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Day 3 Assignments
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LESSON 3 Survivors And Victims
What I learned from this assignment is that I’ve always wanted to write a one-location script and now’s my chance.
Concept: Shadow Dancers are slaughtered while rehearsing for their breakthrough show.
THE GROUP
A team of professional shadow dancers.
DYING PATTERN
8 dancers are slaughtered in a Victorian Theatre.
WHO IS GOING TO EXPERIENCE THIS HORROR
1/ Leader – The producer of the troupe who demanded they come together to rehearse in this old theater. He’s more of a boss than a leader and listens to no-one but himself.
2/ Rescuer – The choreographer who leads by example, and has his feet firmly on the ground and keeps the team together.
3/ Monster Bait – Young girl out of college on her first professional gig. Looking for excitement.
4/ Love Interest – Lover of the troupe member who mysteriously disappeared after they got their breakthrough contract. Having an affair with the producer.
5/ introvert/Loner – A non-binary individual who stays quiet.
6/ Out of control/Obnoxious – Thinks its ridiculous to come to this theatre – is intolerant of others – questions everyone.
7/ Complainer – Has allergies – costumes don’t fit – props are too heavy etc
8/ Rebel/Rule Breaker – Once the mayhem starts looks to find their own way out – each man to himself.
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Debbie’s Characters for Horror
What I learned is that by defining my characters this way, scenes suggest themselves and ideas bloom out of character, which helps to create the best story.
Concept: A reptilian alien princess brings her asteroid spaceship into earth’s solar system in order to trap humans and use them to make and test human-alien creations.
Group: Team of Professionals
Dying Pattern: B most die but several survive.
Characters:
LEADER: ANDRE SPENCE: ANDRE is a rich businessman on the surface, but underneath he is still the special forces leader that he was in the war. He is our leader. SURVIVOR
INNOCENT: EBONIE SPENCE: EBONI is Andre’s 14-year-old daughter who won a trip to the asteroid in a science competition by building a very advanced robot. When the organizers found out her age, they tried to disqualify her, but John used his pull to make them live up to their contest’s rules. She is the Innocent. Monster kills her increasing horror. RESURRECTED: Jack downloads her consciousness into her body and they are now one.
MORAL ONE/ RED HERRING: JACK: The robot that Eboni built. Jack is an AI who learns through experience/observation and through “reading”. She is also made from alien technology sent back from the artifact. She is the Moral One. And Red Herring.
SACRIFICIAL LAMB: SLY STONE: Leader of the military escort of the group. He goes up against Andre for leadership until Andre reveals a tattoo, to which Sly defers. Dies saving the journalist when she does a stupid thing. The monster made the decision
REBEL/RULE BREAKER: SABINA: Sabina is a photojournalist who has covered many wars and been on the front lines. She learned a piece or two about guns and defending herself. Dies because she made a bad decision. After Sly saves her, another monster appears and gets her, too. Andre kills Sly so he can’t be made into a monster, but misses Sabina. Sabina backs into it.
MONSTER BAIT: MAE: A Scientist sent to help Jack integrate with the ship so they can find out more information. She’s our Monster Bait – Frozen by terror. Monster with her husband’s head kills her. HEIGHTENS THE HORROR
DENIER: SENATOR WILLIAM TATE: Senator against using alien technology. He’s on this trip to try and change his position. He’s our Denier/Out of Control/Obnoxious. A character flaw that compels him to make take the wrong action. Dragged off by monster, injured but not dead.
RESCUER: KEV KELLY: The pilot who takes them to the asteroid. He’s supposed to drop them off, then waits in orbit, but he’s trapped with them. First to Die. It increases the horror. He tries to fly the other shuttle, and it blows up.
IAN TATE: Senator Tate’s 15-year-old son stows away on the shuttle. Introvert/Loner SURVIVOR
PEN WRIGHT: Miner sent to check out the viability of mining minerals found on the asteroid. She’s Andre’s love interest. SURVIVOR
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Day 3 assignment
Anthony Ward’s Characters for horror
What I learned today are the different character types in a horror film.
The concept of my film is: The ghost of Errol Brennon is summoned and his ashes are gathered back together. Errol goes on a killing spree of those who had raided his mansion.
The group I have chosen is: Social event. These are a group of young adults who have gathered together for a memorial day party at an abandoned mansion.
The dying pattern for my film is 6-8 characters are together and they are killed one by one. I think I want to have one survivor.
The members of my group are:
Katie, the one who brings the horror to the group. She is a dark gothic girl who summons the spirit.
