Pretty Dead

Regina Stevens has just passed her Medical Licensing exam. Her boyfriend Ryan has just proposed. The hard work Regina has put in throughout her life seemed like it was beginning to really pay off. That was until she woke up one day with an insatiable appetite for human flesh, no pulse and an impossibly heightened ability to heal. While attempting to unlock the mystery of how she can have these symptoms and still be alive, Regina, and a somewhat reluctant Ryan, begin to discover links between a parasitic fungus called cordyceps and her new-found cravings for human flesh. Cravings they slowly learn will continue to intensify until they consume her mind, rendering her unconscious and helpless to keep the drive to feed at bay. Once the death count begins, Regina tries to end it, but fails. Her botched suicide attempt lands her in the custody of the State and under the care of Dr. Daniel Romera. After listening to her story, he diagnoses her symptoms as Cotard's Syndrome. Also known as "Walking Corpse Disease", this rare dissociative psychological disorder manifests in delusions that the patient is actually dead and often results in those afflicted going to horrific, often suicidal, lengths to prove it. Composed entirely of footage obtained from the evidence archives of the 2009 US District Court case against the California State Health Department for the return of Regina's body to her family, this film begs the question: Is Regina just crazy, or is she something else?