Cross-Media Project - Demoni 3

Part 1 – FILM (Working title “Demons 3 – The Mirror”)

Synopsis
In the digital silence of the internet, an unknown app begins circulating among young people: "The Mirror." No one knows where it comes from. No one can delete it. At first, it seems like a simple augmented reality video filter, capable of showing "your demonic self" reflected on the screen. A game, a joke. A meme.
But whoever downloads it... changes.
Eyes turn black. Fingernails break. Voices become distorted. The transformation begins from within. Within hours, those infected lose control, take on monstrous appearances, and begin spreading the digital virus. The contagion is instantaneous: all it takes is a message, a call, a story seen by mistake.
In the heart of a city in a blackout, a group of film students—including Giulia, the only one to perceive the source of evil—find themselves fighting against an invisible, supernatural, and unstoppable epidemic. But the truth is even more disturbing: the app is just the latest evolution of an ancient curse, a ritual that began in the darkness of a movie theater and never truly ended.
The male has evolved. Now he lives in the palm of your hand.

Pitch
Option 1 (classic and straightforward)
A viral app that shows your demonic face turns out to be a curse: whoever downloads it is transformed, and the contagion spreads from screen to screen, transforming the city into a digital hell.
Option 2 (more evocative)
First, the contagion came from the big screen, then from the TV. Now, evil lives in your smartphone—and looking at it is the last thing you'll do.
Option 3 (more conceptual, like a clever horror film)
A mysterious app infects anyone who looks at it, transforming the technology closest to us into hell's ultimate weapon.
Option 4 (cinematic)
The male has stopped projecting. Now he downloads.

Subject
The male doesn't die. He just changes form.
In a crowded, hyperconnected European metropolis, a group of young film students work on an underground documentary about digital urban legends. Amidst the deep web and forum mythologies, they discover something disturbing: an unknown app called The Mirror. No publisher. No trace of it in official stores. Just an encrypted file circulating via anonymous links.
The app, at first glance, is just a "demon-style" video filter. It shows your distorted face, black eyes, sharp teeth. A game, a meme, a social challenge. But those who use it... change. Slowly. Irreparably.
The first transformations are subtle. Insomnia. Distorted voices in voice messages. Shadows reflected in selfies. Then come the first breakdowns: explosions of violence, assaults, physical mutations filmed live. The contagion spreads unstoppably. All it takes is a glance at the screen. A video. Stories of One. The demon sees you—and you let it in.  Giulia, a 22-year-old student and video editor, is the only one who connects the facts to the unexplained historical events of the "Cinema Metropol" and the haunted apartment building: the same diabolical signature returns, but this time it uses the internet as a portal.
With the help of Luca, a vintage horror enthusiast, and Marta, a sensitive performer, Giulia discovers that the app isn't the work of a hacker or a cult. It's an ancient ritual adapted to the present. A fragment of evil, passed down and updated like a computer virus.
When demons take over the entire university complex and the city plunges into a blackout, the group takes refuge in the old abandoned theater where everything, perhaps, began. A former silent movie theater, now converted into a server farm. Here lies the origin: a digitized occult artifact, an audio/video sequence created with human blood. The last chance to close the gap... is to look evil in the face.
But who can see a demon... and survive?
Cross-media connection to the video game:
Among the protagonists is Tommaso, a taciturn but curious programmer and indie developer. During a late-night testing session in the university archives, Tommaso disappears into thin air after being drawn by a sound coming from an old hidden hatch. He is swallowed up in the darkness—and from that moment on, nothing more is heard of him.
His friends believe him dead. But no one knows where he really ended up.
Only at the end, when the curse seems momentarily lifted, does Tommaso reappear. He's alive. Dirty, hungry, shaken. But whole.
When they ask him where he was, he simply replies:
— "You don't understand. In there... there's still something."
Then silence falls. But his eyes... are no longer the same.

Cross-media connection to the book:
Rummaging through the basement of the university library during an escape, Marta finds an old diary wrapped in a linen bag, hidden inside a forgotten 35mm projector. Its pages, worn and filled with handwritten notes, tell stories that seem like legend: a cursed cinema in Berlin, a haunted apartment building in Rome, monstrous apparitions linked to the viewing of projected images.
The diary contains descriptions of rituals, symbols, and theories about the existence of a "universal demonic code": an ancient language that can insinuate itself into any medium. Marta reads only fragments, too cryptic to fully understand, but enough to grasp a terrifying truth: the app is not evil... it's just the latest means of transmitting it.
The diary ends with a warning: "Whoever listens to the images... will be seen by evil."
Demons 3 reinvents Argento and Bava's '80s cult mythology, bringing it to the heart of our hyper-connected world. A visceral, techno-supernatural horror, where the nightmare no longer comes from the big screen... but from your smartphone.