Joey, the one who is out of control. He was the one who decided to throw the party at this mansion. His poor choices throughout the film lead to other peoples death.
Lisa, she is the complainer. She goes along for the ride but complains the whole time about everything. You almost want her to die.
John, he was bullied into coming. He is the innocent one. His dad owns the boat that brought the group to the mansion. He does not fit in with this group at all.
Matt, he is the rescuer. As well as the sacrificial lamb. He is the most athletic and he has great survival skills. He’s a guy who knows what to do in any situation.
Tim, the monster bait. He is being used by the group to tag along because he has the hook up on drug and drinks.
Jessica, she is the rebel, the rule breaker. She is the most fearless in the group. She and Matt give the monster a good run for his money.
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Carolyn’s Characters for Horror
What I learned doing this assignment is…learning the pieces of the puzzle and slowly putting them together is a great way to make sure you’ve covered the genre’s conventions.
Concept: An over anxious reporter checks into a wellness spa and discovers the place is being run by cannibals who plump up and eat their clients.
Group: Outsiders
Dying Pattern: The characters experience the terror and survive together, but one or two die.
Leader and Rescuer: Jess Jenkins, a hungry young reporter goes under cover at a wellness spa to investigate an unsolved murder. She also needs help kicking a pill habit.
Innocent: Nataly Jenkins, Jess’s younger sister. Eager to be independent, Nataly falls in with a beautiful older woman who entices her with easy money while secretly grooming her for the Deadly Feast where she will be the main course.
Love Interest – Paisley, a client at Heartly Farm, is a beautiful young woman who falls for Jess.
Monster Bait: Wally Bovine, a Pet Food Factory worker with a pack of dogs who unfortunately are locked up inside the house while out in the backyard Wally is chopped up and eaten by a rabid cannibal.
Sacrificial Lamb: The Burly Man, a client at Heartly Farm.
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Chris’s Characters for Horror
What I learned is that by honing in on Group, Dying Pattern and Characters helps with the structure of the storyline.
1. Tell us your Concept and the Group you have chosen.
A grieving, haunted mother, struggles to keep her sanity while believing that her son may be trying to push her over the edge.
Social Group – Family
Father, Son and Mother
2. Tell us the Dying Pattern of this movie.
The characters experience the terror and survive together, but one or two die. The grieving Father struggles to cope with a wife who seems to be losing her mind and possibly suicidal.
3. Give us an Identity and a sentence for each character that makes up your group.
The Father is a Leader. He believes that his wife is hallucinating on her meds and that she needs to go see her Doctor and have them adjusted. He also tries to help her with her grief. The Father is also a rescuer as he tries to save his wife.
The Mother is a Out of Control character. She believes that she’s being haunted and that her son could be evil.
The Son is an Introvert. He’s immersed with technology and especially his phone.
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Alex’s Characters for Horror
What I Learned: 3 specific dying patterns.
Concept: A group of misbehaving teens at a homecoming dance are locked inside their school’s main building alongside a centuries old killer–The Pioneer.
Social Group: High School Classmates & A Few Adult Chaperones
Dying Pattern: Larger group killed off one by one but 3 survive.
Addie Mae: Starts as an obnoxious dork but becomes a moral leader because of her intellect.
Megan: Starts as the leader but becomes the obnoxious complainer & monster bait.
Roh: A near-mute country boy who is the innocent introvert and love interest.
Cody: An international athlete from Germany who secretly wants to be an actor and uses those skills to lure The Pioneer. He’s one of the kids who willingly sacrifices himself but survives.
Sam: The rebel who hates everything and everyone until she bonds with these kids trying to survive their night in hell. She’s first to willingly and successfully sacrifice herself.
Ty: A toxic red herring jock who becomes a sensitive love interest.
Amanda: A mean girl sociopath and out of control red herring.
Mr. Wells: The principal who catches our main characters mid-prank at the homecoming dance. Out of control, he doesn’t distinguish between the perps and victims of the twisted prank, and he’s sick of playing nice with these PC participation trophy tweens. He’s the main reason they’re locked inside all night long and first to die.
Ms. Hill: The history teacher/dance chaperone seems like a rescuer–but ultimately turns out to be the one who conjured The Pioneer in order to sacrifice one of the bad kids and restore order and goodness to their small town.
Jim the Janitor: The real moral one & rescuer.
