Day 2 Assignments

[Gabrielle Nehring]

Gabrielle’s Terrifying Monster

Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?” – To whittle down to a clearer image in my head of what the monster’s fear inducing qualities are.

Create an early version of your monster.

1. The monster is an unknown entity stalking its prey.

2. Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:

Their Terror: it stalks prey through the woods

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Their Mystery: it is never seen, but it can be heard and evidence of it is seen all around.

Their Fear Provoking Appearance: Since it’s unseen, the fear provoking appearance is the marks it leaves. Huge, slashing claw marks. Dripping blood trails. Trampled vegetation. Also, it emits a terrible growl that sounds like it’s coming from everywhere all at once.

Their Rules: It hunts. It stalks until it kills. Unseen, it sounds and hunts like a mindless beast, so it is assumed that it is a deranged wolf or bear or enormous forest animal. It cannot be reasoned with. The best to hope for is to evade it and make it to safety.

Their Mythology: It’s not a monster or beast at all. This is the elevated part of the film. it is a carefully thought out plan designed to elicit a certain response from the victims, or they die trying.

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[Christopher Grant]

Chris Grant’s Terrifying Monster

“What I learned doing this assignment is…?” and put it at the top of your work.

I realized I still have a lot more information for each topic on this list, but I’m going to build this one step at a time.

Create an early version of your monster.

1. Tell us what or who your monster is. The Red Devil. Monstrous hordes of Humboldt Squid have arrived at the Isla De Los Muertos to feed on the dead.

2. Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:

Their Terror

How does the monster terrorize? Humboldt squid will attack and eat anything. Even each other. Roughly 4-5 feet in length they are strong and fast. And with so much death around the shoals of the Isla De Los Muertos, there are literally thousands of them.

How does the monster pursue? They are night time pack hunters. Intelligent and capable of coordinating their attacks. Once they get their arms on you, it’s better to hope for a fast death.

How does the monster isolate? They surround you and systematically pull you down. At first it feels interesting, like a curious caress, and then it becomes hungry yanking, enough to pull shoulders out of sockets. They do this to drown you before consuming you.

What is the terrible thing they do? They devour with a panicked voraciousness that can’t be stopped or placated once it starts.

How does the monster cause death? Eating, pulling limb from limb, suffocation, drowning, biting and tearing with its razor sharp beak.

What makes this inescapable? They move with lightning speed and can even fly when needed. Once they surround you in the water, there’s not much you can do. If you get pulled down, you’d be lucky to drown first. Fighting back makes it worse.

Their Mystery:

· What is the secret, question, or puzzle that must be solved to survive this monster? Humboldt Squid are not particularly aggressive if not antagonized. But the drug dealers have been firing machine guns at them at night and it makes them frenzy.

· Cristian, the main character, is a marine biologist who solves the problem by using lights to communicate with the squid long enough to dissuade them from thinking you are prey. Long enough for him to release the drift nets that have been attracting them.

Their Fear Provoking Appearance

Grotesque or Disturbing: Slithering arms that have spiked tips that can grab and hold. Arms that get all over you in the water, including inside the mouth.<div>

o Weapon of choice – Super sharp beak that pulls chunks into the mouth. Once they grab a meal with the suckers on their feeding tentacles, they drag the prey down to their sharp beak. This cuts the prey into more manageable pieces. A shoal of squid can skin to the bone a full sized cow in 10 minutes.

Their Rules:

· How it operates to create horror – The Red Devil Squid is a formidable predator and most other animals in the ocean tend to avoid their swarms. They generally feed at night when they rise from the depths to the surface. If left alone, they are generally not a problem. But if antagonized, they start to frenzy and will even cannibalize their own.

· What behaviors does it exhibit; what horror does it create; and what rules does it follow? A word of warning: “You should not dive into a school of Humboldt Squid unless you are damn prepared and aware that you are throwing yourself into a scenario where you are at nature’s will.”

