About Dead Friends Forever

Lily returns home to Savannah, Georgia, to attend her brother’s funeral. When she learns of the circumstances surrounding her brother’s apparent suicide, and of his obsession over their cousin Amelia who went missing 20 years earlier, she begins to question whether he committed suicide at all. She decides to stay with her Aunt Clara in the decrepit old plantation where she played as a child, and investigates both her brother’s death and Amelia’s decades-old disappearance.

Almost immediately a presence resembling Amelia begins to haunt her. At the same time, she begins to recall a few long-buried truths about her cousin: Amelia was a bully, and was more an enemy than a friend. As the haunting intensifies, Lily experiences “blank” hours, from which she awakens without any memory of what she did. She isn’t sure if Amelia’s apparition is possessing her body or if she’s losing her mind. Regardless, she’s determined to unlock the secrets behind her cousin’s and brother’s deaths. She continues digging into the past and becomes suspicious of both Amelia’s ultra-conservative mother, Clara, and Amelia’s African-American friend, Nate–both of whom may be keeping a terrible secret about the cause of Amelia’s disappearance.

Not sure who to trust, Lily follows the trail of her memories and clues, and unearths a secret trauma that lies at the root of the haunting–a heartless murder, and a racially-motivated betrayal that left Amelia thirsting to expose her killer. But the truth isn’t enough to satisfy the presence–Amelia also wants revenge.

Dead Friends Forever is a fascinating and intense ghost story that haunts on multiple levels. What makes this script so effectively disturbing is that it establishes a grounded sense of unease even removed from the supernatural. Clearly there was something untoward that happened here years ago that has not been forgotten, and there is intrigue and danger in finding out just what parts, Lily, Amelia, Nate, and Aunt Clara may or may not have played. It’s a complex plot full of surprises, not the least of which is the moral ambiguity of all of the characters. Lily and Nate’s relationship as adults is fascinating, with scintillating chemistry and a loaded backstory. The scene where Lily seduces Nate is tantalizing, because both of them have the air of dangerous mystery. There are no true innocents in this story, and the journey it takes you on has a sharp edge that cuts deep, and can’t be forgotten.