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Lesson 3 Survivors and Victims
Douglas Ryan’s Characters for Horror
What I learned about this assignment is that my concept doesn’t fit neatly into the set parameters of the assignment so some tweaking was needed but I am confident that knowing what to look for at this stage of the process is most valuable.
My concept is random people that are down on their luck getting free eye care from a Dr they seem to trust singles them out to get a “final” eye exam. The group I chose is E. Outsiders, as our victims are looked down on by a classist society. Especially our lead heroine Daniella.
The Dying pattern: A-
Daniella is the Carrier: she is an outsider of the community as she is a foster child. After Xeno tries to kill her she sets out to let the community know about Dr. Xeno.
Homeless men- Monster bait- Daniella sees our monster take these men home and never come out of the basement. These men are killed in gruesome fashion
Boy- Innocent who is killed for not taking care of glasses.
Stuart- Rescuer/Sacrificial lamb– He is the son of Dr. Xeno and Daniella shows him what his dad is up to.He confronts his father about everything and is killed by his dad for turning on the family.
Mary- Red Herring– the Dr.’s wife, she seems out of it and always is in a fight with her husband. We find out he is doing this all because of her and her need for new eyes.
Detective Marcus- Rescuer– Goes out of his way to prove Dr Xeno is the killer he is killed in the process of investigating the free clinic, Dr Xeno keeps one of his eyes for his wife.
Detective Smith- Complainer– she is Marcus’s partner and keeps finding a way not to do her job because she feels his theories don’t add up. She survives the final attack and is rescued by Daniella. She notices the wife’s right eye is familiar but can’t place it.
Dr Johnson- Moral one– She keeps telling everyone that Xeno is a good guy that really loves helping the unfortunate with her. She is used as cover until she sees his collection of eyes. Then he is caught killing her by Daniella.
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What I learned doing this assignment is: the decisions needed to match your concept can also change your concept.
Mark Hammond: Characters for Horror
Concept:
After being pronounced dead and taken to the funeral home. A person has exactly 24 hours to either go to hell, heaven, or return to life-whether they are truly dead or not.
Group:
6 young adult thrill-seeking college students
The dying pattern of this group:
( A ) 6 to 8 characters together and kill them off one by one.
Give us an identity in a sentence of each character that makes up your group:
LEADER:
A sociable entertaining frat brother majoring in ancient African and Caribbean religions.
INNOCENT:
A deacon’s daughter that is dating the leader.
OUT OF CONTROL / OBNOXIOUS:
Daughter of well-to-do parents that are in law and law enforcement. She is dating the rebel.
REBEL / RULE BREAKER:
The drug supplier that was kicked out of school for breaking and entering and for possession of illegal substances. He wants to prove his worth to his college friends, and girlfriend.
MORAL ONE:
A nerd and social outcast because of his high intellect.
RESCUER:
An ROTC candidate that must step up to the plate and save his friends.
CARRIER:
Once worked as a chauffeur for the funeral home and unwittingly leads them into the embalming area.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Mark Hammond.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by
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Jeff Hall’s Characters for Horror
1. Tell us your Concept and the Group you have chosen. Social Group / Family
2. Tell us the Dying Pattern of this movie. B. The characters experience the terror and survive together, but one or two die.
3. Give us an Identity and a sentence for each character that makes up your group.
ROB – Leader. Does not run from inaginary ghosts. Wise enough to know when they need to do something about this haunting.
ADA – Moral One. Wants everyone to do the right thing. Do not lie about ghosts.
ZOEY – Rescuer. She tries to convince everyone of the truth. She enters the “dragon’s layer” and rescues Lynn
LYNN – Innocent. She interacts with the monster and the monster does not harm her.
JOHN – Introvert/Loner. Does not want to talk about his paranormal life. But when needed to save the family, he helps.
Investigator 1 – Monster Bait
Investigator 2 – Monster Bait
Investigator 3 – Monster Bait
4. Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?” and put it at the top of your work.
Each character should have separate roles/characteristics.
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Larry Fraller’s Characters for Horror
What I learned doing this assignment is to write enough characters to make the horror more interesting, and the manifestation of evil more pronounced.
CONCEPT: When a vegetarian acquires a taste for meat, predators and parasites acquire a taste for her husband and friends.
GROUP: Husband and new friends from neighborhood or castle.
DYING PATTERN: Each character, except the castle owner, experiences annoyance, then irritation, fatal diseases, and animal attacks. The husband also experiences the worst horror having to use his wife’s corpse to fend off piranhas in his flooded house.
