Lesson 5

[j T]

(Oops. posted on the wrong forum. )

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by  j T.
• This reply was modified 1 year ago by  j T.

[Adam Wright]

What I learned doing this assignment is it’s difficult for me to come up with horror situations without repeating myself. I’m hoping I can clean this up a bit in the future.

ACT 1 — SET UP FOR HORROR

Atmosphere of Evil established: Dylan is on a movie set and he is pushing the boundaries of Amanda, an actress who has had a recent scandal, telling her to do things that cross ethical lines and putting her in physical danger. When she pushes back he reminds her of the paycheck she has waiting for her.

Horror situation: Dylan has a frank meeting with the actors at the beginning to tell them he wants everyone to be in method, and react to what they hear but understand that everything is fiction. Only, it is not fiction.

Reaction: Denial. The actors understand they will be challenged but also believe they are in a safe situation.

Connect with the characters: The actors are shown rehearsing dialogue, practicing their screams, putting makeup on etc.

Horror situation: There are some actors who are more famous than others and the more famous ones look down on the newcomers.

Reaction: Try to solve it. The peacemakers among the group, Chuck, Alessandra and Virgina try to cool down the tension.

The characters are warned not to do it.: Amanda tells the other actors how difficult Dylan is being and says they should all walk out in protest. But these are young actors who want stardom and fame and know they are working with a legendary director so they decide to stay, even though there will be no car service for the remainder of the night.

Horror situation: It gets dark, the roads get blocked by downed trees, and rain is constant.

Reaction: Escape. Some of the actors look for ways to leave, just in case.

Denial of Horror: Ravi who has worked with Dylan talks about how ultimately it was a good experience for Dylan to push him to his limits and that Dylan knows what the rules are.

Horror situation: Dylan purposely injures an actor to elevate their performance to make it more believable.

Reaction: Hide. Several actors disperse and try to get their thoughts together.

Safety taken away: Union workers leave due to regulations, the car service that takes actors to the woods leaves, and Dylan says he will take over camera and directing duties.

Horror situation: Chuck is warned away from Dylan as a director by union workers and/or drivers. He wants to stay to further his career.

Reaction: Denial. Chuck is sure things will work out.

Monster: The nature of the beast.: After Virginia goes to shoot a scene, she doesn’t come back. Dylan insists she just went somewhere to be alone but there is blood on Dylan’s clothes. He says it’s just makeup.

Horror situation: Virginia is taken by Dylan to do a scene and locked away.

Reaction: Try to solve it. The remaining actors try to look for Virginia.

ACT 2 — THE POINT OF NO RETURN

Isolated / Trapped / Abducted: The actors are told the rest of the scenes will be filmed inside the house and so they all need to go in to get ready for their scenes. But once inside, the doors and windows automatically lock.

Horror situation: Dylan gets an actor locked into a bear trap and refuses to let them out. He keeps rolling the camera and takes a knife and stabs into the actor.

Reaction: Escape. The actors attempt to find ways out of the house but the house is trapped.

One of us killed: While looking for ways out of the house, an actor stumbles upon the dead body of Amanda from the first scene, her throat slit.

Horror situation: Dylan isolates pairs of actors but tells the others what doom is in store for each set of actors.

Reaction: Try to solve it/fight. Some actors try to figure ways out of the trap while others decide to look for weapons.

MIDPOINT: The monster is worse than we thought!

Full pursuit by the killer: Ravi sets off a trap in a room and instead of helping, Dylan just keeps encouraging him to act like someone in the situation would.

Horror situation: Dylan gets an actor locked into a bear trap and refuses to let them out. He keeps rolling the camera and takes a knife and stabs into the actor. Alessandra has to watch.

Reaction: Hide/fight. Some hide while others fight.

Terrorized: Dylan takes glee in chasing actors around, setting off traps, and stabbing whoever he can corner.

Horror situation: Dylan cuts the throat of an actor right in front of the others. There is no denying he is actually killing people at this point.

Reaction: Denial. The remaining actors can’t believe this is real and think Ravi is just pulling off some major acting.

ACT 3 — FULL OUT HORROR

Fight to the death: The remaining male actors decide they can take Dylan down if they team up. Dylan cuts them down in the attempt.

Horror situation: Dylan has the lovers trapped. Their only escape is to sacrifice the other or die.