· Staying out of the water at all costs is the only way to survive a swarm. The squid will continue to feed until the water is clear.

Their Mythology:

o The Humboldt, specifically, are known to be fierce, cannibalistic fighters. Fishermen have nicknamed them “diablos rojos,” or red devils, because of their bodies’ red color and their hostile nature.

o Isla De Los Muertos – The island of the dead where the villagers fish. It gets is name for a reason – the ghost nets. Giant nets cast into the ocean by fisherman. They’ve been mysteriously left there to catch and kill anything that becomes entangled.

o The squid have come to the area because of the ghost nets that now surround the Isla De Los Muertos.

o Because of the nets, the fisherman believe they are being punished by the sea.

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• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  Christopher Grant.

[Andy Silverman]

I learned that answering these questions helped me to created a much more deeper layered monster and enabled me to come up with story points that will help me when writing the first draft. <div>

1. Tell us what or who your monster is. The Turducken

2. Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:

Their Terror: This is a fused together Chicken, Turkey, Duck and Human that claws and pecks its victims to death. It will kill anyone who sets foot on the farm.</div>

Their Mystery: The birds have combined together with its host and have gained superhuman strength. The only way to defeat it is to separate the parts of the Turducken and kill them one by one.

Their Fear Provoking Appearance: The combination of the heads, arms, wings and claws on a human body is grotesque. It drools and makes a cacophony of sounds combining squawking clucking and quacking which will further gross out the audience.

Their Rules: The Turducken is angry and violent because it is fused together with the man who created it. The birds are able to communicate through the man. He is angry at USDA inspectors and bureaucracy in general and blames them for his death and wants revenge.

Mythology: The man was covering up his genetic altering of poultry from the inspectors and swallowed an egg to hide the evidence. He died and the birds gestated inside his stomach. When his family buried him on the farm he fused together and rose upon from the grave as Turducken Man.

[Brendan Riley]

3. What I learned from doing this assignment is that monsters are more complex than I had prior realized. A good monster is a number of things combined in the right amounts. Luckily, there is a structure that we can follow.

1. The “monster” is the spirit of the former housebuilder who operates through the mother of the household.

2. Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:

Their Terror: the spirit interacts through both people
(the mother) and aspects of the house. It uses corporal manifestation
through the actions of the mother to try and kill the other family members.
It uses components of the house to isolate family members, distract, and
obscure the mother as the real threat.<div>

Their Mystery: the family is not aware of the danger their
mother poses. Instead, the threat at first seems like simple accidents and
then appears to be an outside entity. Perhaps a neighbor who stayed behind.
In the end, the choice is how one deals with their own mother.</div>

Their Fear Provoking Appearance: by the time it is
apparent that the spirit is manifesting in their mother, she has gone
weeks without eating. She is gaunt and deathlike – mindlessly wandering after
her family like a zombie.

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Their Rules: the spirit can only do minor actions
outside of a human body. Things like setting a lock or shifting a chair. The
spirit also has limitations around inhabiting a body. The spirit can only
inhabit one body at a time. The spirit cannot forcibly occupy someone who
is completely unwilling. The spirit cannot cross beyond the barrier of the
house. The spirit cannot be compelled by any sort of spell or religious
ritual. The only way to escape the spirit is to leave.</div><div>

Their Mythology: the spirit is the original housebuilder. She was an extremely strong and brutal woman who believed hard work
was the best show of piety. She built a powerful business, but was struck
down by one of her own sons during the project so that he could take
control of the company. He hid her body in the foundation.
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[Bob Onufer]

Bob’s Terrifying Monster

What I learned from this assignment is that creating the monster is the first essential step in coming up with a terrifying horror movie and that the monster will likely change as we go through additional steps.