IDENTITY: The protagonist Wife: vegetarian since college when her roommate’s pet pig
showed her how intelligent and loving an animal could be, and it horrified her that other pigs, and any animal could be slaughtered for people to eat
Husband: Loving, gentle, easy-natured nerd who wouldn’t hurt so much as a flea unless he has to.
Castle owner: Suave, late middle aged eccentric who dabbles in entomology and vaccination experiments on animals for the good of all animals (red herring)
Vineyard supervisor: Elderly, quiet, secretive, protective of his vines, suspicious of outsiders, but tends to his plants with extreme care and affection
Vineyard’s supervisor’s wife: Kindly alcoholic who welcomes outsiders. Fantastic cook who prepares every meal with great pride, and sumptuous recipes of her own making
and very persuasive. She was raised by a goat herder who taught her from an early age how to tend and nurture the goats and slaughter them without guilt, as a way of life.
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George’s Characters for Horror
What I learned doing this assignment is that I need to learn more about horror genre characters.
1. Tell us your Concept and the Group you have chosen. Concept: A vicious, advanced, alien scout answers a mountain observatory’s call to E. T.s and uses the employees as lab animals to prepare for Earth’s conquest. Group: A. TEAM OF PROFESSIONALS
2. Tell us the Dying Pattern of this movie.
A. Put 6 to 8 characters together and kill them off one by one.
3. Give us an Identity and a sentence for each character that makes up your group.
Leader: John is in charge of the Search ETI. Older, he takes responsibility for calling the malevolent (by our standards) creature. He is also Carrier and Sacrificial Lamb.
Rescuer: Handyman Miguel. No degree but fascinated by astronomy. Very fit. He hides a mystery. He is the moral one.
Out of control / Obnoxious: Al, second in responsibility, argues about every decision that John makes.
Love Interest or lovers: Intern Deborah and custodian Carlos. She is an aspiring scientist, not looking for love but career. He pursues her. He is also the rebel/rule breaker.
Complainer: Analyst Lashonda frequently sides with Al.
Monster Bait: Yessica, Carlos’ cleaning partner, and a Deliveryman. And then everyone else.
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Quincy (Quinn)’s Characters for Horror
What I learned doing this assignment is some of the different tropes used in horror, outside of Jamie Kennedy’s rundown in Scream.
1. Tell us your Concept and the Group you have chosen.
Concept: A meteorite that crashes near a rural town brings with it a spores which take people over and begin to convert the area for colonization by extraterrestrials.
Group: Social Group – a small rural community
2. Tell us the Dying Pattern of this movie.
Pattern A – 6 to 8 characters killed* off one-by-one.
3. Give us an Identity and a sentence for each character that makes up your group.
- Leader – Colleen Francis, DVM – Colleen is the vet and is the one to determine what is going on; it is she who is trying to save the community (and possibly the planet)
- Innocent – Mandi – 11 year old Mandi is immunocompromised, which is how she avoided becoming infected. Her parents, not so much.
- Out of control / Obnoxious – Rev. Paul – fanatic, believes first that the “plague” is a sign of the end times, then that the invasion is the second coming
- Complainer – name TBD – local rancher whose cattle were lost to the spores
- Rebel / Rule Breaker – name TBD – mayor with an eye for the governor’s seat
- Introvert / Loner – Sheriff Howard “Howie” Gilmore – widower, helps Colleen and Becket, tries to get outside help.
- Moral One – Carter – high school senior, insists there must be a way to turn everyone back to normal
- Sacrificial Lamb – Tom Becket, MD – the local physician who is working with Colleen to try to save the community
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Carmen’s Characters for Horror (Survivors and Victims)
What I learned doing this assignment was really thinking about each character and how they fit into the horror/dread/terror aspect of the script. I also learned how to consider each one’s motives and why they need to die or survive!
1. Tell us your Concept and the Group you have chosen.
CONCEPT: The biggest Mob Boss in Vegas is double-crossed by his nephew. But he still owes the Devil souls as payment for his wealth and power. When the nephew digs him up – he brings him back starting him on a murderous rampage for revenge.
The group I have chosen is social- Mostly Family
2. Tell us the Dying Pattern of this movie.
The Dying Pattern is Pattern A – a group of family members/bloodline all die – one or two survive
3. Give us an Identity and a sentence for each character that makes up your group.
Leader: Leonardo Salvatore – He is Fredo’s brother and the one who tries to figure out how to stop the Don
Rescuer:
Innocent: Fredo’s twin teenage son (Dante) and daughter (Caterina) – they have nothing to do with anything save they are part of the bloodline
Out of control / Obnoxious: Cecilia Salvatore was married to the Don. She can’t be trusted and can’t be calmed down once she knows he is gunning for her.
