Lesson 1

[Amy Parker]

Horror Screenwriting Course
Lesson One Assignment

I watched the movie Final Destination. I chose it because it is one of the inspirations for my project.
The Concept: What if you had a premonition of your own death and thwarted it? What if this messed up Death’s design and now it is trying to fix the problem? When Alex has a vision of the plane he’s on crashing, he, several of his classmates, and one of their teachers get off the plane and thwart their own deaths, but it turns out you can’t cheat Death. It will just keep coming for you until you die. Alex and the others must figure out if there is a way to keep avoiding their own demises or succumb to Death’s design in terrifyingly brutal ways.
Terrorize the Characters: Alex, the main character is constantly feeling Death’s presence in the breeze blowing through his room and in momentary glimpses of impending doom. Soon nothing about his or his friends’ lives is safe. Every room they enter, every street they walk down is fraught with peril. It’s as if Death is toying with them, leaving little clues concerning its next attempts at ending their lives, just enough to scare them, not enough to prevent them. It plays on fear of flying, suffocation, being trapped, dying, and being disbelieved by everyone—seen as paranoid.

Isolation: In the opening plane crash sequence there is literally no escape, but after, while the characters are free to roam the real world, no place is out of death’s reach so nowhere is safe. This creates the isolation. The characters are being stalked by death and it has no limits to where it can go.

Death: The deaths are all creative and brutal and involve a series of linked actions reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg machine in the way they operate. Water pooled on a bathroom floor provides a slippery surface to propel one character into a tub where he grabs a clothing line to keep from falling and manages to get it wrapped around his neck. Shampoo and conditioner is upended in the process, creating another slick surface in the tub so the boy can’t get purchase and essentially hangs from the line and strangles to death. Each death is built up with these chain reactions so the audience can see it coming and the tension is high.
Monster/Villian: Death itself. Intangible, supernatural, unbeatable. It is the ultimate monster and it comes for everyone at some point so there is literally no escape just reprieves.
High Tension: The sense of impending doom is pervasive. From the creepy objects in every setting; puppets/figurines, books with “death” in the title, a song played over and over by an artist who died in a plane crash, an unnatural breeze, everyday objects that are inherently dangerous: kitchen knives, gas stoves, electrical cords, water, clothes line, etc. Between these things and the sound track, the audience is constantly on edge.
Departure from Reality: windows shut on their own. Electrical wires seem to chase people, water turns direction abruptly—all of it is not realistic and defies natural law. Also the way people die is extreme and far-fetched.
Moral Statement: You can’t cheat death. Sooner or later, it comes for us all. It doesn’t matter what kind of person you are.
This was an excellent movie that stands the test of time. So many tiny details were infused into it: The imagery in the opening, the John Denver song, coincidental number alignments. And it takes situations we face every day and plays on our inherent fears about them.

My Project:
Concept
Flight 171 (adapting from my novel of the same name)
A group of college students board a plane for a spring ski trip and are confronted by a creepy old woman on board who renders everyone on the plane unconscious except for the students. Turns out she’s a supernatural creature inhabiting a human body. The old woman’s body is now failing and it needs a new body to possess. It wants one of the students to possess next. They must pick who before the flight ends or she’ll crash the plane and everyone will die.

Terrorize the characters: This concept plays on the fear of flying, the fear of being taken over or possessed against your will, the fear of old age and all the physical horror attached to it, the fear of enclosed spaces, and the fear of dying—or worse, being trapped alive inside your own body powerless to control it.

Death: The old woman will cause the deaths of several of the students to demonstrate how serious she is. She will manipulate their minds to make them harm themselves. Most of the characters will survive. One will be possessed and forced to share their body with the creature.
Monster/Villain: A supernatural creature inhabiting an old woman’s body. It’s failing so it is literally starting to rot over the duration of the flight. She can manipulate people’s wills, defy gravity, force the plane to crash with her mind and force the passengers into unconsciousness. She also knows all the students’ worst sins and exposes them one by one on the in-flight entertainment system.
High Tension: It’s an enclosed setting—an airplane—with no escape. The students’ sins play out one by one for all to see which ups the tension between them because their sins involve wrongs done to each other. The old woman is rotting and becoming grosser and scarier.
Departure from Reality: supernatural monster with unnatural powers.
Moral Statement: Are you willing to sacrifice someone else to survive? How do you decide what sins are worthy of death or worse? If you take revenge in an extreme way can you live with it?