Reaction: Fight/Escape. Some fight Dylan and lose, while others try to get out but die in traps.

Hysteria: Dylan is telling the remaining characters what a wonderful film they are making as he cuts into them.

Horror situation: As the actors are quietly whispering to one another, trying to figure out what to do, Dylan pumps extremely loud music through the house, making it impossible to communicate verbally.

Reaction: Try to solve it. Chuck figures out how to cut the sound to the speakers.

The thrilling escape from death: The actors who are left try to flee only to find more trapped rooms. But, they maneuver around so Dylan himself falls into the trap.

Horror situation: Alessandra and Chuck are the only ones left. Chuck goes to pray at a cross when the floor gives way. Alessandra tries to save him but is hit from behind by Dylan.

Reaction: Escape. Chuck dives through the hole in the floor to get away from Dylan.

Death returns to take one or more.: Chuck figures out how to open the doors to the house but when he presses the button to release the doors, a fatal electric shock is delivered.

Horror situation: Alessandra is the last one remaining after Dylan has killed everyone else.

Reaction: Escape/Fight. Chuck dies in the attempt to escape but Alessandra, who Dylan thought was dead, regains consciousness. She stabs Dylan to death.

Resolution: The last surviving member is in hysterics as she leaves the house to find the union workers and car service have returned and she is given treatment and asked to tell what happened.

Horror situation: We see some found footage of the film Dylan was making.

Reaction: Denial. Alessandra is in shocked disbelief over what happened.

[Carole Avila]

ASSIGNMENT 5
Carole Avila – Horror Situation Track

What I learned doing this assignment is knowing how important it is to have all the necessary elements in a horror script. I had already inserted my horror situations and reactions before I labeled them and didn’t want to take the time to go back and differentiate all of them.. A lot of them are blended within the outline. Still, I can see the value in labeling them to help me visualize the action in the script.

ACT 1
• Isolated / Trapped / Abducted: Adley and her parents arrive at her deceased grandmother’s home, located in the New Mexico desert. Spanish style mansion is a mile from the closest neighbors and 30 minutes from the closest town.
• Atmosphere of Evil established: They are greeted by a burst of cold air when they open the front door.
• Connect with the characters: Adley and her mother are on edge as they explore the house and Adley hears strange noises above the kitchen. Her father enters with their bags, optimistic about their stay.
• Safety taken away: Adley picks a room upstairs, and the door handle, unlike any others in the house, is freezing cold to the touch, but no one else can feel it. She realizes the room is directly above the kitchen, where she heard the strange noises.
• Denial of Horror: Adley thinks she sees a strange skeletal hand crawling under her bed, and her parents convince her it’s only mice.
• The characters are warned not to do it: Adley meets Victor in the town library. He warns her of an ancient demonic curse that haunts the home, a thing that kills the first born child in every generation on their 16th birthday, and she’s about to turn 16. He warns her not to sleep in the room. One of us killed: Victor tells Adley her grandmother was attacked by the creature, and although it didn’t kill her, her health declined from her injuries. He also says the handle was put there by his great-uncle to keep the curse confined to the room. Denial of Horror: She admits she hears and sees things, but doesn’t want to believe it’s more than mice.
• Monster: One night, Adley is attacked by the clawed hand. Her parents are convinced she’s having nightmares.

ACT 2
• Hide: Adley refuses to sleep in the room, but has to go in to get clothes. She hides them downstairs, but her mother takes them back up to the room. One night while getting clothes with her mother in the room, Adley is lulled to sleep during a conversation with her mother, who turns off the light and closes the door.
• Terrorized: Adley wakes in the dark and the skeletal hand crawls atop the bed and its sharp nails pierce her skin and tries to drag her under. She kicks at it and it breaks apart. She runs to the door and looks back. The bone fragments roll under the bed, as if attracted like a magnet. It reconstructs itself into the hand. She slams the door as it flies toward her face. Her parents attribute the red marks on her ankle to carpet burn and Adley has a fever, so they attribute her story of a monster to hallucinations.
• Adley fights the creature, and while holding onto the bed, discovers a broken slat on the top side of the headboard. She lifts it up and sees the gypsy manuscript with the counter-curse tucked inside. She fights the skeletal hand for the book, slamming the slat onto the hand, which breaks it apart. Adley jumps off the bed and runs out the door, slamming it shut behind her.
• Adley tells Victor she found the book and Victor lets slip that his father was killed on the way to see her grandmother. She wanted to show his father something important, and they thought it was the gypsy manuscript. When Victor’s father rode on the trail behind both houses, the creature grabbed the horse’s hoof and caused it to rear, throwing Victor’s father. He hit his head on a large rock and died from blood loss. (The monster can’t kill yet, but it can severely injure someone.)