Red Herring:
Love Interest or lovers:
Complainer
Rebel / Rule Breaker
Introvert / Loner
Moral One: Bianca Salvatore – Leonardo’s wife. She keeps him grounded and married into the family. She keeps Leonardo in check.
Monster Bait
The Carrier: The one who brings the horror to the group: Fredo Salvatore. He has an affair with Ceciia Salvatore (the Don’s wife) – he also is the one who shoots the Don in the back and buries him in the desert with money from a heist. It’s his actions that bring the Don back to life.
Sacrificial Lamb: Fred Lazerus – He was Don’s most trusted Pit Boss and friend. He tries to protect Cecilia – with whom he also had an affair with. He is one of the first to go and in one of the most brutal ways
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Toby Watts’ Characters for Horror
What I learned doing this assignment is that understanding your group, their roles and the way they die really help to clarify the vision for your story, how it unfolds and how to build the scenes, scares and tension. Having archetypal roles really helps to see how the dynamics and interactions between characters could play out, and even suggests sub-plots to develop.
Concept for BELOW GROUND: A wealthy family retreat into their half-built underground bunker after a surprise vigilante attack on them in the night, only to find they have no way back out again and worse — someone is down there already.
Group — A family and their maid.
Dying Pattern — The characters experience the terror and survive together, but one or two die
Identities
Leader and Carrier: The father of the family is the rich entrepreneur and the one who built the bunker for an emergency like this. He tries to stay calm and keep everyone focussed on staying alive and getting out, acting as though he’s in control, else his family will blame him for everything.
Rescuer: The mother has a duty to protect her teenage children at all costs, and makes life difficult for her husband when they lose their son to the vigilantes after a botched escape attempt.
Red Herring: The character of the maid is a red herring, making us suspicious of the outsider in the family and wondering whether there is some secret love relationship with the father, causing tension in the group.
Moral One and Sacrificial Lamb: The son offers to try and get his sister’s medication, risking his life, and gets murdered on the way back to the bunker.
Innocent: The sister begins her journey in shock and unsure what to do, but grows into a problem solver as time runs out.
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Wayne’s Characters for Horror
I learned to puzzle it out piece by piece and feel it come alive.
MOVIE: OLLIE’S MISSION: Social Group (TEAM OF PROFESSIONALS)
Ollie is a CIA agent with a secret and a problem. She has her own monstrous astral body killing agents, and a new assignment, a task force to kill the her monster.
DYING PATTERN: A. Put 6 to 8 characters together and kill them off one by one.
1 Leader/Carrier: Ollie is a well respected CIA senior investigating officer. She is single, sexually active, and comfortable with that. She has an unknown side that makes her job complicated and successful, a monstrous wicked astral projection.
2 Rebel / Rule Breaker: Michael is a charming, careless, terrifying bastard having a very successful streak. He is hated and loved by Ollie.
3 Moral One: Donna has a strong sense of immoral nature of this group. She prays for them. Thanks God for the challenge of saving the others. She periodically is overwhelmed by Satan and goes wicked lusty.
4 Monster Bait: Abby a young recruit, believes in supernatural, and is literally trying to make herself bait by studying who is being killed.
5 Complainer: Jack is an old timer just about to retire. He is not very happy with this assignment.
6 Love Interest: Brad is young and enthusiastic, excited to be on this case, wants to pic the brains of these super accomplished agents.
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Jennifer’s Characters for Horror
I learned that I can make some big-picture decisions about the potential direction of my story which can be tweaked later if needed.
Concept: A precocious young child unleashes heinous creatures and lethal forces on their family.
Group: Family
Dying Pattern: They all experience the terror together, but only 1 or 2 die.
Characters:
Leader – Richard, the husband overconfident and cocky “outdoorsman” who takes his family on an off-grid adventure in the desert
Rescuer – Kendria, the wife/mother who has fought emotional and financial battles to protect her family, now has to battle deadly forces
Introvert/Loner – Frank, Rosetta’s teenaged brother, beaten down by tragedy and loss and fiercely devoted to his sister and niece
Red Herrings – Desert dwelling hunters who menacingly appear after dark shortly after gunshots are heard
Carrier – Leya, quirky, precocious daughter who innocently channels/conjures up a supernatural force intent on bringing the guilty to justice
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Paige’s Characters for Horror
What I learned doing this assignment is it’s interesting to think about the group that experiences the horror and how many of them die. I gave an initial stab at some possibilities for characters based on the suggested prototypes.
