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Day 2 Assignments
Reply to post your assignments.
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27 Replies
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Larry Fraller’s Terrifying Monster
What I learned doing this assignment is the monster is more complex than I realized.
1. My monster comes in two parts.
First part is the Eumenides who determine who and why the victim is going to be.
Second is through what medium the Eumenides manifest their attacks.2. Terror: What begins as barely noticeable pests grows by monstrous proportions to unlikely and bizarre beasts.
Mystery: What are the barely noticeable pests? Are they real or imagined? By the time we get to the ending, we still don’t know where they come from but we know they are terrifyingly deadly real.
Fear Provoking Appearance: The Eumenides are three grotesque, deformed, ancient creatures resembling human beings. Each may be different or they may be clones of one another except with distinctly different personalities (though I don’t know yet). But they are in the background after the opening scene. Their creations appear almost normal, but act with volition that is relentless and unrecognizable in normal creatures of their kind.
Their Rules: They attack the guilty through someone dear to the guilty party, and the guilty party never knows why they’re guilty. The victim has done something that might appear slight or even benign, but the consequences of their decision/action is beyond their own life.
Their Mythology: The Eumenides are archetypal, residing in everyone’s conscience, beyond subconsciously. They are eternal, divine and never sated. They can be thwarted only by conscious and willful atonement. Then they disappear back into the individual, but continue to exist and can manifest whenever someone’s guilt opens the gates.<sub></sub>
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Carmen’s Terrifying Monster.
What I learned from this assignment is I need to keep fine-tuning my monster/villain. I also learned how complex he needs to be and keep honing in on his originality and what truly makes him scary!
1. Tell us what or who your monster is.
My monster is the former biggest Mob Boss in Vegas. His nephew kills him and he comes back to seek revenge.
Their Terror: Relentlessly and mercilessly kills until everyone in his bloodline is dead! There is no escape, he is paranormal – he can go anywhere. He sucks their souls, cracks their bones, and uses their tissue, blood and organs to eat and assimilate into himself.
Their Mystery: How can he be stopped before he kills everyone in his family/bloodline
Their Fear Provoking Appearance: He looks a bit rotted after his nephew digs him up to retrieve the money buried with him – but as he kills he uses the blood, tissues, skins, etc., to add to his face and drain energy from his victims. Leaving him grotesque, disfigured, and terrifying!
Their Rules: He only kills in his bloodline – feeling everyone beginning with the nephew betrayed him – this includes women and children. He had a pact with the Devil for his power and money – and he cannot stop killing or he will go to hell himself.
Their Mythology: He made a pact with the Devil when he first came to Vegas, poor. He offered up souls as payment. Every ten years he would have almost his entire “workforce” killed to satisfy the deal and hire new ones – except family. Once his nephew and others betray him – all bets are off. Once his grave is disturbed the deal is “reactivated” and he “kills” two birds with one stone – killing for revenge and as payment.
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What I learned is – developing these criteria will help shape the story
1. TERROR
How does the monster terrorize? – appears in the shadows, then disappears.
How does the monster pursue? – in the dark, unseen, without warning.
How does the monster isolate? – in blackness. It can see you – you can’t see it.
What is the terrible thing they do? – eats vital organs from inside the body – slices and dices – tears people to shreds
How does the monster cause death? – It morphs into anything, a wild animal, a meat clever, a ventilator etc – and kills accordingly.
What makes them inescapable? – you are exposed in blackness where the figure can envelope you.
2. MYSTERY
What is the main monster mystery? – How can we stop this figure killing when it doesn’t exist.
3. FEAR PROVOKING APPEARANCE – The many faces of fear.
A black cloak that hangs on nothing and transforms into demonic creatures, rabid animals, chainsaws and the like – and underneath the cloak is a decomposing body – festered with insects.
4. RULES
The monster creates and manipulates a shadow – that becomes a weapon of death or defense shield.
5. MYTHOLOGY (to be explained in a sequel)
After securing a life changing contract for a shadow group, her fellow cast-members steal the rights to the product and in the ensuing melee, Lexus is killed, but she doesn’t die, and wants revenge.
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Jennifer’s Terrifying Monster
I learned that there are several components to devise when creating a monster.
1. TERROR
How does the monster terrorize?
They summon forces of nature and lethal creatures to do their bidding.
How does the monster pursue?
They inhabit the body of a young child in the family.
How does the monster isolate?
They are in the bosom of the family – so they are always with the parents.
What is the terrible thing they do?
They relentlessly unleash deadly forces until their purpose is complete.
How does the monster cause death?
Could be venom, stings, razor-sharp teeth and claws, or terrorizing victims until they plunge to their death.
What makes this inescapable?
Victim does not know it is the child controlling the terror. They trust the child.
2. MYSTERY
The main mystery is who the Monster is after and why the victims are being targeted. They do not even know that the child is controlling the threats.
3. FEAR PROVOKING APPEARANCE — The Many Faces of Fear
IRONIC VISUAL – The Monster inhabits the body of the victims’ own child. (Perhaps the eyes are all black when they are attacking?
4. RULES
The Monster takes residence inside the child, and terrorizes its Victims until it inflicts the final death blow – exacting justice for the cruelty or evil the Victims have committed.
5. MYTHOLOGY
The Monster originates/emerges from a book the child is reading – a collection of moral lessons, fables, and rhymes. It takes over the child in order to punish adults who are cheating, abusing or exploiting others.
