LOLLIPOPPED IN DAYLIGHT
A story of Family Child Sex Trafficking
Embedded Files
Director's Treatment by JH Walker
Director's Treatment by JH Walker
Based on the original story by Star Pahl
Based on the original story by Star Pahl
But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble,
it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck
and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
- Matthew 18:6
Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness;
instead, expose them.
- Ephesians 5:11
1. Summary
A fourth-generation Jehovah’s Witness girl endures a harrowing weekend of abuse, revealed through visceral stage drama and immersive multimedia. As actors lay bare the immediate horror, surreal projections expose the unseen battle—the weight of silence, the grip of darkness, and the urgent call to bring the truth into the light.
2. Introduction
"For there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known.
Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light,
and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner chambers will be proclaimed from the housetops."
- Luke 12:2-3
Lollipopped in Daylight is not a story—it is a real-life testimony. A raw, unflinching reckoning with the hidden horrors of child abuse within the Jehovah’s Witness community.
From the moment I encountered Star Pahl’s searing STAGE PLAY, I felt a profound responsibility—not just to tell her story, but to honor its truth. This is not a tale to be softened or diluted. Every detail, no matter how harrowing, will be crafted with both respect and boldness, forging a film that does more than expose the truth—it demands to be witnessed. It compels action. This is for the children who were never heard. For the secrets that festered in the dark. For the systemic horror that hides behind a false faith and families of fear.
3. Creative Approach
An Immersive Descent Into Horror
Adapted from a stage play into a multimedia volumetric message, this film captures the emotional and psychological trauma of its main character without explicit depiction. Through symbolic animation and immersive projections, the film explores the hidden spiritual and psychological dimensions of abuse, adhering closely to the playwright’s original vision.
Using a blend of traditional and cutting-edge filmmaking techniques, actors perform on a volumetric stage surrounded by a 270-degree projection system, combined with tangible props and practical effects. This approach ensures an authentic visual representation of Stacy’s inner world and the escalating horror of her experience.
As the narrative unfolds, visuals distort, shifting into grotesque, nightmarish imagery. Advanced motion tracking technology allows seamless transitions between physical and digital spaces, blurring reality and illusion—a metaphor for trauma’s disorienting impact.
4. Visual Language
The Distortion Of Innocence
At the heart of Lollipopped in Daylight is the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ “two witness rule”—a policy that demands two eyewitnesses to any wrongdoing before justice can be pursued. In cases of child abuse—acts committed in the demonic darkness of isolation and fear, where no one is there to see—this rule has created and protected predators while silencing victims for generations. Without a second witness, the victim is dismissed. Ignored. Accused. Shamed. Disfellowshipped.
This film exists to be that second witness. If Star’s testimony—raw, unflinching, and undeniable—is also yours, and you’ve been waiting for someone to stand beside you, this is it. Come forward. Speak. You are not alone. The silence ends here. The abuse ends here.
Set during Labor Day weekend, 1983, the story follows Stacy, a six-year-old Jehovah’s Witness. Told entirely from her viewpoint, the film explores themes of complicity, perception, and the unsettling truths society ignores. Through atmospheric storytelling, symbolic imagery, and visual distortions, the audience is immersed in Stacy’s profound isolation, fear, and psychological captivity.
Stacy will be portrayed by an eighteen-year-old actress, a deliberate choice revealed only at the film’s conclusion—when the audience learns she was just six years old all along. We do this for two reasons: first, to ensure that no real child is ever placed in or asked to perform within such a traumatic context. And second, to devastate the viewer. To let them realize, too late, that what they’ve witnessed—the confusion, the silence, the horror—was endured by someone impossibly young. That gut punch is essential. It's the final blow in a film that refuses to look away.
Rather than using explicit visuals, the film creates a claustrophobic environment that forces viewers to feel Stacy’s psychological torment—her helplessness, confusion, and betrayal.
The opening visuals mirror the idyllic, utopian imagery found in Jehovah’s Witness literature—bright, smiling, almost artificially cheerful. The volumetric projections replicate this animated aesthetic, creating a world that feels comforting but eerily controlled.
Once Stacy takes the lollipop, subtle shifts occur. At first, it’s barely noticeable—the horizon line warps slightly, the colors become oversaturated, the background smiles linger just a bit too long. These details accumulate, creating an underlying discomfort that escalates into full-scale horror.
By the time Stacy is fully trapped, the projections have transformed into grotesque, shifting imagery—abstract, chaotic, and deeply symbolic. Religious iconography blends with apocalyptic destruction, echoing Jehovah’s Witness doctrine of Armageddon. The men in the room are no longer fully human—only fragmented silhouettes, abstracted into monstrous forms.