Title: OLD ONES
Concept: A black estranged couple, mourning the passing of their child, are thrust together to investigate a new strain of death in a bigoted, southern town, where they uncover a lair of female creatures luring men to propagate their long-lived species.
Group: My movie doesn’t neatly fit one of the suggested groupings. My two main characters are professionals and a disjointed family entering a small town. So, it doesn’t clearly fit the Professional grouping, nor Social Grouping, nor Outsiders, but sort of crosses all three. There are previous horror movies with this type of structure, like The Fog and Halloween 3, so I’m going to just keep moving forward.
Dying Pattern: At this point, I think we will experience 3 or 4 deaths, with the husband’s death being the most dramatic and climatic at the end. The death patterns have been steady but have also been smartly laid out. These are discerning and smart “monsters,” which is why they have survived as long as they have. The wife survives, along with her new alien child that looks like her former passed child.
Characters:
Leader/Rescuer: Dr. Sela Ford, the mother, a pediatric oncologist, who’s now working full-time in the overwhelmed ER of her Atlanta hospital. She’s the one who wants to save people, and who really wanted to save her daughter from her cancer, but her daughter died under her care, nevertheless. She’s the one who identifies the first victim in the chain of events. In the end, the irony is she thinks she’s saving the children – her child in particular – but she’s bringing the horror back into the city with her.
Sacrificial Lamb: Joshua Ford, Sela’s estranged husband who works for the CDC. Sela ropes him into the mystery as they trace the origins of this new strain of death to this remote southern town. He’s looking out for the greater good but blames his wife for their child’s death. Thought she could have done more to save her. In the end, he’s sacrificed for the supposed greater good – does he go willingly or not?
Innocent: Oriana Ford, the deceased 6-year-old daughter of Sela and Joshua, but a pivotal, emotional character. It is her “rebirth” that changes the mother’s outlook and perception.
Soothsayer: Persephone, the eldest “monster”, the “matron.” She is the embodiment of all their powers and can unleash hell on earth as the queen of their race. She also comes with great wisdom.
Love Interest: Miranda, the middle “monster”, in the role of the “caretaker”, challenges the husband’s faith and sexual interest, because he has felt neglected and distanced from his wife since their child’s passing, and Miranda knows how to play on taking care of a person’s needs.
Rebel / Rule Breaker: Raven, the youngest “monster”, who has the role of “seducer” as well. She brings undue attention to the clutch by infecting the Congressional candidate and another man passing through. She doesn’t follow the rules because of her own ego and appetite for adventure.
The Carrier: (The one who brings the horror to the group): A political candidate for the Senate, who has been campaigning throughout the state. He’s the first identified victim, but tracing where he picked up the unidentified strain of death is a challenge.
Moral One: A black contractor who was working on the plantation estate but left because it didn’t feel right. He’s seen things, and he knows the lay of the land, and estate.
Monster Bait: A pharmaceutical rep, who Dr. Sela Ward knows, is passing through the town stumping his supplies, when he becomes an unwitting target of Raven.
Red Herring: A local man of power, either the local Mayor or the local Sheriff.
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Subject line: Verena’s Characters for Horror
I learned that this formula feels strange to apply at first but, it helps things come together quickly.
1. Tell us your Concept and the Group you have chosen.
B. SOCIAL EVENT: A spirituality retreat in the mountains, offers a group of lost individuals wholeness and possible death.
2. Tell us the Dying Pattern of this movie.
B. The characters experience the terror and survive together, but one or two die.
3. Jenny: Rescuer, she doesn’t feel seen or enough so she always has to help others. She goes on this retreat to finally focus on herself but, ends up trying to rescue others anyway.
Armin & Tessa: Lovers who attend the retreat to strengthen their relationship.
Veronica: Out of control, she has no limits to when and how she will have a good time at others and her own expense.
Kenny: The innocent, drug addict with that has not found any purpose to his adult life with a child’s mentality.
Mike: Leader, he is noble, enthusiastic, sensible, and logical. He is resourceful and the type of straight guy who would teach yoga.
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Charles Ferrell’s Characters for Horror
What I learned from doing this assignment is the potential complexity of weighing needed roles or gaps in story structure, against simply building quality and interesting characters to take us along for the ride.
1 Group:
Social group of friends out for a weekend long fishing trip to reconnect and cheer up one of the friends after a recent tragic loss.