MIDPOINT – The monster is worse than we thought:
Adley finally meets with Great-uncle Pablo who tells her all about the curse, how it started and how it has manifested into something physical with all its power gained from killing its victims over the years. She learns she must say the counter curse because she is the descendant of the gypsy who said the curse in the first place. After she says it, the monster can’t kill her, but Victor must touch a bone of the monster in order to completely destroy it, as he’s the descendant of the man who was cursed. If she doesn’t do her part, the monster will kill her. If Victor doesn’t do his part, the demon can kill anyone, except Adley, at will.

The manuscript shows many images of how the monster can change shape, use it’s bony tongue to strangle people, it’s claws to cut them, and its acidic saliva to burn them. The counter-curse is hidden under the back flap. Pable tells her it can’t attack anyone in Victor’s home because he protected the home with a sacred ritual of protection using salt and crystals.

ACT 3
• Terrorized: While Adley is having this conversation at Victor’s house, her parents want to surprise her for her birthday by putting a new door knob on the bedroom door so she’ll stop complaining how cold it is. By doing so, her father unknowingly releases the demon from the confines of the room. It chases the parents out of the house. Adley, who just returned from Victor’s house on a trail behind the grandmother’s home, meets them in the yard as her mother runs hysterically screaming with her father.
• Full pursuit by the monster: Adley’s father admits to taking the handle off the door. She explains how it holds the monster in her room. They run on the trail back to Victor’s house, Adley and her father dragging her mother because she’s so scared she doesn’t want to move. They finally reach the trail at Victor’s house, just as the long bony tail whips out with the hand on the end. It grabs Adley’s mother by the ankle and starts to drag her into the bushes. Adley and her father are holding her hands. Adley jumps onto the bones, and they break apart. Escape: As they rush into Victor’s house, Adley looks back and sees the rope of bone with the hand attached and it slithers into the bushes.
• Her father still has the handle and sets it next to the gypsy manuscript. Victor’s Great-uncle Pablo explains how it was used to contain the demon and how Adley and Victor must destroy it. Adley’s mother objects but finally Victor’s mother convinces her it’s the right thing to do. Fight: Adley, her father, Victor, and his great-uncle confront the demon in the grandmother’s house, where Adley will say the counter curse and Victor will touch one of its bones to destroy it.
• After it attacks and knocks out the two men, it backs up Victor and Adley to the bottom of the stairs in the foyer. Try to solve it: Both are too afraid to say the counter-curse or touch its bones. It jumps. Victor tells Adley to run and he goes up the stairs, thinking she follows. The monster chases Adley down the hall toward the kitchen. He hears her scream and runs to save her but trips on a broken tile and falls down the stairs, going unconscious.
• Fight: Adley confronts the monster in the kitchen and manages to climb atop the huge metal potrack and break the monster apart with a heavy meat tenderizers. While its in chunks, she runs out the kitchen and finds Victor waking up at the bottom of the stairs. The monster comes down the hallway and forces them upstairs.
• Escape: Adley and Victor run upstairs, and Adley looks back down at the monster at the mid-way landing. She finally says the counter-curse while looking in its eyes and it can no longer kill her. However, now it’s after Victor. They run down the hallway towards her bedroom and it blocks their only escape. Hide: It lunges at them, and there’s only one place to go—into her room.
• They hear the creature slam against the wall in the hallway and Victor realizes he has a chance to pick up a piece of bone. He jumps off the bed and opens the door, but the monster is complete and throws it whips out its tongue of bone at him. Victor slams the door just in time.
• Fight to the death: Victor has an idea and leaves Adley on her bed and crawls beneath it to confront the monster. Hysteria: She hysterically begs him not to leave, but he does, and she hugs the headboard made of bones from past victims. Death returns to take one more: The hand comes onto the bed and drags Adley underneath.
• The two men regain consciousness and hear screaming from the bedroom. They run upstairs and see Adley on the floor in the hallway. The thrilling escape from death: They hear a noise and stare at the bed. Victor is crawling out from under the bed. He had the hematite handle and threw it at the demon. Now the handle contains the demon.
• Great-uncle Pablo is going to perform a ceremony to end the creature once and for all. While the family is inside the grandmother’s house celebrating the end of the curse, a demon animal removes the box with the hematite handle inside from Pablo’s truck and jogs into the woods with it.
• Resolution: Years later, a young family finds the box while digging a pool for their new home. They see it as a good omen and have the handle installed on their front door.

