Day 13 Assignments

[Edward Lusk]

Ed’s Creepy Moments.

What I learned from this assignment on how much a basic scene can be elevated using the creepy moments, Scares, Releases, Creepy Moments. I was able to take the setting and action and transform what was a simple identification of an escape tunnel scene into something really fun and scary to create.

INT. SKI LODGE – BASEMENT – NIGHT

It’s dark, lined with old stones. So cold, ice forms between foundation cracks above the old beams. The boiler breathes to life in unpredictable CLANKS. A leak spurts hissing steam into the passageway.

Across the room the mechanics for the ski lift. Large flywheel, toothy gears, stand still, ready to bit.

Ava, Susie, and Linda, come slowly down the stares, they CREEK under every step. Susie has an old kerosene lamp casting long shadows across the space. We see them from an unknown observer pass by a space between the pillars.

SUSIE

Who’s there?

LINDA

What?

SUSIE

I don’t think we’re alone down here.

LINDA

Let’s just keep moving.

They approach cautiously a small access tunnel covering the lift cables running out the to ski lift shed. It’s a dark narrow space. Susie lifts up the lamp for a better look. YOWL! A cat springs from the tunnel. It flies right at them sending the investigators nearly out of their shoes. Then scampers away knocking over a shovel cascading into empty paint cans.

They breath a sigh of relief.

LINDA

There’s your secret admirer.

AVA

So this it it?

SUSIE

Yes, you’ll have to crawl on your belly.

It’s about 30 yards to the lift shed.

AVA

No problem. Not much different than escaping

Out my bedroom window when I’m grounded.

LINDA

Now I find out.

Ava

What happens on the other side?

You’ll have to manually release the brake. It’s a long

Lever next to the lift cable wheel. Jump into the next

Lift chair. It’s all gravity after that.

Ava’s simple escape only draws attention to Susie’s and Linda’s ugly predicament. They avoid eye contact for a beat. The moment broken by an unworldly MOANING coming emanating from the utility tunnel. They step back.

AVA

No way I’m going in there.

The moaning shifts an octave. The lift cable vibrate and flutter.

SUSIE

It’s just the wind. Image a long pipe organ tube.

That’s all.

The winds blows agains, the noise sounds like AAAAVAAAA, AVAAAA. Like she’s being called inside.

AVA

That’s it, I’m not going.

Upstairs the lobby clock begins to strike ten bells. DONG, DONG…

LINDA

Now or never, sweetheart.

Ava and Linda hug. Susie gives Ava a bust up into the tunnel. She scampers forward into the darkness. The bottom of her boots disappearing as the wind calls her name.

[CLAIRE RILEY]

Claire’s Scares, Releases, and Creepy Moments!

What I learned: I like having different ways to creep out the audience.

Concept: When an evil ghost possesses the lesbians visiting an isolated farm, forcing each woman to murder her own partner, a timid psychic must stop it before it possesses her or her wife.

INT. FARMHOUSE – NIGHT

Maeve and Zora rush up the stairs from the basement to find Caitlin rolled in a ball in the corner screaming, Diana frantically giving first aid to Alison who has a huge gash in her head, and Sybil thrashing around the room, clearly possessed.

SYBIL

Get out of me!

Sybil flies across the room and laughs hysterically.

SYBIL

No!

Sybil projectile vomits and collapses, unconscious.

Maeve rushes to her. She lifts Sybil’s head and gently taps her face.

MAEVE

Sybil? Sybil?

Sybil opens her eyes. She turns to Alison and SOBS.

SYBIL

Oh my god, what have I done? I didn’t want to. It was inside me.

Maeve holds her.

MAEVE

Of course you didn’t want to hurt Alison. It wasn’t your fault. You were possessed.

Diana covers Alison’s face with a towel.

DIANA

She’s gone.

All six women cry. Maeve gets ahold of herself.

MAEVE

I know what’s happening. It’s a ghost. It will possess one of us from each couple and then she will kill her partner.

DIANA

That can’t happen.

MAEVE

It’s happening now.

DIANA

You mean, one of us could be next.

Regina wipes the tears from her face and slowly walks over to Maeve smiling. As she gets closer to Maeve, her smile becomes increasingly sinister, until she looks like a mad woman, and she CACKLES like a lunatic.

Maeve SCREAMS in terror. Regina LAUGHS hysterically.

REGINA

I got you! I got you!

Maeve is enraged.

MAEVE

How could you?

REGINA

Very easily. I’m a comedian.

[Madeleine Vessel]

Madeleine Vessel’s Scares, Releases, and Creepy moments!

What I learned doing this assignment is how easy it is to insert scares, releases, and creep moments into a scene. It’s so easy and yet so powerful in terms of audience response.