Second group of outsiders, runaways that have joined forces with our monster forming a rag tag gang of inexperienced human weapons.
One remaining member of a professional team, the only surviving member of the murdered cargo ship crew.
2. Dying Pattern: B
3. Characters
Lead: Jimmy always gets what he wants in life, appears to have it all together while working hard to hide his demons/weakness. Has a history of taking other along for the ride in his bad decisions.
Rescuer: Eric Recently lost his pregnant wife in an auto accident, his one and only love, somewhat reserved and always cautious.
Out of Control: Reamus overly eager to a point of fault, he desperately wants seeks acceptance, misguided in his desperation lacks conviction in word and actions.
Innocent: Aurie Confused, looking for parental figures, needing a sense of belonging in her young life of turmoil and abandonment, inwardly searching for a focus for her loyalties.
Introvert/loner: Chaesy deckhand and aspiring helmsman, often left out of crew group activities.
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Jason Lassen Characters for Horror
What I learned doing this assignment is… It’s important to know your characters backstory and reason for being in the story. Also, coming up with characters to kill off can be quite enjoyable and fun.
Concept and the Group: Sinners.
Dying Pattern – Putting a group of characters together and killing them off, one by one.
Characters
The Carrier: The Toy Keeper has been assigned by the devil to oversee the storage facility.
Lovers: Honey and Nathan. They arrive with their spouses, it turns out they have their own unit complete with a bed for naughty indiscretions.
Innocents: Andrew and Heather. The spouses to Honey and Nathan that have no idea that their spouses are having an affair.
Rebels: The Band Sloppy Joe. Four guys that practice in one of the storage units. The lead guitarist/ singer has some skeletons in his closet the band doesn’t know about.
Complainer: Toby. She’s the mom to Gayle and mother-in-law to Erik, who have their own family storage unit as well as one for the French immersion school she created many years ago.
Monster Bait: Gayle and Erik. She’s constantly nagging Erik and bragging about how she’s going to inherit the school her mother started. Erik loves to watch himself in a huge mirror while he works out in their storage unit.
Sacrificial Lambs: Two nameless and faceless employees of Toby who are bringing boxes from her school to the storage unit and organizing it.
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Mark Dotz
Characters for Horror
What I learned doing this assignment is…?” and put it at the top of your work. _ I really took from this the conventions of character. I’ve seen all these characters before but it was really helpful having them written out for me to reference in this way.
1. Tell us your Concept and the Group you have chosen.
THRILL SEEKERS – The Five high School kids get stoned and go to the Vanderlip mansion looking for a fun thrill.
2. Tell us the Dying Pattern of this movie.- All but one girl die.
3. Give us an identity and a sentence for each character that makes up your group. –
Brad- The Not-so-shy musician who is too cocky and gets himself killed
Mitch – The macho jock.
Sarah – The nice girl who can’t be assertive enough to save her life, mumbles her complaints.
Cameron – The other soccer player who just wants to get stoned all the time. She is a little out of control.
Shannon – The moral one, the girl who always wants to turn back, one of the ace soccer players, very fit. She lives at the end
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Halloween’s Characters for Horror
What I learned doing this assignment is that characters don’t need to be perfect first time around.
Concept: During a remembrance service, the family of the murdered bride is hunted by the murdered bride when her husband to be casts a resurrection spell that goes horribly wrong.
Dying Pattern: A almost everyone dies.
Characters:
Leader: A defrocked priest. Named after a controversial Saint, he kept his transgender nature from the church and was defrocked when It found out. He keeps his status a secret from his parishioners.
Innocent: Magdalena, a high school senior and younger sister to the murdered bride.She represents the idealistic side of young love
Monster Bait: Cara, a woman who conflates love with sex and boasts her many lovers would die for her she is so good in bed.
Complainer: Cesar,a car mechanic who bitches about the fat that he was dragged here to this ceremony by his long suffering girlfriend.
Rebel: Jose, the young tough who swears violence can solve any answer but in reality has never thrown a punch and lives his life vicariously through T.V.
The Carrier: Mona, the Nanna, who pushed everyone together to come to the service. She keeps the memory of their family alive even though it is a highly dysfunctional one.
The Sacrificial Lamb: Jason, an idealistic hopeful college freshman who believes in the good in people. He dons her ex-fiancé’s garb and offers himself to her vengeance as a surrogate for the man who actually shot up the family.
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Subject: Karyn L. – Character for Horror
Lesson 3 – Assignment 3
What I learned from doing this assignment: I learned that the characters provide wonderful elements to bait a monster of superior intelligence.
