Don't Laugh

Don't Laugh is a psyhological horror set in the world of stand up comedy.

Jem is an upcoming stand up who suffers a breakdown after witnessing the death a firend and fellow comedian who's career had suffered due to the changing culture of stand up and his unwillingness to move with the times. Jem attempts suicide but fails and spends some time in a mental institute.

Jem returns to normal life with her mother, a fairly traditional mum who doesn't really understand why her daughter would choose to be a stand up and is even more confused as to why she might want to take her own life.

Jem is anxious to get her life going again and so she immediately gos back to the stage, with an added level of notoriety post-suicide attempt. And all goes well for a brief moment. Until she discovers that one of her best jokes has been used on stage by a friend, Daphne. And the success of her delivery of Jem's joke sent her up the ladder and on to TV where she performed the same joke and so, as far as the public is concerned, that joke is now Daphne's.

Jem is devastated by the betrayal and attempts to set the record straight. But every turn she is either ignored, dismissed or told that this is just the way of the world. Jem will not give up though and she becomes more and more obsessed. Haunted by the spectre of her dead friend and the thought that she has lost her identity she descends further and further into obsession and poaranoia until she thinks she can't trust anyone. Is there are conspiracy against her? Was she really ever good enough to make the leap that Daphne did? And how far is she prepared to go to regain her sense of self?

The film heads towards a catastrophic climax in which Jem's sense of reality frays badly as revelations, betrayals and her own mind push Jem down a path of destruction and horror.