[Anne]

Anne’s Arctic Animals Horror Situation Track
What I learned doing this assignment is: Act 1 was relatively easy and heavily pulled from denial and/or trying to solve it. Act 2 and 3 were more difficult as a clear vision of the entire storyline had not yet emerged when I did the prior plot exercise. Not sure what reaction a victim can have to torture if they are unable to hide/fight back/escape.
ACT 1 – Set-up
– Atmosphere of Evil established: A 20’s female frantically runs from something or someone across an Arctic expanse. She reaches a cliff edge, stops, turns and faces her pursuer, then turns back and jumps off the cliff into the freezing water below.
o Horror Situation: Pursued in a dangerous area
o Reaction – Escape: Choosing death over being caught
– Connect with the Characters: Modern day. Protagonist college undergrad science student Molly goes to an intro planning meeting of the annual summer arctic study science team. Team members are introduced; Molly is the junior member and only woman.
o Horror Situation: Isolated situation described & risks hinted at
o Reaction – Denial: Molly ignores risks
– Warning: Woman science department admin tells Molly that the sole women members of the last two years’ teams died – one committed suicide and the other had an accident.
o Horror Situation: History of death – predecessors died
o Reaction – Denial: Molly proceeds despite new info that increases the risks
– Denial of Horror: Naïve and friendly with three of the male team members, Molly needs this summer work for the money and her resume for grad school.
o Horror Situation: Predators recognize Molly’s desperation & target her as their prey
o Reaction – Denial: Desperate and trusting of friends, Molly accepts the known risks
– Safety Taken Away: On the boat to the isolated arctic island, entering zone of no cell coverage. Team leader has only satellite phone. Team leader and his minions make Molly uncomfortable.
o Horror Situation: Geographic and communication isolation
o Reaction – Denial: Molly senses trap/danger but too late to turn back
– Monster: They land and set up camp. Molly overhears the slave role the team leader has planned for her. No other team members, even her friends, object. The boat leaves.
o Horror Situation: Molly lured into their trap, her tormenters reveal their plans.
o Reaction – Try to Solve it: As the dangers become apparent, Molly tries to defuse, stop, or escape the situation.
ACT 2 – The Point of No Return
– Isolated/Trapped/Abducted: Subordination of Molly by the team leader and his minions turns to enslavement Molly. She is threatened then punished when she doesn’t follow their orders.
o Horror Situation: Molly is surveilled 24/7; Her fear feeds her predators’ violence.
o Reaction- Hide: Molly tries to hide & mask her fear.
o Horror Situation: Molly is forced into servitude and to perform demeaning acts.
o Reaction – Try to Solve it: Molly tries arguments, then deal making, finally pleading with her tormenters
o Horror Situation: Molly is punished.
o Reaction – Try to Solve it: Molly goes to friends on team for help.
– One Killed: One friend betrays Molly. In a ceremony, the team formally converts her from a person to their property, cages her, and forces betrayer to brand her. Molly strikes back and injures one tormenter which only escalates the tormenters’ violence against her. She is one against many. She finds a note left by her dead predecessor detailing the cruelty the team inflicted was driving her to commit suicide and detailing possible options for survival.
o Horror Situation: Betrayed by friend; caged & made property; branded by friend.
o Reaction – Fight Back:
o Horror Situation: Branding; torture.
o Reaction – Fight – Molly strikes back and injures one tormenter.
o Horror Situation: Dead predecessor’s note informs Molly of extent of horrors to come
o Reaction – Try to Solve it: Molly’s focus shifts to planning for survival and escape.
– MIDPOINT – The Monster is worse than we thought: Torture increases. Rapes begin. Molly begs for help from the two remaining team member friends. One refuses. The other friend helps her but is killed in an “accident” by the team leader, with Molly set-up to be blamed for his death. No friends left, Molly escapes the camp and hides in a cave.
o Horror Situation: Rape.
o Reaction – Escape: Molly plans escape with help from friend.
o Horror Situation: Only friend killed; Molly blamed for death.
o Reaction – Escape/Hide: First escape – Molly hides in cave.
– Full Pursuit by the Killer: The team sends a 2 man patrol (betrayer/brander and another minion) to find Molly & bring her back for punishment. Molly kills her betrayer/brander. Minion flees and reports death to team. Molly attempts to communicate with the outside world.
o Horror situation: Patrol hunts Molly for capture.
o Reaction – Fight Back: Molly kills her betrayer/brander.
o Horror situation: Molly’s attempt to communicate/be rescued is thwarted by storm.
o Horror situation: Arctic storm; freezing temps.
o Reaction – Survival: Storm obscures Molly’s hideout but she is not prepared for its effects.
o Horror Situation: While in the cave, Molly discovers she is pregnant by rape.
o Reaction – Denial followed by Fight back: Molly is stunned at first but vows to survive at any cost.
– Terrorized: The team is united in its blame of and rage towards Molly. The team holds a ritual like planning meeting. They plan to drive her out via starvation and mental torture (loud music at night) and then kill her for revenge and to protect themselves.
o Horror Situation: Starvation; Sleep deprivation.
o Reaction – Fight back: Molly fights off rats, steals food, disables loud speaker.
ACT 3 – Full out Horror
– Fight to the Death: Once the storm lifts, Molly lays traps for the team. The team pursues a full-out hunt for her. Molly kills several, and traps the leader, but she is injured. Only the last former friend who previously refused to help her remains.
o Horror Situation: Molly is hunted – this time to be killed.
o Reaction – Fight back: Molly sets traps.
– Hysteria: Molly is injured, broken down. She doesn’t know if she can continue.
o Horror Situation: Injury weakens Molly’s defenses and prevents her from rescue attempts.
o Reaction – Try to Solve it: Molly treats her own injury and tries to compensate for it.
– Thrilling escape from Death: Last remaining friend appears willing to help Molly. They repair the radio and issue an SOS.
o Horror Situation: Molly can’t survive by herself, but the only option is her former on-off friend.
o Reaction- Denial & Try to Solve it: Molly takes a chance and makes a pact with former friend whereby both survive and blame the others.
– Death returns to take one more: Team leader, thought to be dead, escapes his trap and tries to kill Molly again. They fight with last remaining friend looking on. Molly shoves team leader over cliff. Last friend tries to make excuses for inaction. She asks for his help before pushing him off the same cliff as in the intro.
o Horror Situation: Team leader escapes and returns to kill Molly. Last friend oscillates on who to help.
o Reaction – Fight: Molly kills team leader by pushing him over the cliff. She takes revenge on false friend – pushing him over cliff as well.
– Resolution: Pregnant Molly is lone survivor.