Concept: Four explorers/researchers enter a cave to find and retrieve the body of the twin sister of the lead explorer only to discover perfectly preserved remains of an ancient human and alien civilization.
Group: It is a group of professionals—Jean-Leader, forensic anthropologist (twin sister-Carly), Brett—archaeologist/artifact collector, Cameron “Cam”— astro-archeologist/technologist, Margaret (Maggie) indigenous studies/ancient petroglyphs expert. The group does meet a group (3) of hobbyist spelunkers.
Dying Pattern: Cam is badly injured and the spelunker couple dies in Act 1- Cam’s injuries presents a Turning Point when he becomes separated but re-unites with the group at Turning Point 2-end of Act 3; Brett dies at the Midpoint; Jean faces the dilemma of her sister’s disappearance in Act 4 and she succumbs to injuries. Cam and Maggie survive with Jean’s twin sister (Carly).
Identity-Characters:
Leader: Dr. Jean Lester-She is an experienced cave explorer (spelunker), forensic archeologist. She is driven by her twofold mission—retrieve her sister’s body and finish what her twin sister (Carly) started before she died, in this cave.
Rebel/Carrier: Brett Halston-He is an experienced cave explorer, archaeologist interested in antiquities and money.
Rescuer: Cameron Sobu—astro-archeologist/technologist. He understands elements of space and alien technology. He is the “MacGyver” wizard of the group.
Moral/Introvert: Dr. Margaret (Maggie) Barnard—Professor of Indigenous studies and ancient communications, petroglyphs, cuneiforms, hieroglyphs. She has an elevated understanding of the cave. -
Bobby’s Survivors and Victims:
What I learned doing this assignment was… to get off my ass and do it – got a few lessons behind, and started panicking, thinking of all the answers I didn’t have yet. And of course I didn’t, because I wasn’t there yet. Some lessons you just keep learning.
SON 3: VICTIM GROUPTITLE/CONCEPT: SHADOWS/Hannah is murdered by a deranged killer the night of her senior prom, and wakes to find herself in a shadowy version of her small hometown, populated by the dozen or so inhabitants that died on the same day – including her killer, who is out to finish the job and destroy her soul forever, before she can be spun out into a new life.
VICTIM GROUP: “Social Event” – everyone who died in town on the same day wakes in Shadow Town (God that blows); each must confront their “failing” in life, in order to be spun out again into their new life.
DYING PATTERN: The characters experience the terror together, but 1 or 2 die
VICTIMS:
THE LEADER: MRS. GRAVES (ELEANOR) – Hannah’s best friend, from across the street. Mrs. G is an old soul, and now has memory across lifetimes, and of the workings of the Shadow Town (so knows the rules).
REBEL/RULE BREAKER: MR GRAVES (BILLY) – who appears in Shadow Town as a young, carefree boy, representing the state of his soul – ironically, closer to “moving on” than his wife, who is still “attached” to her “wise old woman” role. Mr. Graves (Billy?) seems to ignore the mood of the town/refuses to take seriously the lessons needed to return – pokes fun at his wife often.
NOTE: THESE TWO MAY ALSO FUNCTION AS “LOVERS”
THE CARRIER/THE INNOCENT: HANNAH herself, who inadvertently brought the killer here, simply by fighting back and killing him/it in the real world. Hannah is a NEW SOUL – has lived only the one life – as a result, perhaps has more power here than others? (Hannah never took any risks. OR, maybe she never believed in her OWN POWER/WORTH…ooooo)
LONER: PETER – the old town janitor. Bitter, ignored by society. Peter never took the risk of connecting with others (or, perhaps, never got over loss of wife?)
OUT OF CONTROL/OBNOXIOUS: Eddie Vans – drug overdose. Thinks he’s still tripping, maybe? (Comic role? May not fit vibe) Appreciates nothing in the real world.
SACRIFICIAL LAMB: IZZY – 10 year old, abused child. Trusts no one.
RESCUER: JOHN TAFT – young cop, died in a fire across town. Tries to play hero.
COMPLAINER: FREDERICK PLISS – high school teacher, felt he wasted his life, wanted to be an artist. Doesn’t know his own worth either.
RED HERRING: THE VAGRANT – died under a bridge. Mistaken for killer somehow. Maybe a voyeur (never participated in life)
MORAL ONE: REVEREND JONES – convinced he knows the one true way to salvation – this place destroys his faith (why is he here?)
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