Scene that uses scares, releases, and creepy moments.

Mallory needs to use the restroom.

INT. OLD LADY SETTER’S HOUSE – NIGHT

In the bathroom, Kathryn sits on a stool, holding the lit candelabra, while Mallory uses the toilet.

MALLORY
It’s so nice and warm and safe in here. We should stay in here until Mrs. Setter returns home.

KATHRYN
I wonder how long that will be.

Mallory wipes herself, pulls up her panties, and washes her hands at the sink.

Drying her hands, Mallory starts to preen in front of the mirror.

MALLORY
I’m pretty, aren’t I? Everyone says so.

KATHRYN
Very pretty.

PLOP!

The plopping noise comes from behind the shower curtain.

Is someone in the bathroom with them?

Kathryn summons up courage.

KATHRYN
Hello?

Slowly, Kathryn pulls back the shower curtain and STARTLES at the sight of Max’s ghost huddling in a corner of the shower.

MALLORY
(panicky)
What is it? What do you see? Is someone there?

KATHRYN
(to Max)
How did you get here?

MAX
I followed you from where I fell in the snow. Mallory took my knife. It’s special. I didn’t want to lose it.

MALLORY
(to Kathryn)
What did you say?

Obviously, Mallory cannot see Max.

Kathryn turns to Mallory. She’s angry.

KATHRYN
I told you not to take Max’s pocketknife. Where is it? … WHERE IS IT?

Mallory digs in her pocket. She brings up Max’s knife.

Kathryn grabs it away from her.

MALLORY
What’s the big deal?

KATHRYN
Max followed us. He wants his knife back.

MALLORY
What? … Stop fooling around. You’re scaring me.

KATHRYN
When you picked up the knife, you picked him up, too.

Mallory crosses to the shower and looks inside.

No one’s there.

MALLORY
(to Kathryn)
Sometimes, I hate you… Here’s the stupid knife.

Mallory hands Kathryn the knife.

Kathryn attempts to hand Max the knife, but he can’t hold onto it.

THUD!

The knife hits the shower floor with a thud.

Max FREAKS!

KATHRYN
Calm down. You act like you don’t know you’re dead.

MAX
Dead? NO! … I can’t be. I just can’t be.

MALLORY
Stop it Kathryn.

Angry, Mallory turns her back to Kathryn.

She sees in the mirror a reflection of Max, standing in the bathtub behind her.

She gasps. She SCREAMS!

KATHRYN
Max doesn’t want to hurt us.

MALLORY
Oh, God.

Mallory loses it!

KATHRYN
(authoritative)
MALLORY! … Calm down. Screaming isn’t going to change anything.

Kathryn turns to Max.

KATHRYN
You might not want to believe it, but you are dead. You’ve been dead for more than twenty-four hours. Someone found your body in the snow.

Mallory grips the edge of the vanity and watches the exchange between Max and Kathryn in the mirror.

KATHRYN (continued)
According to the news, you died of exposure, hypothermia to be exact.

MAX
No. That’s not right.

Suddenly, he remembers and touches a gaping wound at his side.

He shows the wound to Kathryn and to Mallory as a reflection in the mirror.

MAX (continued)
My stepfather killed me. My mother just stood by and watched… I hate them. I hate them both so much.

Both the girls gasp in horror.

KATHRYN
I’m so sorry, Max.

Mallory can see what’s happening, but she can’t hear what Max is saying.

MALLORY
(to Kathryn)
Can he hear me?

Max nods to Mallory’s reflection in the mirror.

MALLORY
I’m sorry I took your knife, Max… I thought that some of your artistic talent would rub off on me if I had it. So stupid.

Max puts up his hand as if to stifle Mallory.

MAX
(to Kathryn)
Tell Mallory, I forgive her.

Kathryn turns to Mallory.

Mallory bursts into tears.

MALLORY
I know.

[Micah Delhauer]

MICAH’S SCARES, RELEASES, AND CREEPY MOMENTS

INT. FELIX’S ROOM

Felix prepares to shoot himself and sees his reflection in the mirror.

CREEPY MOMENT: His reflection has its back to him.

SCARE: The head flips backward and gawks at Felix upside down. The reflection turns to face him, the head transformed into the birdlike Jinx.

CREEPY MOMENT: Felix hears the Jinx’s voice in his head, learning that it wants to cause as much misfortune, suffering and death as possible. Felix has flashes of several historical accidents: the Great Fire of London, the Hindenburg Disaster, the Chernobyl meltdown, the Deepwater Horizon spill.

No more!

Felix brings the gun to his head and fires.

RELEASE: The gun jams.

