The Peculiar Disappearance of Doot Greenwood (film)

The Peculiar Disappearance of Doot Greenwood (or La Disparition Particulière de Doot Greenwood in French), referred to as TPDoDG for short, is a short murder-mystery film produced by Oliver B. Productions. The film was released on November 15th, 2018 and stars Oliver Beckwith alongside 3 other actors making their OBP debut. The short is set at a dinner party among friends, when suddenly there is a murder, leaving the remaining few to try to solve it. The film was released in French with English subtitles.

Plot
'''WARNING: The following section contains spoilers. Read on at your own risk.''' The film opens as guests arrive for a dinner party at the Greenwood residence. The hosts, journalist Doot Greenwood and his wife Chloe, invite Doot's co-workers Rick McGill and Chad Johnson, as well as scientist Diana Foster into their home. After everyone introduces themselves, Diana offers to help Chloe as she prepares tea. With the ladies upstairs, Doot explains that he invited all his friends to the party, but Rick, Diana and Chad were the only ones who responded. Shortly after, the men join the women for tea. After the guests are served, Rick remarks to Chad that Chloe's tea is notably bad, and that they shouldn't drink it. Doot, meanwhile, enjoys the beverage but quickly leaves for the washroom after feeling sick. Diana begins to explain that she is a scientist, but is interrupted by a loud thud coming from upstairs. Chloe leaves to investigate the noise, and when she is heard screaming, the others join her upstairs to find Doot's dead body laying on the washroom floor. With everyone in a shock, Chloe explains that with the doors and windows locked, no one could travel into the house to kill him. Chad leaves to get a blanket to cover the body, with Rick following suit so he can call the police. When the two step out of earshot of the women, though, Rick stops Chad so they can have a private conversation.

Rick immediately suspects foul play in Doot's death, and tells Chad no one should be allowed to leave before the police arrive. Chad agrees, and the two head to the living room to see if they can piece together the puzzle. They rule out Diana, citing the fact that she only met Doot that day, leaving Chloe as the sole suspect. Chad and Rick speculate that Chloe was a gold digger from the start, only marrying Doot after he received a promotion at work, and that she was after the inheritance. They then realize that they have put Diana in danger by leaving her with Chloe.

Once Rick and Chad are certain Chloe is the killer, Chad leaves to call the police while Rick locks Chloe in the basement. Rick then informs Diana that Chloe murdered her husband, leaving her in shock. Chad soon regroups with the others, telling them that police could be a while. Chad and Rick then enter the basement to confront Chloe. She denies their allegations, telling the men she loved Doot and would never hurt him, and is upset that they could accuse her of such a horrendous act. Rick tells Chad she is just trying to manipulate them, and they leave to wait for the police upstairs. Eventually, the men find their way into Doot's office, where they find a work-in-progress article titled "Dr. Diana Foster's SECRET SUPER-VIRUS". Suddenly, all the pieces start to fall into place, and Doot's true killer, Diana, appears in the doorway. She explains that Doot interviewed her as an up-and-coming scientist before finding out she was secretly working on a super-virus named Joker Venom to cause mass death in the world. When Diana found out about Doot's article and his plans to expose her, she had to make sure it was never published, using the dinner party as an opportunity to kill him by putting Joker Venom in his tea. With Chad and Rick feeling hopeless, and Diana knowing she now has two more witnesses, with the police on their way, she releases the Joker Venom into the air, wiping out everyone in the room. The final shot of the film displays the body count, with Rick, Chad, Diana and Doot lying on the floor.

An epilogue sequence explains that after the police arrive, they arrest Chloe, believing the story Chad told them over hers. She is found guilty of the murders and given a life sentence at a women's corrections centre in Kingston, Ontario. Rick and Diana succumbed to the Joker Venom poisoning and died on the scene. Diana's secret work and plans were never discovered, leaving her legacy unharmed, with Rick being remembered as the hero of the situation. Revealing that the epilogue is from the perspective of Chad, he states he recovered from the poisoning but now suffers from cerebral palsy, blindness and deafness.

It is unclear whether the epilogue being from Chad's perspective is a canon part of the film, or if it is simply a narrative device.

Project Background
The film was created as part of a Core French course at the crew's school. The assignment was to make a Halloween or horror-themed video in French. While the dialogue and text cards are entirely in French, the film's soundtrack, as well as all other related materials are in English. This is likely because the film was marketed to English speakers who could use the captions to understand dialogue, rather than native French speakers as the French used in the film is not at a fluent level.

People
Oliver Beckwith - As Doot Greenwood and Rick McGill, writer, director, editor

Sophie Greenwood - As Chloe Greenwood, writer

Helios He - As Chad Johnson, writer

Olivia Parris - As Dr. Diana Foster

Music

 * 44th Street Long - iMovie
 * Vintage News Long - iMovie
 * Pop goes the Weasel - Kevin Macleod
 * 'Halloween' Main Title - John Carpenter
 * O Fortuna - Carl Orff
 * Piano Man - Billy Joel

Trivia

 * This the first OBP project to use Oliver Beckwith's home.
 * With the exception of Oliver Beckwith, this project features all new actors who had never appeared in an OBP project before, and have never reappeared in a later project as of the writing of this article.
 * None of the actors in the film were completely fluent in French, and this is evident when paying attention to pronunciation and tone. In one shot, a character's dialogue even needed to be sped up to appear natural.
 * This is the first OBP project where an actor plays 2 different roles. Oliver Beckwith plays both Doot Greenwood and Rick McGill.

Script
The full script for The Peculiar Disappearance of Doot Greenwood can be viewed here.