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Day 13 Assignments
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5 Replies
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Cameron Martin’s Scares, Releases, and Creepy Moments!
What I learned doing this assignment is…the necessity of keeping the protagonist in the dark, so that the audience can experience the correct emotion through him. In addition, the releases are as important as the scares and creepy moments, so that the audience can catch their breath. As important though is how those releases are handled. Cheap jump scares can make for a fun experience if the film is self aware about it (looking at you SCREAM), or if they can lead to another story moment. The release can be that story moment that both gives you that fleeting moment of safety, while also introducing a new element to be wary of, a new component to unnerve an audience and keep them on the edge of their seats.
OUTLINE…
Hiding from the monster…
The monster invades the space…
Draw out the tension by having the monster explore every orifice of the protagonist’s face…
One fatal mistake…
“Death comes for all…”
Release (“But not yet”). The worm goes and attacks something else…
Jump scare. A hand keeps Sully’s mouth shut…
Sully gets up, ready for a fight, but finds…
A sweet grandmother, holding an illegal weapon.
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INT. SULLY’S APARTMENT – NIGHT
Sully and Isaiah crouch lower and lower behind the couch. Sully’s eyes dart to every corner of the room, while he holds his hand over his son’s mouth. Where is it? How could my son hold onto something so dangerous?
A feeling of slime or mucus flows onto the crown of Sully’s head. Oh shit. Don’t move.
The warm, damp thing investigates his ear, The sharp serrated teeth brush along his hair. In his peripheral, the dark wet slug, intimate with Sully’s cheeks. Sully holds his breath. It knows. The slug brushes against Sully’s mouth. The teeth making an incision at his nose. Sully puffs out a breath of air.
THE THING RECOILS BACK!
Sully closes his eyes. This is it.
The sound of a struggle behind the two of them.
Sully opens his eyes. The slug is gone. Where did it go?
A hand reaches over Sully’s lips. Sully jerks against the new sensation, jumping to his feet, ready to fight!
Before him…
The sweetest little old lady you ever saw, JUDE, with a smile that would make you think she’s about to offer milk and cookies. Instead, at her feet is Isaiah’s worm.
SULLY
How…Wha…Who are you?
JUDE
(to Isaiah)
Well, aren’t you just the sweetest little boy. I could just gobble you up.
Sully’s brain just now registers what’s in her hands – a laser pistol. Very illegal.
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Scott Kaplan’s Scares, Releases, and Creepy Moments!
What I learned doing this assignment is … to intercut scenes that occurred at the same juncture, just a different location. My goal was to weave the scares and creepy moments into the same timeline, then provide a release.
SCENE
EXT. TOWN – DUSK
Dick Sheriffs has imposed a “lockdown” on the tiny town(2 mile radius). Every man, woman and child are SCARED. They do not feel safe –terrified they will be next … as the “undead spirits” rise up from the smelly sewers during low tide, along with a dense fog. Images of decaying flesh are disturbing as darkness falls. Seminole Street has a repellant feeling of CREEPINESS.
INTERCUT TO : As chaos ensues, Piper and Clen have lured the reluctant cult member, Stacy, to an isolated area in the woods. Fog has overtaken this town, making it difficult to see just how gruesome his murder is. Another CREEPY MOMENT, as he is buried alive … just like the Native American Marsapeaques in 1868. The symmetry is undeniable.
EXT. SUNRISE
Spirits have killed the evil cult members. This sets up to be the calm before the storm. Max and Shwin retreat to perceived safety. They feel a RELEASE as they embrace just before … Shwin is dragged down by an unknown entity into the abyss.
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Alfred’s Scares, Releases and Creepy Moments
What I learned doing this assignment is to focus on the smaller scares and go big in each scene.
Scene:
INT. LOCKER ROOM – DAY
Eboni enters and heads for her locker. She’s the only one in the room. Unlocks it. Hears a noise coming from the shower area. Looks in that direction. Thinks about it. Goes back to what she’s doing.
Hears another noise. Heads for the shower room.
Becky pops up. Startles Eboni.
EBONI: “You scared me.”
Becky: “No need to be scared. We’re all friends here.”
