually the world just gave up, and decided that living with zombies was do-able. Interestingly, every once in a while someone who’s been touched has a resistance to Necrosia and doesn’t develop the usual symptoms. But they may be carriers.


Some of the characters:

Ned: 16, gangly, handsome, draws really well, loves comic books, wears a biker jacket, kind of an outsider at school, and able to resist the urge to conform.

Nastasia: “Nasty.” Forever 17, beautiful-- if you like zombies. Italian (a foreign exchange student), angry about her lot in death.

Reverend Overton: Tall, imposing, charismatic, believes that zombies are Satan’s puppets.

Sara Overton: His daughter. Hot. A skateboarder. Not that impressed by dad’s shtick, but loves him just the same. When he was still a “pinkie,” Ned had an unrequited crush on her.

Mrs. Baker: Ned’s mom. An artist and single parent with a full-time day job and two kids, whom she loves above all else, but does she have time to be a parent? A little.

Crispin: Ned’s sister. Smart. Maybe too smart. 14 and strange.

Max: Permanently 21, cuz he’s a zombie, part of a clique that lives with Nasty in an abandoned water tower outside of Mystifield. A fun-loving sociopath.

The Professor: Ned’s dad. “Crossed” when Ned was 8. Rather than explain that his father is a zombie, Mrs. Baker told Ned he died. It was a lousy marriage anyway.

James Fuggs: 17. Lives in an orphanage, works part-time at the local zombie disposal unit, burning up zombies, whom he considers “garbage.”


Episode 1: Teenage Ned discovers that zombies-- those hated and feared denizens beyond the town’s laser fence-- have hopes and dreams, fears and fantasies, just like he does.

Read Episode 1 here!

Episode 2: Ned meets a group of teenage zombies who “live” beyond the town fence-- including Max, who wants to destroy all humans. Ned falls in love with a beautiful zombie named Nastasia.

Episode 3: Afraid to touch Nastasia for fear of becoming a zombie himself, Ned consults Reverend Overton about whether the creatures are good or evil. Overton’s beautiful daughter Sara is interested in Ned.

Episode 4: While exploring the region beyond the fence, Ned meets the Professor, a zombie who turns out to be his father.

Episode 5: Some of Mystifield’s teenagers develop a dangerous fascination with the “living dead” and begin to emulate them.

Click here to go the Elyria Pictures home page.