Terror

The monster is a woman whose sister was raped during a fraternity party. She is obsessed with avenging the violation of her sister and will not stop until the fraternity brothers are killed for their actions or indifference. The brothers are in the basement of a fraternity house for a party and there is plenty of intoxication. The monster isolates individual brothers by seducing them and planning to meet them for a sexual encounter. The combination of alcohol and hormones makes her irresistible.

Mystery

After a brother is seduced and waiting in a dark room for the seductress, he is instead met by the monster, a costumed and silent villain who bludgeons the brother to death. The brothers do not know who the costumed villain is or why the villain is pursuing them.

Fear Provoking Appearance

The monster appears as a grim reaper. The costume is typical of the garb worn by the brothers during their ritual meetings (leading to the possibility that the monster may be one of the brothers). Instead of carrying a scythe, the monster carries a fraternity paddle used to bludgeon the brother to death.

Rules

The monster conforms to the standard rules of being relentless, motivated, and calm. The monster’s mystery helps it survive the final confrontation. Specific rules include using seduction to entice a brother to his death. A brother who resists temptation may have an opportunity to survive.

Mythology

The villain became a monster because of the rape of her sister.

[Judith Watson]

Judith’s Terrifying Monster – Lesson 2 – Writing Terrifying Horror Scripts

What I learned doing this assignment is that using the characteristics of what a monster is helps create a terrifying creature.

1. My monster is my protagonist’s finance.

2. Their terror is the couple go on a “relaxing” vacation to help with a psychological problem that has reappear for the protagonist. The trip is planned by the monster and his girlfriend, the protagonist’s shrink. They plan the trip in an isolated woodsy area and hire a person to the terror events that the finance saves the protagonist from to make her feel he is on her side.

3. The fear provoking appearance is a masked that somehow relates to the P’s earlier terror being worn by the shrink who is causing all the terror along with the P’s false fiancé.

4. The rules consist of the finance pretending to be on the protagonist’s side all the while instigating the terror. Later in the script he goes to help the protagonist with a terror she sees and pretends not to see it to send her over the edge.

5. No mythology. I’m not wanting a sequel. I want my protagonist to succeed at overcoming the terror to heal from her youthful terror she is suffering from and why she went to see a shrink for help.

[Dan LoBrace]

Dan LoBrace’s Terrifying Monster

What I learned from this assignment is… how building a monster can help build plot points and interesting scene ideas in your story!

I haven’t named my monster yet, but it is a gaunt, humanoid creature that has roamed the world since perhaps the beginning of time, picking off the unfortunate victims who walk into its path. It lies dormant for years, then when it locks eyes with a victim, it paralyzes them. In this story, it finds its way into a rural town.

Their Terror: The monster psychically turns its victims into vegetables as it gets closer and closer, then devours them.

Their Mystery: The monster can only attack/paralyze one victim at a time, so others can work together to escape it or even try to kill it. However, it is adaptable and intelligent, and can likely outsmart a group of kids working together.

Their Fear Provoking Appearance: Still ruminating on this. Definitely humanoid. I keep comparing it to a scarecrow in my head, so maybe a grotesque, Cronenbergian scarecrow? Maybe it takes up the appearance of a scarecrow while it “waits” for its victim, and almost enters this dormant state. Because years can go by until its next victim comes in its path. It would want to be something that draws others’ eyes to it.

Their Rules: It can only move once it locks eyes with a human victim. Once this has happened, the monster will psychically paralyze the victim, legs first, so they can’t move. Then the monster can walk toward the victim, paralyzing the victim more and more the closer it gets. It can also jump, especially if the victim is, say, a skilled athlete.

Their Mythology: Not sure yet. I like the fact that this being has always existed; it’s like Bigfoot or something. Also not quite sure what it represents, so maybe discovering that will help narrow down the mythology.

[Howard Bushart]

Howard Bushart’s Alligator Gar

Probably the key thing I learned doing this assignment is that I didn’t really spend enough time thinking about it initially. This is an idea I had about ten years ago and never fleshed out. It is going to take some work.