The three men are never seen as themselves. In the foreground, they are shadowed figures, glimpsed only in parts—hands, shoulders, faceless shapes. In the background projections, they exist as monstrous, shifting entities—grotesque, abstracted figures that embody the horror Stacy cannot put into words. They are the thing in the dark. They are what lurks just outside the frame.
5. Aesthetic Design
The Disintegration of a Child’s World
Displayed starkly and simply, our opening titles read: “Everything you are about to see really happened. Douglas City California Labor Day Weekend 1983.”
The story begins in Stacy’s bedroom in Douglas City, California, bathed in an unnaturally bright, symmetrical aesthetic—mirroring the controlled imagery of Jehovah’s Witness literature. Hot pink, baby blue, stark white, and black dominate the palette, reinforcing an artificial sense of security. Soft, ambient sounds enhance this illusion of safety.
But once Stacy accepts the lollipop, the facade of innocence begins to deteriorate. As the film progresses, reality warps into a full-blown surreal nightmare. Inspired by “Pink Floyd: The Wall”, “Jacob's Ladder”, “Enter the Void” and “Natural Born Killers”, the aesthetic transforms.
Religious iconography mutates into monstrous visions, shadows morph into fragmented, unrecognizable figures—Stacy’s abusers. Once-cheerful hues rot into a sickly, menacing palettes of colour and texture as the visual deterioration marks the destruction of innocence and the terrifying isolation of childhood trauma.
6. The Lollipop’s Promise
A Descent into Darkness
The pivotal moment occurs as Stacy embarks on her journey with June. In June's green car, Stacy is offered a lollipop—a seemingly innocent gesture that becomes the catalyst for her nightmare.
As Stacy unwraps the candy, the sound amplifies unnaturally, drowning out the world. She puts it in her mouth—and everything begins to shift. Colors oversaturate, edges blur, and a low, humming unease creeps into the soundscape, inspired by The Stranger (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Oliver Coates.
Stacy’s loss of control manifests visually. The camera becomes fluid and unstable, mimicking her disorientation. Close-ups linger on her expression, capturing confusion, fear, and fading consciousness. The rhythmic driving music warps, laced with subliminal whispers and oppressive bass. Her own voice fades, swallowed by the chaos.
7. Shattered Perceptions
The Unraveling of Reality
As the drugs take effect, the film plunges into a surreal, fragmented reality. The once bright and cheerful colors now take on a sickly, menacing quality. Shadows loom large, distorting familiar objects into nightmarish forms. The camera becomes claustrophobic, trapping Stacy—and by extension, the audience—in this suffocating space.
At the moment Stacy realizes she is trapped, the camera pushes into her terrified eye—revealing an infinite loop of reflections. This visual represents the Jehovah’s Witness "two-witness rule"—and the countless unseen victims still suffering. The effect is achieved practically by using a live camera feed projected onto a background screen, filmed recursively. The seamless real-time distortion creates an inescapable nightmare. It is a chilling metaphor for abuse that is seen, yet never acknowledged or stopped.
8. Hotel Room
A Chamber of Horrors
The hotel room scene marks a pivotal moment in the narrative. Here, the full horror of Stacy's situation begins to unfold. The camera work becomes increasingly erratic, with rapid cuts and disorienting angles reflecting Stacy's fractured perception. Sound design plays a crucial role, amplifying Stacy's racing heartbeat and labored breathing while muting external noises, creating a sense of isolation and helplessness. Emphasis will be placed on the passing of time, clearly indicating that the abuse lasted from Friday through to Sunday.
As Stacy succumbs fully to her drugged state, the world explodes into a cacophony of grotesque imagery. Religious iconography, once a source of comfort, twists into grotesque visions. Crosses warp and bleed, Watchtowers crumble, and Bibles ooze ink, symbolizing the destruction of Stacy's faith and innocence.
The nightmare sequence is an assault on the senses. We layer dozens of audio tracks, creating a cacophony of terror. Scriptures recited backwards blend with deep, resonant drones that physically shake the audience. Piercing high frequencies cut through the mix at unexpected moments, inducing a fight-or-flight response.
The overall effect is one of total auditory disorientation, matching Stacy’s mental state. The Jehovah’s Witness doctrine of Armageddon comes to terrifying life, with fiery skies and buildings collapsing on crowds of people dying in the streets. These moments are brought to life through surreal animation inspired by Pink Floyd: The Wall and Natural Born Killers—a mix of hand-drawn, painted, and generated imagery that fractures reality into something nightmarish and symbolic. This animation style allows the audience to inhabit Stacy’s distorted perception, where indoctrination, fear, and imagination collide. Running parallel to Stacy’s story, a second narrative will unfold entirely within the animation—a symbolic retelling of what is happening to her in the hotel room. This allows the audience to see without explicitly showing, forcing them to reckon with the horror in a form that bypasses resistance and strikes at the subconscious. What begins as subtle unease spirals into a full-scale visual breakdown, where theology becomes horror and every frame reflects the chaos inside her mind.