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What I learned in doing this assignment: I learned how the conventions really help flesh out my thoughts for this Horror Concept.
Mark Hammond:Terrifying Monster
My Monster:
My Monster Is A Undertaker/Devil
Their Terror:
The monster rips the souls out of bodies, mutilates bodies with a surgeon’s saw and hacksaw,
drains their blood, breaks their bones to fit them in caskets… all while they are still alive!
Their Mystery:
Victims can see a silhouette of someone on an operating table, screaming while frantically struggling to get away.
Helpless to do anything. they wonder, who is this person doing this, and will they be next?
The fear provoking appearance:
The monster is wearing a full black rubber apron, black elbow high rubber gloves, a black surgical face mask, a plastic face shield, and a black surgeons cap. The only thing we can see of his face is his really blood shot eyes.
Their Rules:
The rules are simple. Your sole has 24 hours of life remaining after arriving in the funeral home.
You can either go to heaven, come back to life, or go to hell.
The monster must do anything and everything to prevent you from escaping alive or going to heave during that time period.
Their Mythology:
The monster only has a certain amount of time to reach his quota of souls to be
captured. If the quota is not met he will be demoted to a keeper of the fire.
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Anthony Ward’s terrifying Monster
What I learned doing this assignment is that there are three things that make a great Monster. Those three things are the audience wants a monster that is unique, The unknown parts of my monster will play into the viewer’s fears and my monster needs to be terrifying.
ASSIGNMENT
Create an early version of your monster.
Tell us what or who your monster is.
My monster is the ghost / ashes of Errol Brennon.
Their Terror: My monster, Errol Brennon was cremated after his death. His ashes were left in his abandon mansion. One day while a party was taking place at his house his ghost was summoned by a few party goers. His ashes reassembled in the shape of a man. He moves through the house causes supernatural havoc on those who occupy his house. He eventually starts to kill by getting into the air passages of his victims and suffocating them.
Their Mystery: The mystery of surviving this monster is to not scream because he can get in your mouth. If your nostrils are open he can get in your nose. If you wear a mask of face covering you are more protected.
Their Fear Provoking Appearance: The ghost of Errol Brennon looks like dirt ask and dust. These three things that make up his body flow like running water but always reassembles as they fall to the floor. He can make himself less visible by blending in with dust or dirt.
Their Rules: Errol can pass under doors. He can move through the air ducts in the house. If his arm or one of his limbs were to fall off he can grow it back by adding more dirt of ash to himself.
You can not hide from Errol. He does move slow but you can not hide from him. Once he gets inside of a person they cough and choke to death. That person’s body looks covered in gray ash.Their Mythology: A group of misfits looted and abandoned mansion that can only be accessed by boat. They decide to return to the mansion in a few weeks to use as the location for their annual Memorial Day party.. A small group of people wonder if the house is haunted so a girl tries to summon a spirit. She thinks the attempt failed but in fact it brought Errol back to life, sort of. Earlier an urn was knocked over and his ashes were spilled out. We later find out that Errol was poisoned by his children so that they could inherit the mansion. It is revenge Errol seeks.
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Carolyn’s Terrifying Monster
What I learned doing this assignment is…I need to do more brainstorming on mystery and rules. I also like the idea of making him more unseen.
Tell us what or who your monster is.
Smooth Carver is a cannibal who runs Heartly Farm, a wellness retreat in the mountains that actually operates as a cannibal farm.
Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:
Terror: Smooth kills, cooks, and eats you or makes you one of his flesh-eating minions, take your pick.
Mystery: In order to survive this monster, my protagonist starts a food fight, creates a diversion and is helped mercifully at the last moment by another cannibal who turns on Smooth because he treats her like crap. I need to think more about this one – “The secret, question, or puzzle that must be solved in order to survive.” Maybe he chokes on a piece of flesh? Or he gets violently sick after eating?
Fear Provoking Appearance: Smooth is tall and skinny, a cross between Monty Burns and Roger Waters. He always wears animal skins – snake, alligator, leather, ostrich, fur. He has long fingernails and his weapon of choice is the scalpel. He always keeps several in his breast pocket and flings them like darts among other things.
Their Rules: The clients have to meet certain standards, as they will be eaten. Smokers are not admitted to Heartly Farm. Smooth is top dog, he runs the show, but he does have to answer to a group of investors.
Their Mythology: Smooth had a severe jealous streak as a child and killed his young sister which was covered up by his parents whom he later killed and stuffed and put into a giant cuckoo clock. Having tasted his sister’s blood by accident, Smooth was compelled to study medicine, became a surgeon, and received his moniker, Smooth, because he was damn good with a scalpel. He joined Doctors without Borders and fell in with a cannibal tribe deep in the Amazon and became addicted to human flesh. Back home, he secretly started slicing tiny slivers of organ during surgery to eat later and well, you know how habits develop over time. Now he runs a cannibal farm that provides a steady supply of human flesh.
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Chris’s terrifying Monster
What I learned doing this assignment is that a great monster consists of a combination of three things– being unique, unknown and terrifying.
Tell us what or who your monster is.
My Monster is the son, a techie, who has killed his baby sister and tries to push his unstable mother over the edge.
Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:
Their Terror: He uses technology, such as small, hidden Bluetooth speakers to terrorize his grieving mother.
Their Mystery: The mother and audience doesn’t know who or what is doing the terrorizing. We don’t see the Monster until it’s revealed that it’s been the son all along.