1. Tell us what or who your monster is.

The monster started as an innocent fish in a Texas river. Exposed to illegally dumped chemicals from an illicit drug enterprise, it grows to enormous size and becomes much more aggressive than normal.

2. Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:

<div>
Their Terror: It is huge. It is aggressive. It is
relentless. </div><div>

Their Mystery: No one knows initially what it is or why
it is.

Their Fear Provoking Appearance: Huge, large jaws, rows
of stabbing teeth, armor scales protecting it. Ambush killer.

Their Rules: Anything in or on the river, the bank, or
the island, is possible prey and consequently at risk.

Their Mythology: Alligator gar have been and are feared
for their appearance. They have been rumored to attack humans but there is
really no evidence of it. This one is an aberration due to the circumstances
of its environmental toxin origin.

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3. Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?” and put it at the top of your work.

4. Post your assignment in the forums at https://www.screenwritingclasses.com/forums/

Subject line: (Your Name’s) Terrifying Monster (place in first line)

Deadline: 48 hours

[Tully Archer]

Tully’s (and her writing partner’s) Terrifying Monster

What I learned doing this assignment is that the
monster is a character even if it’s The Thing. Gotta flesh out that character.

Our monster is the ghost of a man who was murdered by a seventeen year old psychopath. It was the kid’s first kill, which he was very excited to do. Being dead for decades does not improve your mental health. It warps you. This guy has been stuck in this house with the murderer’s little sister, Sherrie, under whose floorboards the dead man was stashed, and she was told she’d join him if she told the secret. Now she’s old, and the house is filled with junk. Her hoarding behavior set in and stuck as her mental health just fell apart, driven by the desire for the world to stop spinning around her – classic hoarder urge to Stop Time. The ghost has been tormenting Sherrie, along with the fear of her brother, but now that other people are showing up in the house (because our protagonist is determined to help Sherrie) he’s ready to terrorize some new people. He wants to trap you, to keep you, to have you, in the hell that he himself is stuck in.

The TERROR: Being Stuck. It’s already a danger, in a hoarder’s house. But the ghost will use what’s around him to physically pin you down and then… slowly… APPROACH….

The MYSTERY: Not sure… gotta be something around the idea of freedom… or that if you give him that psychopath brother, he’ll leave YOU alone.

The FEAR PROVOKING APPEARANCE: The wounds that killed him. The madness in his eyes. The fact that Sherrie is just… letting him.

The RULES: He can’t leave the house. He can use what’s in the house. Not sure what else?

The MYTHOLOGY: See above, I guess?

Still working on it, LOL. 😉

[Brandyn Cross]

I didn’t receive the email for lesson 2, and the online link doesn’t open. Kind of a problem there.

[Kim Jaspers]

Kim’s Terrifying Monster

I learned from this assignment that I can create a convincing monster by following these guidelines to get to the core of its essence.

1. Tell us what or who your monster is.

My monster is dystopian cooking competition show host, Layne Bailey.

2. Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:

Their Terror: Layne places contestants in terrifying, potentially deadly, and inescapable predicaments for the sake of ratings.
How does he pursue this? He preys on vulnerable people desperate for money to right the wrongs in their lives.

Isolation: Contestants are on a closed, inescapable set, shackled to their stoves. Once they’ve chosen to participate, there’s no turning back. Armed guards monitor the exits.

Mystery: How can we survive and maintain bodily integrity?

Their Fear-Provoking Appearance: He a deranged psychopath with a trustworthy and innocent-looking visage.

Their Rules: He victimizes people who’ve made mistakes and desperately need to turn their lives around. He believes in free will and that those who make poor life decisions should be held accountable publicly. He uses humor to disarm everyone so he can manipulate them. He’s opportunistic, and the grim fate of the contestants is always tied to the bottom line. Spoiler alert – the gruesome show is wildly successful.

