Cradle Snatcher

Cradle Snatcher

Television (One-hour) · Horror · 60 pages
Status: Spec
When serveral newborns disappear from their hospital cots without a trace, a recent widow and his pregnant sister do their best to reconnect and care for each other in their complicated situations. But when the sinister supernatural force begins to circle their family, the siblings must work together to uncover the truth and save their family.
Written by Tianna Roberts

1 Writer

Tianna Roberts
Brisbane, Queensland, AU
Tianna Roberts is a Brisbane screenwriter (sci-fi/elevated horror/genre) who works as a Development & Acquisitions Manager at Odin's Eye Entertainment. She is a television writer who has worked for Australia’s leading production companies including Fremantle, Matchbox Pictures and The Steve Jaggi Company. In 2021 she co-founded the diverse screenw...
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Additional Project Info

Finalist in the 2022 Screen Australia and SBS Screenwriter's Incubator Program. Quarter-Finalist in the 2022 Austin Film Festival's Writing Competition. Collin a recently widowed Anthropology college professor (specialising in folklore and mythology from cultures around the world), and his pregnant OB-GYN sister Anne (who owns and operates an NFP abortion clinic) do their best to reconnect and care for each other through the aftermath of his wife and child dying during childbirth. Their complicated situations, paired with his spiralling mental health and her failing marriage and homelife, only worsen when several of Anne's patients' newborns are kidnapped from their hospital cots without a trace. But when the sinister supernatural force begins to circle their family, the siblings must work together to uncover the truth and save their family before it's too late. CRADLE SNATCHER is a haunting, supernatural-horror Tv Series (4-6 eps / 60min) that explores the various nuances of female identifying individuals experiencing pregnancy and motherhood in contemporary society. Cradle Snatcher takes an in-depth look at how society scrutinises pregnancy and women’s bodily autonomy; dissecting every decision, action or situation in order to label women as deplorable human-beings and/or unfit mothers. I was left moved by the Women’s Marches, alarmed by the discussions to repeal Roe vs Wade currently taking place, disgusted at the incidents of abuse regarding Grace Thame, Brittany Higgins and Christian Porter, and struggling to address and move on from my own sexual assault and lived female experience. I found myself ruminating on a couple of questions: how do the standards society holds women to affect us, and is there a way to personify this “monstrous society”? The Cradle Snatcher project is inspired by dark supernatural horrors that expertly unpack and discuss heavier subject matter such as depression, dementia, and more. These include Australia's Babadook and Relic, and Hereditary. To tell a story that articulates the female experience through the lens of pregnancy, I believe is imperative to illustrate the society we live in, the pressures and restraints it shackles some members in, and the irrevocable harm it can cause to female-identifying members. Beginning as every parent’s worst nightmare and quickly curdling into a town tormented by a string of newborn kidnappings, Cradle Snatcher will be a poignant reflection of the trials of motherhood. In addition, this project will shine a spotlight on how even the most flawed women deserve to be helped and understood, not condemned and punished.