Their Fear Provoking Appearance: The young son wears a mask of innocence. Think Damien from The Omen.
Their Rules: He preys upon his mom’s technological ignorance.
Their Mythology: He has been babysat by the Dark Web and How To videos.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Christopher Harboldt.
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Toby Watts’ Terrifying Monster
What I learned doing this assignment is that having original rules about your monster really makes the film feel unique and helps to drive the terror and create puzzles and tension on screen as characters try to get around the rules.
‘BELOW GROUND’ (title)
Who or what is my monster?<div>An unexpected, comatose, disfigured man that suddenly crashes into the underground bunker where a wealthy family are hiding from vigilantes.
2. Parts of the Monster
Terror — it inflicts disgust through its distorted appearance, and abject paranoia to the point of hysteria because no one knows whether it will wake up at any point and what it might do to them in this contained space. When it does wake up, they realise what a threat it is and how impossible it will be to overcome it.
Mystery — whilst he’s unconscious, no one knows if he is a threat at all or how he could even be a threat. There’s a mystery about whether he will wake up at all, and also about how to get rid of him without the other characters losing their humanity and killing him.
Fear provoking appearance — the man’s face is unsettlingly disfigured, something just not quite right or human about him.
Rules — Don’t go near him! If you go near him he animates to life. You have about 1m clearance and he will stay ‘dead’. All you have to do is leave him alone. Easy enough, right? Not when he’s in the same room as you, where you sleep and eat…
Mythology — The billionaire father who owns this bunker created a technology that allows tiny amounts of heat exchange to efficiently power large electrical devices. The father’s business enemy put this technology in this freak of a man who can now only survive in close proximity to heat sources i.e. humans, and then he dumped this man in the bunker to teach the billionaire a moral lesson about the misuse of his technology.
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Subject line: George’s Terrifying Monster
3. “What I learned doing this assignment is” that I have a good grasp of horror monsters despite not being overly interested in the genre until now.
Create an early version of your monster.
1. Tell us what or who your monster is. An alien from a nearby dwarf star is sent to do recon in response to a Search for Extraterrestrial signal sent from an isolated, mountaintop radio telescope. It has huge teeth and hind claws, sort of a bear with a shark’s mouth. It possesses superhuman strength and can leap tens of feet. It is intelligent and sophisticated with fingers and advanced technology. It has infrared vision and prefers the dark. It arrived freeze-dried, so it is practically indestructible.
2. Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:
Their Terror: How does the monster terrorize? It comes out at night and kills.
How does the monster pursue? It moves incredibly fast because it can jump tens of feet in Earth gravity.
How does the monster isolate? It has infrared vision, so it waits until a human comes out at night, pounces and rips the person apart. It devours some and leaves a dismembered trail of others.
What is the terrible thing they do? See above.
How does the monster cause death? Shark-like teeth and grizzly-like hind claws.
What makes this inescapable? Its speed, intelligence, the cover of darkness, its ability to kill quickly, its superhuman strength.
Their Mystery: What is it? How do we keep it from killing us? How do we stop it? (The Earth environment is not ideal for it.)
Their Fear-Provoking Appearance: It has huge teeth and hind claws, sort of a bear with a shark’s mouth, but it takes a while for the telescope staff to see it because it comes out at night.
Their Rules: It feeds its hunger, but also rips apart and analyzes humans. It comes out only at night. It can hibernate for centuries without water. It needs to report back to its planet.
Their Mythology: They are predators.
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Wayne Schrengohst’s Terrifying Monster
I learned to focus on just the assignment, have fun, and enjoy what pops to mind.
Ollie works for the CIA as a normal. She is also killing them as a monster. They don’t know it’s her killing them. She has a spirit side of her capable of very very bad killings. She use to think she was doing good. Now she has doubts. Her monster side and her normal side can both be working at the same time, even at great distances.
She has a belief system and she kills in retribution. Some times she forgives for reasons she doesn’t understand. She loves the thrill of a clean confession and takes that into account and randomly forgives. She’s kind of muddled. Lefty leaning. She believes Sins are passed on from people to people. She can kill you for your parents crimes, or crimes you inspired in friends.
Terror: Besides employing ancient barbaric painful deaths, she loves details of thier crimes (crime even if it’s your job). She controls them by hearing their fears and presenting them. She knows things she couldn’t know. She knows them because her victim knows them. She knows crimes of forefathers. She delights at bringing her victims up to date before death. Mind games.
Mystery: It is a mystery. Who is killing. Why does every Agent assigned die. Why isn’t the agency bringing this into the open.
Appearance: She presents as people/demon, old friends, parents, people they have killed. And she usually transforms to full on demon before killing.
Rules: She only have 10 minutes to do what she does. She runs out of psychic energy. Ticking clock. Some times she doesn’t finish and tells them she will be back, giving them an assignment. They some times try to kill her knowing she’ll be back.
Mythology: She wants to write history books that tell the truth but is unsure whether that will help anything.
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Quincy (Quinn)’s Terrifying Monster
What I learned doing this assignment is
Tell us what or who your monster is:
Unknown spores from a meteorite which changes people into single-minded drones.
Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:
- Their Terror:
- How does the monster terrorize? – It changes you; who you are is lost.
- How does the monster pursue? – First by contact with the meteorite, then by air – carried on the wind or exhaled by the infected.
- How does the monster isolate? – The first thing the drones do is build a barrier to protect the hive.