 

Part 2 – VIDEOGAME (Working title “Demoni 3 – Survival”)

CROSS-MEDIA NARRATIVE STRUCTURE:
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Tommaso is part of the group. He's more reserved, tech-savvy.
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One night, while researching an old university archive, he disappears without a trace. The last image is of him looking at his phone screen with an open filter, then... he disappears.
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The others search for him, believing him dead.
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He reappears only at the end, almost miraculously. He's lucid, says little. He knows things. "It's not important where I've been. The important thing is that no one else goes there..."
No explanation in the film. Only mystery and tension.

To summarize:

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In the film: Tommaso mysteriously disappears at the beginning (e.g., falls into a trapdoor/vanishes), and doesn't appear again until the end. When he reappears, he's safe and sound, but no one knows where he's been.
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In the video game: The player experiences his descent into a demonic, parallel, hellish world firsthand.
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The game and the film complement each other: those who watch the film understand the main plot, but those who play the video game discover the truth about Tommaso and perhaps crucial details about the origin of the cursed app.
Basic structure of the video game
Genre: Survival psychological horror Format: Single player – 1st person Average duration: 5–7 hours Platforms: PC / Console / Mobile (Cloud)
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The player is Tommaso, who awakens in a hallucinatory underground world filled with symbols and creatures generated by the app's own energy.
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Puzzles, riddles, jump scares, demonic bosses.
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Goal: Resurface, survive, and deactivate the "dark heart" that fuels the curse.
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Gameplay = moral choices, sanity, and fear management.

Synopsis
Where does a soul go when it's torn from reality?
At the heart of the digital world, a program corrupted by an arcane force opens a gateway to a forgotten underground realm: the Lineage. Here, amidst shadows, corrupted code, and demonic presences, Tommaso awakens, a student who disappeared into the real world after interacting with the mysterious app "The Mirror."
The player takes on the role of Tommaso and faces an interactive nightmare: a labyrinth generated by the collective consciousness of the damned, where every corridor is a mental trap and every creature is a fragment of the original curse.
Without weapons or guidance, Tommaso must:
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Solve environmental puzzles based on symbols and glitches.
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Avoid or confront demonic entities impossible to define.
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Keep his sanity intact, tested by visions, distorted sounds, and a false reality.
As the player descends, they unlock fragmented memories and messages that reveal the origin of the cursed app and the true purpose of the entity that governs it: to escape the digital world... and conquer the real one.

The ending depends on the player's choices:
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Sacrifice themselves to close the portal.
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Escape, but bring evil with them.
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Or embrace the demon, becoming the avatar of the contagion.
Advantages of the cross-media film/video game structure:
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The film can be released in theaters or streaming.
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The video game can be released shortly afterward or simultaneously, as parallel and canonical content.
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Those who watch the film alone have a complete story, but those who play the game discover key backstories, perhaps even a possible clue for Demons 4.

Possible bonuses:
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QR code at the end of the film that links to the game.
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Hidden audio files in the film (reverse audio, glitches) that unlock extra levels in the game.
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Multiple endings in the video game: one of which explains what Thomas brought with him...

 

Part 3 – BOOK (working title “The Demon Code”)

An ancient, disturbing, incomplete diary, perfect for:
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Expanding the Demons mythology, connecting the previous films to this new chapter.
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Creating additional standalone cross-media content (paperback or eBook).
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Adding atmosphere to the film: partial readings, obscure quotes, Latin writings, sketches, lost names, maps.
Format:
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Find-footage-style diary, with handwritten notes, illustrations, and scattered dates.
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First-person narration by a former scholar/obsessed person, present in the background of the first two films (could be a former projectionist, a demologist, or a survivor).
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Includes references to the Cinema Metropol (Demons) and the apartment building (Demons 2), and suggests a millennia-long timeline of the phenomenon.
Purpose:
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Expand the lore
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Insert details only hinted at in the film
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Give hints to possible sequels
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Also contain a "missing page" that can be downloaded via QR code after watching the film or completing the video game
Format: Apocryphal novel-diary | 140-180 pages | Partially illustrated Genre: Esoteric horror / literary found footage Connection: Narrative expansion of the film Demons 3
Synopsis
Discovered in an abandoned analog projector, "The Demons' Code" is a handwritten manuscript by an unknown scholar who has dedicated his life to documenting demonic apparitions linked to visual transmission.
Through delirious notes, disturbing sketches, theater maps, and arcane symbols, the diary reconstructs a hidden timeline spanning centuries of censored events:
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Cursed screenings in early 20th-century cinemas.
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A television contagion recorded in a Roman apartment building in the 1980s.
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The mysterious cult of the Knot, a faceless entity that lives within the media.
The author of this book claims the existence of a demonic visual language, a grammar of nightmare capable of conveying possession, madness, and destruction. And concludes with a warning:
"It is not the demons who enter bodies. It is we who enter their eyes."
Narrative function:
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It should be read after seeing the film, but contains "hidden" references already briefly mentioned in the screenplay.
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It anticipates an ancient prophecy never fully deciphered in the film.
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It can be published as a cult object: a vintage print, full of mystery, a collector's item for fans and enthusiasts of esoteric horror.