He smashes the window open, puts his foot on the sill. He slips on the rain water and falls on his back, spraining it, unable to move. The Jinx taunts him the whole while.

* * * * * *

INT. FELIX’S ROOM

Felix locks the door. Lightning splashes the room as he marches toward the center, passing a mirror.

He stares at the gun in his hand. It glistens in the strobe of the lightning.

Felix brings it to his temple. Breathes in. Breathes out. Shuts his eyes.

Another breath. He scrunches up his face. Clenches his jaw.

His eyes come open.

FELIX: Come on. Come on, you coward.

Felix turns around. Takes in a deep breath of courage.

Then his eyes narrow. The looks at his reflection in the wall mirror.

It isn’t facing him. It stands in the exact same position, but facing away, as if he were looking in through a window behind himself.

Then the reflection’s head flops backward like the wryneck and stares right at him, features birdlike, chirping laughter.

Felix leaps back.

The head lolls to and fro in a freakish display. Then the reflection turns to face him properly and the head settles. The face has finished its transformation into the bird-human hybrid, feathers replacing hair, eyes on the side, nose and mouth coming together into a beak. This at long last, is THE JINX.

It continues its hideous laughter.

FELIX: What the fuck do you want?

The Jinx’s VOICE echoes in FELIX’S head, words and phrases overlapping one another.

JINX (V.O.): Want – Want – What does it want? – It want? – It wants – Pain – Suffering – It wants death – Sorrow – Misery – It wants – It wants.

FELIX: What are you?

JINX (V.O.): Tragedy – Fate – Misfortune – It’s been here always – Since you began – It drinks your tears – It bathes in your blood – Look – See – See – See

Felix’s eyes widen. The room whites out with a flash of lightning.

FLASH:

A brass street sign on a brick wall: PUDDING LANE – A wood sign above a door: BAKERY. The door explodes outward – the city of London, 1666, an inferno.

FLASH:

The Hindenburg floating across the sky – Flames erupting from the rear of the airship – The ship sinking to the ground, consumed by the rising flames.

FLASH:

Images of Chernobyl, details to be added later.

FLASH:

Images of the Deepwater Horizon spill, details to be added later.

FLASH:

Back to the scene.

JINX (V.O.): See – See – See – See – The madness – The misery the man and it will sow.

FELIX: No.

Felix brings the gun to his temple, steels himself with a final breath.

Pulls the trigger.

The hammer falls. There’s a click, but no bang. A perturbed Felix tries again. The barrel does not turn. He inspects the gun, tries to open it, but it won’t budge. Peeking through the slat between the frame and the barrel, he can see a dislodged casing having jammed the device.

The Jinx’s chirping LAUGH reverberates in his mind.

JINX (V.O.): The man will not leave – He must stay – It will not let him go.

Felix looks in the mirror and sees the horrid reflection gawking and laughing at him. He throws the gun and shatters the glass.

In each of the shards spread across the floor, the Jinx continues to laugh and throw its head about, but differently in each tiny reflection, like a dozen little TVs out of sync with each other.

FELIX: Fuck you. You’re not using me to hurt anyone else.

Lightning flashes, drawing Felix’s eye to the window.

He grabs a chair and smashes the glass. Rain sprays the room, water spills over the sill.

Felix goes to the window, grabs the frame, steps up onto the sill.

JINX (V.O.): Where does the man go? – He cannot leave – No escape – Such sorrow – So much sorrow he and it will cause.

As Felix lifts himself up, his foot slips on the wet sill and he falls backward, flat on his back. He lets a cry of agony.

The JINX LAUGHS.

Felix tries to get up, gives a sharp cry. His back is badly hurt. With tremendous, pained effort, he rolls over onto his stomach, tries to crawl, and immediately gives up.

JINX (V.O.): The man will stay – The man will not leave – There is fun to be had – He and it will revel in anguish.

Looking up, Felix sees the wryneck staring at him from a few feet away, LAUGHING.

He buries his face in the carpet, defeated.

[Gregg Guest]

I’m learning it’s hard to sustain the scares and creepy moments – and releases are challenging to create and have them be realistic when there is panic occurring.

INT. HALLWAY – DAY

While Stan works on the elevator the others gather nervously in the hallway. Dmitri paces back and forth.

DMITRI
This is not good.

JULIAN
Everyone knows you’re not supposed to use an elevator during a fire.

CARINA
The stairs are out of play.

KEELAN
I’ll be back.

He heads off down the hallway.

Izumi fiddles with her smart phone, shakes her head.

IZUMI
Still no signal.

DMITRI
We are like standing ducks here.

JULIAN
I think you mean sitting.

DMITRI
You sit. I’m going to get out of here.