- What is the terrible thing they do? – They first turn you into a drone, which are single-minded in their tasks of defend and build; then, you turn into something else via a pupa/chrysalis phase.
- How does the monster cause death? – (1) It changes who you are (death of the self) (2) If you are deemed a threat, the drones will kill you.
- What makes this inescapable? – Its in the air, its in your family and friends, and the drones have build structures to ensure no one can get in or out.
- Their Mystery: How do the characters keep from being turned, how/can they return their friends and family back to normal, how/can they stop the spread, how/can they escape/get help from the outside?
- <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Their Fear Provoking Appearance: A cloud, your friends, the final stage
- Their Rules: It’s in the air, on surfaces…it’s so easy to be infected; it changes who you are, mentally and emotionally, before physically transforming you into something new; whoever is infected has two goals: build the hive, defend the hive; you can’t come back from the change – it’s permanent
- Their Mythology: This is how an alien world is colonizing other planets: genetically engineered spores lie dormant inside of a crystalline shell which will survive entry into a habitable planet and, once awakened by the heat and presence of certain required characteristics (gravity, water, etc), will begin converting select fauna into drones to build the new hive, which subsequently become the colony by a pupae stage. The existing flora will begin to change into the kind of food the aliens require. The meteorite found in the screenplay is one of thousands, if not tens of thousands, which strike the Earth during a shower.
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I like this idea and what if…..normal humans are a previous version? V2
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Thanks!
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Paige’s Terrifying Monster(s)
What I learned is the importance of making the monster unique and threatening. The more so, the better.
Title: OLD ONES
1. Tell us what or who your monster is.
Playing off of H.P. Lovecraft’s “Old Ones”, my monsters are alien creatures that have survived, not just centuries, but millenniums by adapting the appearance of human females around them, because they have one flaw – only the women survive. Thus, they continue to need and hunt human male counterparts in order to mate and procreate.
2. Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:
Their Terror:
How does the monster terrorize? When a “clutch” appears in an area, the female creatures will target both powerful and corrupt men (as they are easier to “turn”) as needed to get a nursery of sizeable proportion to come to term. Any interlopers, male or female, are dispensed with. In some cases of women, they replace the woman with one of their own to “whisper” in the ears of the more powerful.
How does the monster pursue? By taking on the form, or glamour, of desirable females in various age ranges, and based on the target’s view of beauty. Also, by targeting corruptible men.
How does the monster isolate? Often in “dream walking”, where they complete the mating act in their victims’ dreams by psychic projection of their glamoured form. Rare exceptions where they need to corner a target.
What is the terrible thing they do? Shed their bodies to reveal their true selves and invade the mouths, eyes, and belly for their needs, and their victims are unable to move or awaken.
How does the monster cause death? Causes their victims to age decades in a matter of days. Death follows a short time after – a week or a month after to throw off suspicion. For others who get in their way or need to be replaced, they have the ability to put the power of suggestion into their target’s minds, i.e., to jump off a bridge, suicide by cop, or in other ways, so all the deaths are not attributed to them. If one fights the power of suggestion, madness or mental illness ensues.
What makes this inescapable? Corruption, misery, and community crisis are breeding beds for these creatures to flourish. There is no lack of any of those. But the cycle is also generational so not to be easily discernible. They lay low for periods of time.
Their Mystery:
What is the secret, question, or puzzle that must be solved to survive this monster?
How do we stop their breeding cycle and end their reign?
Their Fear-Provoking Appearance: Lovecraft-type albino alien creatures with pink eyes who slither with multiple legs, but they are disguised as a trio of women in various stages of life: the “seducer”, the “caretaker”, and the “matron.”
Their Rules: The “Old Ones” target the susceptible – often corrupt and powerful men, or the women who support them – in order to expand their own reign and longevity.
Their Mythology:
The landed as reptilian aliens and evolved over millenniums to adapt the appearance of human female forms – it’s a psychic glamour. If an appendage is cut off, they can regenerate it. I still need to figure out how one can see beyond the glamour, or shape-shifting appearance.
Throughout history, they have been called many names: succubi, demons, vampires. They use manipulation and psychic abilities to overcome and seduce their prey. They have super strength, super speed and super stamina. They can heal instantly from a stab and gunshot wound. They are not easily killed. A “kiss of death” is their ability to steal the life force from their victims, which in turn, gives them the power to grow stronger and to heal faster. They give off pheromones that attract others to them. “Dream walking” is their ability to appear in dreams to seduce their victims.
What are their weaknesses? (Need to figure out.)
There are actually “nests” or “clutches” of these beings worldwide; I’m just focusing one set for now. But basically, they operate on a generational cycle of 22 years. The women get impregnated, return to a clutch to release their eggs, and when there is enough, the matron releases a material to activate them all. This depletes the matron’s energy. The other women then raise and care for the “young”, until they are ready to go out in the world themselves. During this period, they lay low, so as not to draw attention to themselves.
How to kill them?
Maybe you have to stab her with a blade made of human bone dipped in the blood of someone they failed to seduce? Or simple decapitation – which is not a simple act. Takes strength and cunning.
No cats or dogs in their areas. Few to no birds heard.
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Charles Ferrell’s Terrifying Monster
What I learned from doing this assignment is the large gap between horror portrayal’s of psychopaths and their actual methods and psychopathology.