[Sidney Rushing]

Horror Screenwriting Course
Lesson One Assignment

I watched the movie Heart Eyes because it was a slasher film that mixed drama with comedy.
The Concept: What if any one in love celebrated Valentine’s Day and died from a slasher’s knife as a result. If he catches you expressing love on this day it is kaput. So you either have to escape or claim you hate the person next to you.
Terrorize the Characters: Ally has been dumped horribly. However, Mason steps into the picture. There is a connection there and she feels it. However, she fights it, until she sees her ex and now she wants to make sure her ex knows she is happy. So, she fake kisses Mason and the chemistry is there. The killer spots the two and he pursues them relentlessly to kill the two lovers in their house, in the police station and at the merry go round. He stalks them at every angle for a night on Valentine’s. The killer is notorious and has a track record of kills.

Isolation: Ally and Mason are trapped in her apartment, at the merry go round and in the police station — no one is around because of errands or the killer has murdered them.

Death: The deaths are all by slashing or machines — mostly slashing.
Monster/Villian: This is a savvy, powerful and skillful slasher. He is omnious. He has a knowing.
High Tension: The impending doom increases as the isolated spots get tighter. He know traps them in van at a movie theatre with few escape ways
Departure from Reality: This one stays pretty realistic.
Moral Statement: Even the broken hearted deserve to explore love without a death judge. Second chances.

My Project:
Concept
MOVIE DATE

Concept: Movie dates get slashed in a theatre and no one can figure out who the killer is.

Terrorize the characters: This concept plays on the fear of the dark, the unknown and isolated places.

Death: They will die during the movie.
Monster/Villain: A failed screenwriter.
High Tension: All escaped exits are sealed off.
Departure from Reality: Realistic.
Moral Statement: Working on this.

[Xochi Blymyer]

What I learned doing this assignment is horror is a whole different genre than Thriller and trying to keep this at top of mind as my story develops.

• Title / Concept: I know What You did Last Summer
• Terrorize The Characters: Mysterious Person w Hook terrorizing with hook and mask
• Isolation: The friends hold a secret, then isolate themselves from each other and find themselves alone
• Death: The characters get stabbed and tortured, some die
• Monster/Villain: A Mysterious person with a hook
• High Tension: they are keeping the secret and going insane while being stalked by the killer.
• Departure from Reality: A ghost story/urban legend becomes real
• Moral Statement: Trying to hide mistakes can lead to unseen consequences.

4. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film?
• I think it fulfilled the terms of horror, created suspense, it slowly turned the victims paranoid, in danger.

4. With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.
• Concept: BETTER THINGS
• Terrorize The Characters: The roommates think they are going insane but being consumed by the old lady
• Isolation: The corner house in a sleepy town, roommates have no family.
• Death: The roommates don’t die, they are absorbed
• Monster/Villain: Old Frail Lady that needs a new “vessel” every year to maintain her frail illusion of mortality
• High Tension: The roommates start losing their grip on reality as Old Lady takes over
• Departure from Reality: This is no ordinary old lady or house. The longer you stay, the less real the outside world becomes, you are consumed
• Moral Statement: Elderly are sometimes discarded and selfish people (low rent and claiming will help) are set straight.

[Harry Lauture]

Insidious Horror Conventions
What I learned doing his assignment is how to outline the main parts of my horror idea.

Title/Concept: Insidious
Terrorize the Characters: Characters are terrorized by ghosts and demon and they don’t know why.
Isolation: They follow the family.
Death: Son is haunted because is soul is missing. If his soul does not return to his body, another entity will take hold.
Monster/Villain: A demon that want to possess the son’s body.
High Tension: Strange noises, unfamiliar voices, ghostly appearances, things moved around
Departure from Reality: A son that astral travel in his sleep gets lost and find his way back. His father needs to rescue him.
Moral Statement: Don’t be judgmental and quick to dismiss people.