Their Mythology: He’s got a back story, and it’s a doozy.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by  Kim Jaspers.

[Rhea MacCallum]

Rhea’s Terrifying Monster

What I learned doing this assignment is… necessary elements to create a compelling monster.

Tell us what or who your monster is.

The ghostly occupants of a dilapidated southwestern farmhouse.

Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:

Their Terror: Trap the living on the property. Force a union between one of the ghosts and a living person.

Their Mystery: The ghosts were expecting visitors and have rooms already prepared to receive guests for a celebration/wedding.

Their Fear Provoking Appearance: The ghosts are attired in outdated clothing but otherwise appear physically normal, unless their image is caught in a mirror or reflective surface. Then, the ghosts appear as the decomposing corpses that they are.

Their Rules: The farmhouse only appears when trespassers cross the property line and are on the property. The ghosts must keep a living person on the property or be sent back to hell.

Their Mythology: The ghosts themselves are trespassers. They and their home only appear when a living trespasser crosses the property line. The only way to rid the land of the ghostly occupants is to dig up their buried bones and remove them from the property.

[Natasha P]

Natasha’s Terrifying Monster.

1. The monster in this movie is a creature that exists in the past and the present; feeds off the fears in people’s timelines until it erases them completely. Mask from the shadows; searing blue eyes and snarling teeth, it can only prey on those completely alone.

2. <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Overview

• Their
  Terror: It can erase you from ever existing.

• Their
  Mystery: They appear in your past and present and it is unknown how they
  feed on your timeline.
• Their
  Fear-Provoking Appearance: They set up fears in your past so they can feed
  on this fear throughout your timeline
• Their
  Rules: It must create the biggest fear and start it as early as possible.
  Once it attaches itself to the victim, it cannot unlatch. It feeds on those
  who are alone. It must isolate its victim otherwise it cannot feed if
  people are around – it has to be a big fear and once it builds up, it can feed.
• Their
  Mythology: The monster existed before man and came back with the astronauts that
  left the moon during the Apollo mission.

<div>

3. What I learned about this is that the monster has to have as much of a setup as the world itself.

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[Lisandro Boccacci]

Lisandro Boccacci’s Terrifying Monster

What I learned doing this assignment is…how this method of jotting down the 5 different parts for a great monster really helps chisel out the potential, and the uniqueness of the new monster in creation.

My monster is a high-ranking police office, with an out-of-control temper, who is looking to settle the score with 4 youtubers that got him fired and sentenced to prison time, changing his life forever.

His terror comes in the form of yelling, getting in your face, verbal threats, mind games, lying, force, violence, and threats of death.

His mystery comes from the fact that he hides his identity from the youtubers and has the cover of darkness. But underneath that mask is a cut up face, with a pig nose instead of a regular nose.

His fear-provoking appearance is that he is wearing a police uniform with a happy cartoony pig mask, one of those cheap plastic ones for kids. He is a big guy, very muscular. He drives a towing vehicle in which he has stashed an assortment of weapons, form medieval, to flame throwers, to smoke bombs, and a sawed off shot gun. He also has a K-9 near him at all times.

His rules are that he has no laws to abide by as he is protected by his fellow officers who make a perimeter around him and the youtubers. In this perimeter he can do as he pleases, and he intends to give the youtubers a real scary show.

His Mythology would be about how when he was patrolling the streets, he came to this group of youtubers, who do constitutional audits on unsuspecting officers. Well, this officer fell prey to this group as his ego trip, violent behavior, his lies, and his rampage was all caught on a live stream. goes to court, loses, and is found guilty. Fired without pension and sentenced to prison. At that prison his face is brutally cut up and left is left disfigured for life… left with a cut off nose… as a gag he uses a prosthetic pig nose to cover the nose hole.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by  Lisandro Boccacci.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by  Lisandro Boccacci.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by  Lisandro Boccacci.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Lisandro Boccacci.