Stacy's abusers manifest as fragmented silhouettes and monstrous abstractions. They are never fully seen, always lurking at the edges of the frame or glimpsed in fractured reflections. Their forms shift and morph, sometimes appearing as towering shadows, other times as writhing masses of indistinct shapes. This visual approach embodies the incomprehensible nature of Stacy's trauma, too horrific for her young mind, or even for ours, to fully process.
9. The Bath
Cleansing of Truth, Stains of Silence
The bath scene that follows is a stark contrast, yet no less disturbing. The camera lingers in long, unbroken takes, forcing the audience to confront the horror of Stacy’s situation without the possibility of looking away. The stark white of the bathroom is oppressive, emphasizing Stacy’s vulnerability and the clinical nature of June’s manipulation.
Here, we abruptly drop into near-silence. The sudden absence of sound is shocking, emphasizing Stacy’s isolation and helplessness. The only sounds are the hollow drip of water and June’s voice, stripped of all warmth and humanity. This eerie quiet forces the audience to confront the horror of what they’ve witnessed, with no sonic distractions to hide behind.
But while the physical world is drained of life, the projections around Stacy shift back to their original, bright Jehovah’s Witness imagery—smiling families, children laughing, arms raised in worship beneath a shining paradise. The contrast is suffocating, reinforcing the false sense of peace that masks the underlying violence.
June’s voice, cold and detached, dominates the soundscape: “Jehovah and your parents would be very disappointed in you. What you did was very bad. You must never speak of what you just did. Do you understand! NEVER talk about what you did.” Her words, spoken with clinical precision, juxtapose the artificial joy of the projections, driving home the insidious nature of religious grooming.
This moment of forced normalcy is perhaps the most chilling of all, highlighting the deliberate concealment of abuse beneath a facade of righteousness and joy. The sound design strips away all ambient noise, leaving only the cold, detached voice of June as she forces Stacy to smile in the mirror.
As Stacy stares at her reflection, the projection’s grinning faces warp slightly, twisting ever so subtly into grotesque, stretched expressions—smiles that are too wide, eyes that are too empty. For just a second, the illusion falters, hinting at the horrors hidden beneath the surface. But then, with a flicker, the image resets—serene, perfect, unquestioned.
June grips Stacy’s face. “Now look at me Stacy, look at me now... SMILE!”
10. The Devastating Reveal
Innocence Forever Lost
The film's climax—a devastating revelation of Stacy's true age—recontextualizes everything the audience has witnessed. Through precise camera movement and blocking, we transition from seeing an 18-year-old actress to a 6-year-old child. This reveal is not just a plot twist; it serves as a confrontation, challenging the audience to face the full, horrifying reality of child abuse.
The camera lingers on Stacy's small, trembling hands and feet, highlighting her vulnerability and forcing viewers to acknowledge their role as witnesses. This moment is marked by deafening silence, punctuated only by the sound of Stacy's rapid, shallow breathing.
Stacy complies with the demands placed upon her. In the mirror, her six-year-old forced smile blends seamlessly into the manufactured happiness of the projected children surrounding her, representing a final, silent act of compliance.
11. Beyond the Screen
Cinema as a Catalyst for Change
"Lollipopped in Daylight" is not entertainment. It is a raw confrontation with truths too often ignored. By immersing the audience in Stacy's psychological journey, the film creates a visceral understanding of trauma that goes beyond intellectual comprehension.
The innovative use of volumetric staging, immersive projections, and carefully crafted sound design serves not as mere spectacle but as a means to deepen the audience's emotional engagement with Stacy's story. Every technical choice—from the evolving color palette to the disorienting camera work—is designed to reflect Stacy's psychological state and force the audience to experience her trauma alongside her.
In its totality, "Lollipopped in Daylight" is an emotionally devastating experience that demands active engagement from its audience. It is a film that refuses to let viewers look away, compelling them to bear witness to the realities of child abuse and institutional complicity. By honoring Stacy's story—and by extension, the stories of countless silenced children—the film aims to break the cycle of abuse and inspire real-world action against child trafficking and institutional cover-ups.
We conclude with stark, impactful title cards, narrated by a young child's voice: "Jehovah's Witnesses is not a Christian denomination but a dangerous cult. Their rules require multiple witnesses for wrongdoing, even child sexual abuse. I was raped at six years old. Now that you've seen this film, you are that witness."
A QR code links to resources and ways to act against institutional abuse, advocating for justice and giving voice to those silenced.
"This film is a call to action—a cry for justice for every silenced child. Survivors, your voice matters. Speak out, seek justice, and expose the truth. There is freedom and life outside the Jehovah’s Witnesses and their monstrous deeds.”
CUT TO BLACK.
The End.
The Beginning.
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