On the verge of destroying his career and his marriage, a washed up writer imprisons himself in his office where his characters begin to appear in the flesh, but when they are murdered one by one, he must come to terms with the dark secrets of his childhood before he loses his livelihood, his family and his sanity.

Why are the stakes lower for the writer, the protagonist, than for his characters? They get killed off, but he only has to worry about his "liveliehood, family and sanity."

Why are the stakes lower for the writer, the protagonist, than for his characters? They get killed off, but he only has to worry about his "liveliehood, family and sanity."

Why are the stakes lower for the writer than for his characters? They get killed off -- he only has to worry about his "liveliehood, family and sanity."