Becky has a dead smile on her face.
EBONI: “We?”
Becky looks past Eboni. Eboni follows her eye line into White Jesus. It grabs her by the throat.
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Marc KOENIG’s Scares, Releases, and Creepy moments!
What I learned doing this assignment is how to add even more power to the horror situations, and improve the impact of the final terrifying situation of a scene by making the characters go through these 3 techniques. Thinking of the release moments as short breaths while drowning makes them quite efficient. Still having fun with all this, but my wife is getting worried (she doesn’t let me cut the chicken anymore, I wonder why).
INT. CORRIDOR – DAY
Flashing red lights illuminate the empty corridor. The door of a big electrical cabinet slowly opens. Bill gets out of his hideout and looks around.
He manipulates switches on the control panel. Lights turn off. He pauses. Startled by the distant sound of a door slamming and glass shattering on tiles, he creeps away.
Bill pushes a door where a sign reads: “CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT – RESTRICTED AREA”
INT. CHEMICALS STORAGE ROOM – DAY
In the dim light of the emergency exit lamps, Bill searches shelves full of plastic jars. In his back, a wide bay window overviews a dark experiment room. He mutters for himself.
BILL
Acetaminophen, meloxicam, Mega-fucking-biotox. Bill’s signature cocktail for freaky chicks.
Bill opens a metal case. It’s empty. He closes it again.
BILL
Store after use, assholes.
Bill turns around and looks through the window. Among a few laboratory bench tops, he spots what looks like a small compressor.
BILL
Gotcha!
CLANG! The tinkling of metal falling down makes him do a double-take. He whispers to the dark.
BILL
Irina? Is it you? Trevor?
Only silence.
BILL
Shit…
Bill turns around again and —
BILL
— AAAH!
BANG! He stumbles against the shelves and drops the jars.
A dark shape stands just on the other side of the window. It’s Jennifer. Standing still. Staring at him with no expression. She’s dead pale with black-encircled eyes. Her face is bruised and her teeshirt stained with blood.
BILL
Jeez, Jen! Honey, you scared the shit out of me.
Jennifer keeps silent. She tilts her head a little.
BILL
Listen, Jen. I won’t be any trouble. Let me go, please. I just wanna go home. Oh, my God, you look terrible. I can get you a doctor.
Jennifer stares down at the jars that fell at his feet.
A flashy label reads in bold letters “DANGER – POISON“.
BILL
Wha wha what?… Oh, no! This is nothing. I mean, this is for Sally. You know I’d never hurt you…
Jennifer’s expression turns to cold anger. She turns her eyes to the storage room entry door.
BILL
No no no! Stay where you are!
Jennifer walks away to the door.
BILL
NO!
Bill runs to an exit door in the opposite direction, hitting and shoving shelves in a panic run. The sound of the entry door banging against the wall echoes behind him.
INT. EXPERIMENT CONTROL ROOM – DAY
The door bursts open. Bill runs through a small office to a back door that he breaks open with a shriek and crumbles.
INT. CORRIDOR – DAY
Bill gets up and runs toward a door at the end of the corridor.
A distant shadow moves through the door window.
Bill stops and grabs the knob of a side door flanked by wide windows. It’s locked.
He tries one on the other side. It opens. He rushes in.
As he silently closes the door behind him, a door opens down the corridor. Jennifer walks in.
INT. OFFICE – DAY
Bill sits down against the door, sweating and panting.
A door slams. Bill holds his breath. He stares at the dark office in front of him. Desk, computers, chairs… A small flashing light catches his eye. A glass door with a digital lock! Bill exhales with relief and slowly moves to get up.
The red lights suddenly flash again, casting the square shape of the two windows between the corridor and the office and illuminating the whole room. Bill freezes.
The lights cast Jennifer’s shadow as well, standing still.
Bill freezes. Slowly moves back to lean against the door. He reaches out to the door latch. His hand trembles as he turns the latch very slowly.
Jennifer’s shadow moves to the door.
Bill closes the latch at the same second as the doorknob lowers. Bill shuts his eyes. The doorknob is released.