[Susannah Farrow]

Susannah’s Horror Situation Track

2. Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?” and put it at the top of your work.
What I learned doing this assignment is this entire method. I haven’t thought of including situations and reactions this way.

1. Build horror situations into your plot by taking the following steps:
ACT 1 — SET UP FOR HORROR
• Atmosphere of Evil established:
The film opens with a silhouetted scene of carnage – there is a fire, there are screams, there are gunshots. The image is only brief before we cut to our main character, staring off into the swamp. She is obviously upset.
Horror Situation: The memory shows things aren’t as peaceful as they seem.
Reaction: The main character is uncomfortable being in town.
• Connect with the characters:
The main social group of characters have gathered with other members of the community to search for a missing person – a town drunk who they think fell into the swamp during a drunken stupor. Though not a very productive member of the community, the drunk is one of their own and is therefore valuable.
Horror Situation: One of their people is missing.
Reaction: They deny anything more serious has happened.
• The characters are warned not to do it:
One of the townspeople suggests they should all leave the town and abandon it – it has nothing but woe to offer and is a remnant of the past. The main characters argue against this, saying it is their home.
Horror Situation: An ominous cloud befalls the town; there is something in the air.
Reaction: More denial about anything worse going on than just bad vibes.
• Denial of Horror:
The local cop/sheriff suggests the drunk could be dead and search efforts could become retrieval efforts after finding his one of his belongings shredded and covered in blood.
Horror Situation: The prospect of death becomes real.
Reaction: The main characters are worried and afraid they’ll come across a dead body.
• Safety taken away:
The drunk is found – murdered. The kill is deliberate and violent. Some of the townspeople think one of their own must have done it.
Horror Situation: The main characters find the body.
Reaction: They are sickened by the man’s remains.
• Monster: The nature of the beast:
The killer murders the local cop, destroying the town’s beacon of authority and safety.
Horror Situation: They witness the murder firsthand.
Reaction: They run.
ACT 2 — THE POINT OF NO RETURN
• Isolated / Trapped / Abducted:
The road out of the town and all of the town’s boats are blown up, trapping the townspeople.
Horror Situation: Explosions. Flames. People screaming and running.
Reaction: They panic – there’s too much going on at once.
• One of us killed:
One of the main characters, along with several townspeople, are killed in a surprise attack.
Horror Situation: In the confusion, one of the main characters is killed.
Reaction: The others, witnesses to his death, make a narrow escape.
MIDPOINT: The monster is worse than we thought!
• Full pursuit by the killer:
The killer attacks any and all, breaking into people’s homes or killing them outside. No one knows how to handle it and even a group of gun-toting vigilantes can’t stop him.
Horror Situation: Gunshots ring out, enhancing anxieties.
Reaction: Hope is damaged when the vigilantes are killed.
• Terrorized:
The main characters attempt to hide and find another way out of town – but it seems like everyone is dying. Throughout their efforts, they are killed one by one.
Horror Situation: Screams fill the air and bodies litter the streets.
Reaction: They are forced to think outside the box in order to hide and figure a way out of town.
ACT 3 — FULL OUT HORROR
• Fight to the death:
The remaining main characters, namely a young man who is one of the main social group, decides to take the fight to the killer.
Horror Situation: The killer seems determined to kill this group of individuals.
Reaction: In response, one of them takes the fight to the killer.
• Hysteria:
They lose the fight, the young man is killed, and all hope is lost.
Horror Situation: They are alone, their friend is dead, and they are separated from any other townspeople.
Reaction: They run. All hope is lost.
• The thrilling escape from death:
The remaining heroes escape the killer a couple of times as they struggle to put distance between them and him.
Horror Situation: The killer is right on their heels.
Reaction: They run. Death hasn’t been closer.
• Death returns to take one or more.
The young man makes a surprise return, teaming up with the last two survivors to battle the killer one last time. They are about to be successful when the main character reveals herself to be in league with the killer.
Horror Situation: They are forced to fight the killer.
Reaction: It’s all or nothing.
• Resolution:
The young man dies his final death, the main character and the killer leave. However, one of the other main characters survives and crawls out of the swamp – alive but traumatised.
Horror Situation: The lose the fight, the bad guys win.
Reaction: The last survivor is barely alive. She crawls away.

[j T]

Jessica Tremblay’s Horror Situation Track
What I learned doing this assignment is horror has lots of tropes. It was fun to add new situations and reactions and see the story gets better and spookier. I also discover I have a very short Act 2, which could be a problem.