1. Who and what my monster is:
Scribbles: a hairless, tattooed and heavily scarred female psychopathic killer
Her father abused and eventually murdered her mother in front of her. He would keep her in a storage container when he would go out. After losing his job at the docks, he tried learning to be a tattooist. Without art skills he would tie her up as a little girl, practicing on her as she struggled. This resulted in her body being covered in squiggly lines, scars from incorrect technique and bondage. He routinely told her “if you are going to be a hairless freak, you might as well be my little scribbles”
2. Their Terror:
A deadly maze comprised of Shipping containers within an abandoned offshore cargo ship, along with her crew of addict runaways. Her killing method of choice is manipulating young runaways into killers, using various weapons and tools from the cargo.
3. Their Mystery:
The characters must realize that she is the monster behind the mayhem and that the young killers have been manipulated into believing lies about the them, some maybe overpowered, some talked down, and some want to kill. The characters must piece together the lies, in some cases, overcome their own demons to fight or kill a child for survival. Can your limbs and your humanity remain intact?
4. Their Fear-Provoking Appearance:
100% of her body is covered is covered in tattoos of squiggly lines, while suffering from alopecia, in addition to rope scarring around her wrists, bite marks scarring about her body. The monster hides in plain sight, one you would willing go along with.
5. Their Rules:
Hunting in full body make up and wig, she can blend in and manipulate better than male psychopaths. With her schizophrenic leanings, looking at some men she sees visions and hears the voices of their supposed victims, no one really knows if this is mediumship or delusions. Only killing will quiet the voices and entertain her.
6. Their Mythology:
Her parents are still alive and never abused her, her father has never had anything to do with tattooing. She does not have alopecia. Her identical twin sister was abducted at the age of 5 in front of her and was never found, after which she began to exhibit behaviors between psychopathy and schizophrenia. She claims to talk to her sister, who brings through the spirits of other victims (the viewer is on a journey to decide/discover the facts for themselves schizophrenia or mediumship).
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<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Terrifying Monster for Homecoming Night.
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>What I learned doing this assignment is that my original monster villain was not unique enough, and these prompts helped me get more specific.
My monster is “The Pioneer”. To many at Pinesville High School he’s just an impossibly big-chested high school mascot who wears mid-19th century garb, a creepy mask, and a hatchet in his sheath. Few kids realize their cheerleader is based on real life frontiersman John Hynes who massacred an entire village of indigenous Karankawas in 1852.
Their Terror: The Pioneer terrorizes victims with a hatchet made of stone, an elk bone bowie knife that skins people alive; a savage wooden mallet; rope; paranormal strength & abilities. He cannot physically stopped, only slowed down. The kids must fight both to escape their maximum security high school building and a supernatural killer.
Their Mystery: No one knows who is doing the killing at first–it could be anyone of the high school students and teachers trapped inside the building on homecoming night. But the mystery builds around why the legendary pioneer has returned to Pinesville.
Their Fear Provoking Appearance: The Pioneer wears an eerie antique mask chiseled out of wood, but when it’s taken off his face he is even more ancient, deformed, and rotting.
Their Rules: The Pioneer can be conjured and erased with the power of The Pioneer’s elk bone. They don’t stop killing until sent back to hell by someone in possession of said bone… But, like history itself, it’s never really dead.
Their Mythology: The Hynes Bay Massacre of 1852 was led by John Hynes. Only five members of the Karankawa tribe survived and promptly fled Texas forever. Some think the Native Americans cursed the pioneers as disease did eventually destroy the lives and livelihoods of Hynes’ settlement. To survive, Hynes made a deal with the devil to sacrifice children, slaves, women, and anyone deemed expendable. According to the legend, it worked. Enriching the soil with blood allowed crops to flourish and the town to prosper. In hard times, the town would target someone to sacrifice and The Pioneer would emerge from his grave to claim a victim… Then in 1962 it all stopped. The locals forgot. Fact turned to opinion. Opinion to legend. But tonight they’ll learn their history.
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Jeff Hall’s Terrifying Monster
1. Tell us what or who your monster is.
Ferral woman.
2. Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:
Their Terror: A physical entity is “haunting” a young family. Family tries to cast out the “ghost”. Can rapidly scratch someone to death… literally scratch a hole in their torso. Can rip flesh with teeth. She kills anything that is a threat. She is very quiet and hides well, so she can kill before they know what is happening.
Their Mystery: Dead woman found in new house. There is something making sounds in the attic and crawl space. Something is eating their food. An entity is terroring one child. Something has befriended the other.
Their Fear Provoking Appearance: Silently appears over the child while she sleeps. Face to face with child. Can not escape. Grotesque, face, breath, saliva. Filthy, long hair, claws, teeth, wild eyes, tattered clothes, scars.
Their Rules: no speech, acts like any wild creature, lives off of other creatures (bugs, rodents, garbage), simply wants to survive. Jumps longer than usual. Hides well.
Their Mythology: possibly supernatural elements.
3. Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?” and put it at the top of your work.
Yes, my monster should be interesting and different, but also they’re actions need to be interesting and different.
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Douglas Ryan’s Terrifying monster
What I learned about doing this assignment is that in order for my monster to have a true mystery there needs to be a backstory reveal at the climax that will explain why he is a monster.
My monster is Dr. Xenos an Optometrist with a deadly secret and a lust for the perfect eyes.
