SYNOPSIS

In 1920’s Canada, Dr. May Watson, fresh out of medical school, is unable to find employment in the city due to sexist views toward female doctors. On her way out west to hunt for a job, May stops to visit her estranged brother, WWI veteran George, at the logging camp where he is working. Against George’s wishes, May offers her services as a doctor to the company and gets hired as the new camp medic. Soon after starting the position, May learns the reason George wanted her to leave - the lumberjacks have been hiding a dark secret: werewolves are real.

CONCEPT

The year is 1920. Canada is still recovering from the effects of “The Great War” (WWI). In the men’s absence, the women of Canada seized unprecedented opportunities. It is less than two years after women fought for and won the right to vote. Thousands of soldiers home from combat are struggling with “battle fatigue” (PTSD), and adapting to this new society where tense social lines are drawn between the roles of men and women. The country has changed and in Alberta, prohibition is the law of the land. Timber is a fish-out-of-water horror/thriller that follows Dr. May Watson, a well-off, educated, tenacious, young woman, as she navigates her way from big-city life in Ontario to a logging camp in the remote, untamed wilderness of Alberta to find her estranged brother. In an attempt to reconnect with her brother, George, May manages to get hired as the camp medic, her first job ever. At the camp, May must deal with the rampant sexism of the lumberjacks, performing medical procedures in unsanitary conditions, helping her brother with his PTSD, coping with living in the middle of nowhere, not to mention the werewolves. Once the werewolves are introduced, paranoia spreads like wildfire through the lumberjack camp — anyone could be infected.

May is strong-willed and extremely competent. What May lacks in experience as a doctor, she makes up for in skill. Growing up in an upper-class family run by a strict single father has sheltered May until now and this causes her to sometimes make naive mistakes. May wants to reconnect with her estranged brother, George, and feels the need to always help; two things that end up being her undoing.

May’s attributes that stand out the most are her problem solving skills and ability to think on her feet. A trained medical professional, May is able to diagnose not only her patients but also her own problems and those of the people around her. Unfortunately for May, this gets her into trouble, as her biggest weakness is that she has yet to learn not everyone needs help and not everything she perceives as a problem needs solving.