He hands Julian the flashlight, then slides a chair into the middle of the hallway and climbs up on it.

CARINA
What are you doing?

Dmitri unscrews a panel on the ceiling.

DMITRI
The air duct leads across the building. To the other staircase.

JULIAN
You’re crazy.

DMITRI

Not crazy enough to wait here for fire to come. Follow me.

The others just stare at him, no one moves.

DMITRI
Very well. I go alone.

He pulls the panel off the air duct, hands it to Julian and smiles at the group.

DMITRI
Wish me luck.

He sticks his head up into the duct. The others watch anxiously.

Dmitri SCREAMS.

CARINA
Dimitri!

His legs flail and then go limp.

IZUMI

Help him!

Julian moves to help, but Dmitri drops down from the duct onto the chair, laughing.

DMITRI
Got you!

CARINA

Bastard.

JULIAN

Not funny.

DMITRI
I need hand getting up.

He motions to Julian to give him a boost. Julian huffs, but grabs Dmitri’s legs and helps lift him up into the duct.

DMITRI
(from within duct)
Give me flashlight.

Carina hands him the small flashlight.

DMITRI
Okay, everything okay.

Julian sits on the chair. Carina squeezes onto the edge. Izumi leans against the wall.

INT. AIR DUCT – DAY

The air duct is dark. Dmitri turns on the light, illuminating the tunnel.

He begins to shimmy through the passageway, twisting his body to squeeze through the seams.

With each slides forward, the light illuminates a little more of the tunnel. But darkness persists beyond the flashlight’s range.

He moves forward, using the walls of the duct as leverage to pull himself through the tight space.

DMITRI
(to self)
Time for diet again.

He shines the light ahead to reveal an intersection. As he begins moving towards it, a scratching noise can be heard growing louder from around the corner.

Dmitri illuminates the passage. Suddenly, a swarm of cockroaches races into the intersection. They hurry by, as if running away from something.

A few of them peel off and come at Dmitri, but he manages to wave them off and they follow the others, disappearing down the darkened tunnel.

Dmitri lets out a deep breath, then continues in the direction they came from.

[Tom Wilson]

Tom’s Scares, Releases, and Creepy Moments!

What I learned doing this assignment is amazing how I can punch up a so-so scene with scary stuff!

EXT. DESERTED TOTALLY DARK MANSION – NIGHT

Horror Situation – Disguised as a woman, Andrew adopts Elizabeth. Butchers her. (She humiliated him.)

Elizabeth opens, climbs in the kitchen window over the sink. Flips the light switch. No light goes on.

Horror Situation: Margaret enters mansion in search of her blind date.

Anxiety: A bat smashes into her hair, gets entangled. She shrieks. Bat flies out the window.

She searches the kitchen. Cobwebs, spooky noises, clogged toilet smells.

Surprise/scare: A horse whinnies. Lightning flash: A creature on a stallion. Flash again. It’s gone.

The dark creature slithers under the backdoor into the kitchen.

Shock: She has a Boa constrictor in one hand. A human fetus in other. Boa inhales fetus. Vanishes.

She answers her phone. Detective Ethel says they’ll be there ASAP. She sobs her gratitude.

Fear: She hears unhuman sound, races through the mansion and tiptoes up the creaky staircase.

Andrew abruptly appears before her. She gags at the blood and tissue on his mouth. He giggles.

He taps his head switching on a waltz. He takes her in his arms and dances her into the bathroom.

Release: She’s relieved. Smiles delight at seeing him again.

He sits on the side of the tub, pulls her down onto his lap and inhales her fragrances.

Dread: She reacts to a serious cut on the top of his head.

He reaches behind her and retrieves a china tea pot. In the other hand he holds a matching tea cup.

Release: She sips, smiles. It’s just the way she likes her tea. She’s relieved and slowly relaxes.

Panic: He looks up and is face to face with the dark creature.

Anguish: The creature crawls on top of her like a blanket. She shrieks.

Later Andrew removes gristle off a femur. Drops it into the bone pile in the kitchen sink.

He hears noise, sees police SUV pull up. Ethel jumps out, gun drawn, runs toward backdoor.

Andrew lifts a foot off the kitchen floor and flies through the mansion to the stairs.

He zooms to the second floor without touching a step.

Ethel tiptoes in the backdoor. Meets Lucy in the kitchen. They relax. But it’s only for a moment.

Lucy turns on her flashlight. They gasp and are repulsed by the pile of bones in the sink.

From the top of the stairs, Andrew stares down at them and waves bye.

Ethel spots him, screams. She and Lucy pull out their pistols and run to the foot of the stairs.

Andrew laughs, turns to a window that abruptly opens. He flies effortlessly out the window.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by  Tom Wilson.