ACT 1
Atmosphere of Evil established: a CREATURE attacks a MAN (60) in a storage area (in the basement of an apartment building)
Connect with the characters: JOANNA (20s), the man’s daughter, is a shoplifter who discovers her one night stand is a cop. When his dog accidentally dies in her kitchen, he blames her. Few days later, when she gets news her father died, she has one goal: rescue her father’s dog and redeem herself.
The characters are warned not to do it: In her father’s apartment, she can’t find any trace of the dog. Her father’s neighbour MRS LARSEN warned her to get out as soon as she can.
Horror Situation: She finds BUILDING MANAGER going through her father’s stuff. He demands she goes to storage to empty her father’s locker in basement otherwise he’ll charge her one month’s rent.
Reaction: She has no choice but to go. Also, earlier she found a message written by her father (STOR-) and wonders “What’s in storage?”
Denial of Horror: After emptying the locker, she sees an opportunity to make money by stealing valuables from surrounding lockers.
Horror Situation: As she tries to leave, the pile of boxes and stolen goods collapse outside, blocking the exit. Joanna is trapped in storage.
Reaction: She tries the door several times. Tries to find another exit and finds none.
She’s stuck in a creepy dark basement. When manager comes, he’ll know she’s a thief and call the police. Her life is over.
Horror Situation: Lights turn off, except emergency lights. It’s dark.
Reaction: She plugs in Christmas lights.
She finds a locker with a door ajar, creaking, and closes it.
Monster: First signs of the beast: claw marks on the floor. Then, a lapping sound, a bucket of water spills, then scampering noises, grunting.
The beast rummages inside a locker and comes out, puling sleeping bag out. Stuff spilling everywhere.
Horror Situation: Her childhood toy, Bunny, is alone in the hallway
Reaction: She picks up Bunny and takes shelter inside locker.

ACT 2
Isolated / Trapped / Abducted. She creates a barricade and hides inside a locker.
Horror Situation: Monster roams in storage. She hears noises.
Reaction: She hides in locker, creates a barricade.
Horror Situation: The monster breaches barricade and comes closer. It can smell her. Attacks. Monster tries to enter locker, ramming it with its body.
Reaction: She crawls over wall of adjacent locker.

MIDPOINT

Full pursuit by the killer: the creature rams into the door of the locker to break in and get to her.
Terrorized: she must flee from locker to locker, crawling over the shared wall between lockers in the small space between pipes and top of lockers, using a short ladder to cross to the other side of the hallway. She falls in the hallway. Close encounter with the creature.

One of us killed: She throws Bunny, her favorite childhood toy, and creature eats and destroys it.

ACT 3
Fight to the death: She is being chased, trapped, attacked, and wounded.
Horror Situation: Beast chases her
Reaction: she escapes and hides to a locker.
Horror Situation: chased by beast in hallway, she used phone flash to blind beast
Reaction: and ends up taking weird selfies with beast
Hysteria: she straps a doll to herself and talks to it. She loses doll.
The thrilling escape from death.
Horror situation: Mrs. Larsen arrives to check on her, creating a diversion. The door is now open.
Reaction: She could leave, but she decides to stay to help Mrs. Larsen.
Horror situation: Mrs. Larsen can’t climb over the wall. Monster eats Mrs. Larsen
Reaction: Joanna escapes.
Horror situation: She has a giant wooden splinter
Reaction: Removes splinter. She’s bleeding heavily.
Horror situation: Seriously injured by beast, she crawls in to a locker,
Reaction : She sows her wound.
Horror situation: The sound of beast feasting on Mrs. Larsen is disturbing.
Reaction: She puts on noise cancelling headphones to block the noise.
Horror situation: The beast kidnaps the doll. The sound of crying doll yelling Mamma awakens her maternal instincts.
Reaction: she goes to rescue the doll.
She uses the broken A/C unit to knock out the beast.
Death returns to take one or more. The creature is not dead and grabs her one more time. Final fight. Mano a mano.
Horror situation: The beast approaches her nail to her stomach. She punches it in the stomach. Finds a tit. The beast is female! Joanna is suddenly drenched in bloody mucus.
Reaction: Beast stops fighting and leaves, moaning.
Beast gives birth. She locks it up. She’s now free to leave, but faints before she can reach the exit.
The Manager arrives, sees the mess in storage. She tries to leave without being seen.
Horror situation: Manager wants to kill her to keep his secret (she discovered he steals pension cheques from deceased residents).
Reaction: she uses monster against manager.
Horror situation: Manager chases her, blocks the exit.
Reaction: she has no choice but to crawl into the beast’s lair, not knowing what she’ll found at the end of the tunnel. Their final fight takes place in the creature’s lair.
Horror situation: Manager pretends to be hurt. She tries to help him, but he turns against her.
Reaction: They fight.
Resolution: Neighbour is dead. Manager is vanquished. She exits storage with the doll, having accepted her pregnancy. She frees the beast and puppies outside. She calls the cop she slept with. Tells him about pregnancy. She wants to make it work. She discovers a lost puppy on the back seat and decides to keep it. Drives to meet the cop. They can be a family.

• This reply was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by  j T.