Inspired by true events, TASERED (together with its alternate title THE HAPPINESS ANGEL) are Best Thriller and Best Comedy Screenplay Award winners at WorldFest Houston – established 55 years ago, in addition to 22 other film festival outright wins during development between 2021-2023.

In my darkly comedic, character driven, psychological thriller set in the UK, A 50,000-volt hit from a police taser electrifies the love life of stress management therapist and influencer Candy Towne, known to her millions of followers as The Happiness Angel. She becomes a dangerous Jekyll and Hyde-type character with a lethal compulsion to attack her lovers mid-act.

TASERED fires into high-stakes conflict through a captivating opening scene in the Dartmoor National Park: Candy, acting as a good Samaritan and triggered by past trauma, mistakes a young married couple participating in a kidnap/hostage sex romp for the real deal. Layers of deceit and mystery are at play in this inciting incident. The ambiguity, twists and turns set the tone for the misinterpretation and espionage to come. Determined to rescue the ‘hostage’, Candy gives chase in her car. There’s a confrontation and a crash! The husband – referred to as the ‘kidnapper’ – is killed and Candy’s key contradiction is exposed: she’s reckless, yet selfless!

The widow, Scarlett Snow, reveals herself to be a super-fun villain who pops up in all kinds of strange situations. She has a web of relationships with other cast members, allowing for interesting betrayals and truly malicious behaviour. When the police show up on Dartmoor, Scarlett accuses Candy of murder, but soon falls in love with her.

There’s an intricate push-pull between them. Scarlett is a stunning Gothic hedonist, able to tempt and blackmail Candy, whilst Candy is fiercely determined to understand and defeat her new psychological condition and violent sexual loss of control, which drives the plot forward. Her mental instability is a fascinating juxtaposition to her success as a wellness influencer. Her sharp wit sustains a darkly comedic tone and her volatility, rooted in a traumatic backstory, is revealed through flashbacks.

Before turning to writing after suffering two major strokes, I was an award-winning (Daily Express Award for Innovation, 1993) stress management consultant specializing in problems of the subconscious mind. My first in a series of non-fiction books – and still in print today – After Stroke, published in February 2000 by Thorsons (UK), and later by HarperCollins (USA), featured in an episode of BBC TV’s Cornish Chronicles, on ITV’s This Morning show with Richard Madeley, and on Channel 5 TV News.

The heart of this screenplay lies in the psychosexual powerplays between its main cast. In Hollywood speak, Candy is a tough-as-nails Erin Brockovich denouncing the taser industry with Basic Instinct's Sharon Stone lurking inside her. She’s a 25-year-old high-profile dame with an embarrassing problem, regular clients and a weekly vlog to post. Her performance is sharp and sexy with a temperament and a tongue quicker than her brain. See her in action now @ www.davidmhinds.com

I’ll fucking make you love me if it kills me, screams Candy, by the French windows, preparing to leap, to her emotionally unavailable beloved Jason Wood, in an early scene… By FADE OUT she does and it does.

Candy, deeply troubled even before the taser proves the catalyst for unsettling her psyche, struggles to regain her sanity, beat a murder rap and manage her love life as she wages a one-woman David and Goliath war against taser industry mogul Zalika Rose. The intense tone with which Candy approaches the taser industry is really funny in a lot of ways. This makes for an accessible story about modern life.

Zalika, herself, is a force to reckon with. She’s a steely-eyed black goddess in her early 50s. Power radiates from the sway of her sylph-like body in a black silk dress the same shade of her complexion that could only have been designed by Versace with gold coins that chime with her every movement. She moves with animal grace on killer heels and she’s not going to let Candy and her inconvenient vlogs jeopardize her company’s merger with a weapons giant!

At the midpoint in this classic 3-act structure, Candy splits into the good and bad sides of her psyche. This innovation is accomplished in a visually stunning manner to depict Candy’s Jekyll and Hyde psychological struggle and internal conflict. During a sex scene that follows a callous moment of dark comedy when Candy and Scarlett dance on her late husband’s grave, Candy almost kills Scarlett until the Priest shows up at the graveyard. His arrival snaps Candy out of her trance and shocks her mind back under control.

At the second act break, Zalika shows Candy footage of her murderous rage in the graveyard and sees no way to fight back anymore for fear of her freedom is on the line once again. Jason, also under attack from Zalika by association with Candy, does not provide an easy answer for Candy, but he does facilitate her immediate admission to a mental health sanctuary in Devon in the care of Professor, Sir David Bones.

It is at the sanctuary where we learn, on a more nuanced level, what happened to Candy’s brain when she was tasered. Real-life references to Dr. Zian Tseng’s research, the killing of Robert Dziekanski in Canada, and the 2013 Taser Fireball tragedy that happened in the screenwriter’s home town of Plymouth mean this script is strong in its political and commercial critique of the taser industry.

Visually, the high-voltage London settings and the vast moorlands of Dartmoor provide rich contrasts that will heighten suspense on screen. Jason’s extravagant Fitzrovia penthouse is a particularly fun setting. It is here that Candy’s problems approach resolution. She finally achieves the love from Jason that we know she has sought since her livestream in the opening scene.

Candy and Jason’s relationship is well developed to unveil vulnerabilities and crucial stakes. He is her mentor, franchisor, and crucially, her former therapist at a time when she was a traumatized, broken woman from a murder attempt by her former partner.

In a reversal of roles, during a tender conversation with Candy, Jason recalls his late lover, Helen, before a visceral depiction of her smashing into the rear of his car and dying under it. In a tangled web of characters’ trauma, suffering and loves lost, this is an echo of Candy’s car killing the ‘kidnapper’. Jason has a very satisfying character arc; he is introduced in an emotionless sex scene with strangers and eventually reclaims the ability to love.

Back in London, in the penultimate scene, Jason – shackled to his iron bed – is at the mercy of Candy’s lethal compulsion. Pleasure, and then agony grip the couple as the two of them make love for the first and last time. Together, they seem on the brink of overcoming Candy’s psychological struggle. But the real battle comes from the way her brain has been impacted by the taser.

Internal and physical conflict explodes in a pulse-racing climactic ending. Candy seems unstoppable when, in the pivotal moment of winning over her lethal compulsion, a police helicopter appears alongside Jason’s penthouse master bedroom’s French windows. A police marksman aboard the aircraft shoots Candy in a Zalika-inspired set-up as she rushes to the window to draw the blinds.

Glass shatters and cascades. Candy recoils from the bullet to her chest. Her legs slam back against the bed. She catapults, face down, back into Jason’s outstretched and tethered arms...

He groans as she crash-lands on top of him. A poignant lament escapes her lips, “Love you. Sorry.”

Candy’s death feels surprising and tragic yet inevitable. The ending accurately shows us how serious the real-life taser-related condition EXCITED DELIRIUM can be and why this is actually a legitimate issue.

My lifetime of mental health expertise is invested in TASERED. With mental health problems at an all-time high, the unique premise and dynamic characters in this high concept thriller should connect and appeal to both young and older adults in today’s interconnected digital world. I know for certain its theme of mental instability and the determination to recover will touch, entertain, and inspire many.