Five parts
Terror: Xenos seems mild mannered on the surface but when he comes across someone who is not taking eye care seriously he makes sure there is a little extra air in the tonometer or more light in the other tests. Sometimes this satiates his burning desire to maim, when he sees folks that really don’t care, he “fixes” the exams and asks them to come back after hours, for a more extensive examination. He hunts his victims while working at a free clinic in the nearby city, because his practice is in a mountain town isolated from most of the area, and attached to his home. So having patients in his home is common and easy for him to lure victims back. On the outside he looks like a humanitarian with an odd hobby and sad wife. When a troubled teen from the area needs her exam he sees this as an opportunity to further his eye collection. When she escapes from his torturous eye exam he is forced to hunt down and kill anyone she tells that gets too close to his collection. While in his chair victims can go nowhere, he uses older archaic optometry equipment to torture and kill.
Mystery: Since we see the monster and know the monster, we don’t know his motives at first. He seems to be reactionary and unhinged. While true, he is calculating and methodical while keeping his normal clean facade. As his world is unravelled the true reason why he is looking for perfect eyes comes into focus, his wife is blind and has asked for experimental eye transplants knowing her husband can get the job done.
Fear Provoking Appearance: Xenos is a mystery to most in the town, he is a trusted member of the community, but his smile is deceptive all the children and teens find his smile uncomfortable, as every time he smiles his left eye shakes violently causing them to not pay attention to their exams. Some kids ask about it and he quickly stops smiling and blinks causing a tear. Parents do not see this as they are on their phones.
Rules: Killing vagrants and people that only will not be missed, and only killing those that would do harm to keeping his family unit in tact. He tries to not draw attention to himself but can’t help it because he hides in plain sight. He will kill to keep his secret safe.
Mythology: The wife is a gatekeeper and fuels his need to find the perfect eyes. She is what keeps him going, she gets the eyes she needs but upon seeing her dead husband and son turns her rage to those that took out the family unit. She does not know that Xenos killed her son. That can play into sequels and have an adverse effect on her actions in future films.
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Sean’s Terrifying Monster
What I learned doing this assignment
First, this take – seen the least and is the most important — the monster/villain. The other characters, the survivors, and victims, are the ones we go on the journey with
Second, a great monster is a combination of three things — unique, unknown, and terrifying and shows up in five ways: the first four (terror, fear provoking appearance, mystery, rules) and the fifth for a sequel (mythology).
Third, the questions used to create, brainstorm, and define such as How does the monster terrorize? How does the monster pursue? How does the monster isolate? What is the terrible thing they do? How does the monster cause death? What makes your monster look terrifying? –fear provoking appearance: Grotesque or Disturbing, Mask, Weapon of choice, Ironic Visual
Fourth, that the easiest way to create mystery is for the monster to be completely unseen, but that doesn’t mean it is the best way. For instance, when we do see the monster/villain: we don’t know what it will do- how it will do it- how to protect ourselves. So, the Main Monster Mystery: The secret, question, or puzzle that must be solved to survive (only discover it after it has unleashed a lot of violence.)
Fifth, there are two kinds of “Monster Rules” — the general rules and your monster’s specific rules that guide its behavior.
General Monster Rules ex. *The Monster is implacable; relentless. It cannot be bought off, negotiated with, easily overcome, or evaded. A Monster does not listen to reason or appeals to a better nature. The Monster has desires or motivations that are outside the norm. The Monster cannot be easily killed. It requires an effort above the norm to dispose of it. The Monster always survives the final confrontation, even after appearing dead. It, or an aspect of it, has characteristics that allow it to survive that final confrontation. To reappear again at the end of the movie and/or in the sequel.
Just like animals, monsters have basic natures. That implies a set of rules. Find/know the specific rules that govern your Monster/villain’s behavior.
Sixth, is the Mythology, which, usually shows up in the sequel. It is the monster’s history, origins, and reason for becoming a monster.
It is inviting for writers to create a complete mythology for their monster, but it is the least important.
Think of it this way: as you are watching a new horror movie, you are bombarded with shocking visuals, emotions, and the need to solve the puzzle. It isn’t until afterward that you start wondering about the monster’s backstory. That creates the need for the sequel. In the sequel, we discover what we wanted to know after the first movie — why the monster is the way he or she is.
If you have no idea about the character’s Mythology, leave it for the sequel. Focus on the parts that will get this first movie made and you’ll soon be a name in this industry
Assignment
Early version of my monster/villain
Monster/Villain is – The Rain Killer
Terror – Predominantly, the number of victims there are, the frequency, the horrible way the victims are killed and the amount of time they are tortured. Also, the victims are only killed and displayed during rainstorms and the victims are taken from all over the 50 states and other countries and found both close from their abduction and as much as 4 states away at random.
Mystery – What is the profile? The FBI can not come up with definite/helpful profile. Is it one killer or many? Where will the next victim be taken from, why and how do you stop something like this? We never see the killer’s face, only the shadow under black hooded clothing when victims are abducted and black hooded robe when they are being killed.
Fear provoking appearance – The rigid, violent demeanor of a gaunt looking, but healthy and very strong figure in very loose-fitting black clothes. We see the arms and hands (noting the violent tattoos and always wearing black fingernail polish). Various hooded black shirts and sweatshirts during abductions and the same black hooded robe (very expensive looking, ornate with symbols and writing) worn during the ritualistic killings.
Rules
Only abducts and kills during rainstorms. Victims are chosen due to their level/kind of innocence and the level/kind of evil/criminal things they do. The victim matches the questions the Rain Killer screams at the dark sky as it pours rain during the murder.
