LEEDS CREEK
The Series
A unique hybrid of disjointed crime drama, psychological thriller, and existential horror.
The Setup
Tucked between the metropolitan choke of New York City and Philadelphia lies the secluded, inhospitable PINE BARRENS OF NEW JERSEY.
From the quiet of its gnarled pitch pine forests and winding sugar sand trails, the cut of a SERPENTINE CREEK reveals to us a secret that extends across generations, into the legend of a NIGHTMARISH CREATURE (colloquially known as THE JERSEY DEVIL), and along one prominent family (LEEDS) line’s descent into madness.
We pull focus on AUDRA HENRY...
... a weary, fraying Atlantic City Detective in the middle of a personal crisis that is triggered by the results of a recent DNA test. She has moved back to her South Jersey hometown as a last-ditch effort to save her marriage, but is instead thrown into the chaos of her tainted Leeds Family lineage, splayed out across decades of fractured relations manifested in the unholy corridors of a 19th Century INSTITUTION FOR DISTURBED CHILDREN that is steps from where she grew up. She is also desperate to protect her son DYLAN, the last of the bloodline, who has recently cauterized his fate through one blindingly evil act.
Audra's dive into her ancestry runs parallel with an investigation into the remains of ELEVEN UNIDENTIFIED BODIES found in the Barrens' soil. Her family tree is presented as a crime scene as well; the more that she uncovers about the eleven Jane Does raises markers to her past that irrevocably affects her and Dylan’s future.
The investigations reach back across multiple eras spread out over more than a century. The series incorporates FLASHBACKS and “ERA CUTS” which focus entirely on stories & characters from specific periods. These are tributaries feeding into the main branch that is Audra’s story.
The ghosts of years past relentlessly tug at her psyche and pull her toward and into the shadows of the Pine Barrens, searching for an unwanted but inevitable truth.
LEEDS CREEK leans heavily on the deep character study, violent shock pockets, and strong female protagonist central to THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Mixed in are elements from the fractured, multi-era crime narrative of TRUE DETECTIVE, the teenage monster angst from STRANGER THINGS, and allusions to the chronicles of the “WEIRD NJ” paranormal magazine.
What ultimately jumps out of the frying pan is a visceral amalgam of crime drama, psychological thriller, and existential horror set against the backdrop of a region forging itself in the historical cauldron of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
Audra Henry
*think of Jennifer Connelly
*think of Jennifer Connelly
Our eyes, ears, and heart; Audra has been in vertigo for years, tossed among failed relationships, a childhood on the margins, and a needling siren song that always draws her back to where she began: LEEDS CREEK and the desolation of the South Jersey Pine Barrens.
Solomon Rapp
*think of Chiwitel Ejiofor
*think of Chiwitel Ejiofor
A veteran Philly detective and Audra’s former partner/confidant. Solomon serves as tether to Audra’s sense of normalcy, comfort, and a thriving life now lost. He becomes a reluctant accomplice to Audra as she uncovers markers to a cold case deep in the underbrush of the Pine Barrens.
Dylan Henry
*think of Gaten Matarazzo
The last of the bloodline, Dylan is an awkward teen in the middle of a psycho-spiritual growth spurt. Unable to control what is inside of him, the ghosts of his mother’s past are about to send him headlong into a paradox for which there is little hope of escape.
MICHAEL & MARIE (1968)
*think of Michael Shannon & Elizabeth Olsen
Michael is the first naturally-born child of the "new” Leeds bloodline and heir to all manner of distorted traits. After an unfathomably traumatic childhood, Michael vowed seclusion and celibacy as
his cross to bear. However, an irresistible need for connection ultimately threatens his best laid plans and the fate of his mangled inheritance.
Marie is Audra’s mother and the object of Michael Leeds’ dysfunctional yearning, She exists as a symbol of purity and idealism rent to pieces. Her final, unintentional act is to catalyze Audra’s journey of discovery into who she is and where she came from.