SPLATTER

About the Story

Felix “Feel” Omstead is a directionless 25-year-old community college student living a bleak existence in Garland, Texas. Recently dumped by the only woman who gave his life meaning, he feels trapped by failure while his former classmates enjoy successful careers and families. An unexpected offer from his old high school friend, internationally acclaimed artist Job, changes everything. Hired to house-sit Job’s luxurious Dallas loft and care for his dog, Tab Hunter, Feel is thrust into a world of wealth, sophistication, and contemporary art that is completely foreign to him. While alone in the loft, Feel discovers a powerful telescope that looks directly into neighboring apartments. Obsessed with watching a beautiful redheaded neighbor undress, he masturbates and accidentally ejaculates onto two blank canvases. Before he can dispose of them, Job’s flamboyant art dealer, Jasmine Dubois, mistakes the stained canvases for groundbreaking abstract paintings. Convinced she has discovered an astonishing new artistic genius working in a revolutionary medium, Jasmine sells the works for thousands of dollars and launches Feel as the art world’s newest sensation. Unable to confess the truth, Feel is swept into an increasingly absurd and lucrative fraud. As critics, collectors, and journalists elevate his “paintings” into profound statements about humanity, suffering, and hope, Feel desperately manufactures more work using the same secret “medium.” Fame, wealth, and celebrity arrive overnight, along with a romance with Laura—the very woman whose image through the telescope unknowingly inspired his art. Success soon becomes a prison. Jasmine relentlessly expands his career while critics invent elaborate theories about his artistic philosophy. When Feel can no longer produce the work himself, he secretly hires an old high school friend to create additional paintings, further deepening the deception. Meanwhile, Job announces his return, Laura begins questioning their relationship, and Feel faces a public demonstration of his artistic process that will inevitably expose him. Rather than reveal the truth, Feel abandons everything—his fortune, fame, career, friends, and the woman he has come to love—and disappears. Living anonymously in coastal Maine, he watches from afar as the art world transforms his disappearance into yet another layer of myth. Jasmine continues marketing his work, collectors remain devoted, and even his substitute “artist” quietly continues producing new pieces. Feel realizes that the world prefers the legend over the truth, leaving him free but forever haunted by the life he pretended to live. At its heart, Splatter is a dark satirical comedy about impostor syndrome, the subjectivity of modern art, celebrity culture, authenticity, and society’s willingness to assign profound meaning to almost anything if enough influential people insist upon it. Beneath its outrageous premise lies a surprisingly poignant story about identity, self-worth, and one man’s search for redemption after discovering that success built on illusion can become its own kind of prison.

STORY AT A GLANCE

Premise & Themes

Central premise or conflict: Some might say it’s a shaggy dog story

Primary themes: Makes a fun little story feel too serious so I have no idea

Why it is memorable: Not sure it is either. I like the loft a lot.

COLLECTIBLE DEVELOPMENT

Visual Direction

Representative scene: Yall did it already. Looks great

Important visual elements: Nah, it’s just a fun loopy story

Items to avoid: N/a