Mythology
The Rain Killer is trying to provoke answers from good and evil and keeping track of the answers after each victim, being born just like anyone else with a mother and father and appears to be just a ticked off human being who takes issue with the way the world is and the influence of good and evil on the world through beliefs, religion, and actual interaction. Knows spells, rituals, the occult, Christian religious beliefs, other religions, and their practices. However, takes issue with all of it and wants to unleash carnage to get answers directly from The Good and The Evil. Isn’t afraid of death, being caught or what will happen because of the carnage being unleashed. As the story escalates, the Rain killer is looking more and more invincible with knowledge of spells and rituals, promises of power and eternal rewards.
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Lesson Survivors and Victims:
My group for Run Bambi is the Deer Hunting Group: Fred, the guide; and Horace and Guy; two thrill seekers who work in a corporate office and want to play Big Buck Hunter. All they talk about is wanting to shoot the biggest buck with the biggest rack. Fred establishes the rules of the forest and the hunt, and emphasizes good sports,man ship and never shooting blindly, or to wound. Guy takes notes and Horace rolls his eyes. This scene happens as the three men go up the mountain on an increasingly narrow and rocky trial.
The dying pattern is that Guy falls down a revine , and ‘Fred runs back to get a good signal to call for help, telling Horace to watch Guy. Horace doesn’t, going on up the trail by himself. guy , trying to stand u, falls down again= and hits his head. The blood from his wounds attract and family of bears.
Horace keeps on, and shoots/wounds a doe.
Fred comes back , having called for help, and sees that Guy has died. He goes after Horace and finally finds him standing over a dying doe. Fred is furious but Horace punches him. The two men fight, and Horace, though not a great fighter, gets a lucky moment and clubs Fred with his rifle butt. By now the doe is dead and Horace slogs up the mountain to find his big buck.
Horace is being watched and followed by a murder of crows and he shoots at the. He kills one and the rest fly around him cawing. He bats at the and tries to shoot more of them but his gun jams. Furious he keeps trying and the tries the gun down where is slides dow an embankment. As Horace watches the gun goes off, hitting Horace in the leg.
Horace hears footsteps and sees the biggest stag he’s ever heard of. He starts trying to crawl over to his gun and the stag keeps coming closer. It seems to Horace the stag is getting bigger by the moment and it’s antlers a moving, growing and dripping a vicious liquid. Horace starts yelling for Fred to come save him, and the stage bends down to sniff Horace. He pulls out a hunting knife but the stag rears and tramples him. The the stag morphs back into “Fred.
Fred, other than being supernatural is the universal character; the man.stag leader protecting his wood. He is not the one who brings the monster but the monster who is enraged that Horace killed the doe. He has a strong sense of FairPlay but will do anything to protect his herd, and the other beings in his wood.
Horace is the obnoxious one. Selfish, entitles and greedy.
Guy is unlucky and bear bait. /decent but not willing to say no to his boss Horace.
Fred’s wife, Diana, who does not go on the hunt, is beautiful and otherworldly. If Fred hadn’t killed Horace she would have.
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Verena’s Terrifying Monster
I learned the monster plays a tremendous role in the hook.
My monster follows Shane, a handsome, charismatic, psychopathic, sadist, conman who wishes to remain in control of others for wealth and to quench his thirst for eternal life.
Their Terror: He drugs people with what they think is ayahuasca, mushrooms, new age oils and shamanic home remedies. If he cannot control someone or they begin to see through him he enjoys punishes them.
Isolation: The retreat is far away from any city or road traffic. He appeals to each member uniquely. If not one of his confidants will groom them. He always appears to the group and noble and trustworthy. They suspect him last. He has made considerable donations to any organizations that might investigate or meddle with his business.
Their Mystery: When people disappear from the retreat, the rest of the members are told they were rejected or sent home.
Their Fear Provoking Appearance: He wears a devil horns costume. He has unexpected weapons that amputate and maim with very little effort on his part.
Their Rules: Suffering is the highest frequency the gods receive in exchange for eternal life. Once they suffer to a certain point, he loses interest and he regains their trust only to pain them again. He enjoys torturing and making those who feel un-whole regret that they didn’t accept themselves. In turn, his retreat works if they can get out of alive. But, almost no one does and so Shane continues to afford his lifestyle.
Their Mythology: Shane was raised by a mentally ill mother who inflicted a considerable amount of suffering and rejection upon Shane whom she punished in cruel ways for scaring his father away with his strange behavior. His narcissistic tendencies allow him to love bomb his victims then offer them up to who he believes is his true father, the devil in exchange for eternal life.
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Lesson 2 Homework—Crafting the Monster
The Monster is. Human,FRED, who can turn into a sort of Appalachian Ceneuunos: a huge stag with branching antlers that can writhe like snakes and drip poison onto those who dare not respect the animals and birds of his forest. ‘He is unknown to most, though there are tales of his mountain and the remote woodland that surrounds it. Quite a few hunters go into the woods and never come out. Fred, in human form, always has a perfect explanation of why the hunters might have “gone missing”. After dying Cernunnos’ hooves and antlers the bodies and picked clean or eaten by bears. Rangers go in with dogs but the hounds never get the trail, as ‘Fred’s wife, Diana, is magical herself and can control any canine she meets.
So-Fred/Cernunnos’ terror is stealth until revealing a horrific Stag with blood-red eyes.
People say if you see ‘the forest monster’ you are already dead.