He opens his eyes again. The flashing lights cast Jennifer’s shadow moving away toward the end of the corridor.
Bill gets up. He cautiously looks through the window. The corridor is empty.
He searches the desk, opens a drawer, and takes out stuff from it. A small box spreads staples on the desk.
He finds a cutter and slides its blade out. He spins around, whipping the air with it. He startles at his own shadow on the wall. He shakes his head and sighs with relief.
Then there are two shadows in the square of light.
Bill shrieks and looks back. Jennifer stands on the other side of the window with an extinguisher on her shoulder.
Bill rushes to the back door and frantically presses digits on the keyboard. It buzzes negatively and a red light shows.
BILL
Don’t fuck with me!
INT. CORRIDOR – DAY
Jennifer hits the handle of the door with the extinguisher. It breaks after the third hit.
INT. OFFICE – DAY
Bill tries the combination again. His fingers tremble.
BILL
C’mon, open up!
A green light shows with a friendly buzz and the door slides open. Bill looks back.
Jennifer walks in. Drops the extinguisher. Draws a knife from her belt.
Bill hits a red button on the keyboard and rushes into the room. The door closes with a hiss and locks up just as Jennifer hits the window with a cry of rage.
Jennifer looks at the keyboard and types the combination.
Bill steps backward and kicks the digital keyboard hanging on his side. The housing breaks and sparkles fly out from it.
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Eric Humble’s Scares, Releases, and Creepy Moments
What I learned is: how to vary the pace of a scene and augment already-scary horror scenes to be more effective using scares, releases, and creepy moments. These techniques are very useful for creating shifts in tone and for making the slower moments between horror situations more interesting while still delivering on what readers and audiences expect for a horror movie. I’m excited to bring all of these skills to the script!
INT. RICKETY SECTION – NIGHT
A pitch-dark stretch. Mac fires up the lighter. It doesn’t illuminate anything.
MAC
Everyone stand back.
She shakes the aerosol can. Sprays it into the lighter, blasts a jet of flame. In the firelight, the room is revealed to be wide, the door far across the way… but the floor is rickety, splintered, some areas missing boards.
NOAH
That’s not safe. We’ll fall right through… We have to find another way around –
Glancing over his shoulder –
– and it’s not Rachel behind him. It’s a SKELETAL CREATURE, a face of rotting flesh SNARLING in to bite his face off!
Noah screams… stumbles backwards into the room… and is stopped only by the creaking of the boards beneath his feet. Looks up to see that ALL OF THEM are these creatures, coming for him…
The world around them blooms in psychedelic brightness…
Noah backs another step. The floorboards groan. When –
RACHEL
Noah!
Noah snaps to attention. The room is dark. Bremmer, Rachel, and Mac themselves once again. Noah, in a cold sweat, collects himself.
NOAH
Shit.
RACHEL
What the hell was that? Noah?
NOAH
I, uh… look, we need to see this thing. I’m sorry, Rachel, but we can’t make it out while we’re blind.
RACHEL
Noah – what did you do? What did you take??
NOAH
…acid.
Mac groans. Rachel stiffens, paces away=.
MAC
Are you fucking kidding me? You’re tripping right now? How are you going to see it when you don’t know what’s real or not?
Rachel speaks quietly, measured, her back to him.
RACHEL
It’s made us monsters, all of us. All these drugs and alcohol.
Suspense: She goes silent, her shoulders quivering. Is she crying? Noah walks closer to her. Places a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
NOAH
We’re not the monsters.
Rachel spins around, her face suddenly hideously deformed again. They’re all the skeletal wraiths – arms reaching for him. The world vivid in psychedelic color.
Noah turns on them, punching, kicking… and steps wrong, causing the floor to collapse. Noah plummets far to the floor below.
RACHEL
Noah!
INT. FLOOR BELOW – NIGHT
Noah lies still. His eyelids flutter. He sees the wraiths above him, hovering around the gaping hole. In terror, he scrabbles away…
…but recoils. Because his leg is hideously twisted. A BONE juts out of his shin, an open fracture.
From above:
RACHEL
Noah. Just listen to my voice. I’m coming down to help…
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