But Fred/Cernunnos has rules; some hunters are fine if they are respectful and do not wound or hurt any animal other than one deer,(‘who is usually an young buck who has already lost many deer battles0
.what I’ve learned is making monsters is fun, exciting and hard. I have love Celtic legends all my life, so this is my homage to the Lord of the Hunt.
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Jason Lassen’s Terrifying Monster
What I learned doing this assignment is… even if your back story is not revealed in the first movie it is good to have it in mind while writing. It helps with the development of the story and it’s always good to know where you’re going with it.
Tell us what or who your monster is – The monsters are the souls of sinners in the form of children. They attach themselves to items in the storage facility. They are controlled by the Toy Keeper and he gets his orders from the devil himself.
Their Terror: The Toy Keeper lets the kids know when it’s time to play. The children begin to whisper in the ears of the tenants of the storage units. If the person can hear them they are a sinner and are susceptible to manipulation to do horrible, horrible things.
Their Mystery: We don’t see the children, we can only hear them. toward the end of the film, we get glimpses of them having their fun and asking people to play with them.
Their Fear Provoking Appearance: The Toy Keeper is a creepy-looking old man but the killer can be any person with sins in their soul.
Their Rules: No one with a dirty soul is safe from the children’s desires to collect new playmates. ANYONE can be a killer.
Their Mythology: Long ago, a man built his home on the location of an evil energy vortex. Items within this vortex would become possessed by evil spirits in the form of children wanting to “play” with them. At first, the children wanted to “play” with everyone. The man who built the home was assigned, by the devil, to be the kid’s Toy Keeper and made sure they can only have an effect on the sinners of this world. In return, the man has been made immortal but under the control of the devil.
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Mark Dotz – Terrifying “Monster”
“What I learned doing this assignment is…?” and put it at the top of your work. – Even though a mythology isn’t important right away, we want to be scared and don’t care why the person is scary right away, but it does help to know why our Antagonist is so creepy.
Create an early version of your monster.
1. Tell us what or who your monster is. – A smothering wealthy debutante Mom (Smother), Elaina Vanderlip. She has a great fortune and lives in a Mansion that she has created as a big booby trapped place to scare of and murder visitors.
Her boys, whom she has smothered and controlled since very young, all pretend to be the ghost haunting their mansion when young kids break in. The boys have been raised to be sick like their mother and will kill for her.
2. Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:
Their Terror: – Smother haunts the kids with her series
of elaborate booby traps. She likes to terrorize kids that come to the “haunted Vanderlip mansion”. As we see at the beginning, she killed some girls that wanted to get to know the boys better and she kills within the first moments the teenagers sneak into her property. <div>Their Mystery: – Is Smother a ghost or a person ?
Their Fear Provoking Appearance: – I think for me this is the mansion itself. It is over a hundred years old and appears very spooky.
Their Rules: – She controls the house and even though
the technology is 100 years old she can lock the house with a series of pully’s, and she can lock the gate and
has a series of other booby traps she has created around the house to put
our protagonist in perilTheir Mythology: – Smother, she smothers her children
so much that she killed their only love and now they are controlled by
her. Stunted emotionally the two twin boys do whatever mother tells them and will continue too, long after she is dead.</div>
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Halloween’s Terrifying Monster
What I learned doing this assignment is how potent a monster can be when it taps into spoiled expectations of ones own life.
My monster is a murdered bride; killed at the altar.
Their Terror: The bride chases people in love. She makes a point to separate them and get them to reach out to each other which triggers her to kill them.
Their mystery: Just before her minions, the personifications of an individuals demons appear, she appears with bloody roses and dead children throwing rice. How do you survive if the only way to do it is to kill the person you love the most? The answer is to solve the riddle of what your demon is to the other person. If you can prove you’d die for the person you love you get to live. You prove you can die by facing their demons or you can kill that person and live. With no love left you have no reason to be killed by a jealous ghost. She wants to see you loveless or prove your undying sand true love
Their fear provoking appearance: A bloody rotted bride still in her wedding dress…and her wedding day song playing behind ghost children throwing rice. Bloody rice.
Their rules: Don’t say I love you. Don’t show emotional support. Don’t fight for anyone else lest you show your love and you get “locked into” her rage.
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Subject: Karyn L. – Terrifying Monster
Lesson 2-Assignment 2
“What I learned from doing this assignment”—The more grotesque the mystery-the more salacious the journey for the characters and audience. They may need to divert their eyes to avoid the horror but it reels them in-they can’t escape the madness. The hook.
Create an early version of your monster.
1. Tell us what or who your monster is. “My Monster” is a multifaceted cave dwelling alien that is a technologically superior predator to other species. It can shape shift and feeds off the brain matter of it’s prey—killing and replacing brain matter with a “chip” that is mind controlled.
2. Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:
• Their Terror: The Alien hunts trespassers, as prey and feeds on their brain matter.
• Their Mystery: It can shape shift, disappear into the environment, or become a wild animal, always sensing, watching and stalking it’s prey.
• Their Fear-Provoking Appearance: When it isn’t shapeshifting, has a large head, efficient body with long limbs. It has reptilian features and a cranial mandibular dislocating jaw to
catch it’s victims and an anteater tongue to devour the brain matter of it’s prey.
• Their Rules: The Alien is a guardian of the underworld. It is omnipresent and controls all facets of the cave, it’s secrets, technology and trespassers.
• Their Mythology: The Alien is building a hybrid alien/human army to fulfill the ancient alien mission of creation.
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