Lesson 7

[Kenneth Wood]

Ken Wood’s Monster Reveal Track

Concept: The longer an arachnologist keeps a mysterious, new, highly-venomous Amazonian spider alive, the more it kills and multiplies, and the questions remain, “How did this monster come to exist?” and, “Should it be allowed to live?”

This assignment helped me develop and pace the revelation of the monsters full personality, power, limitations and weaknesses. It also helped me parcel out the clues and seed them throughout the entire story.

A. Monster Description and Terror

My monster is a mega spider called Phoneutria TERAS, a crossbreed between the most venomous and deadly spider, Phoneutria Feras, and the largest spider, the Goliath Bird-Eating Tarantula.

It’s Terror

Powers:

Deadliest and quickest venom/poison known to man.
Highly cunning, fast thinking, aggressive.
Injects its venom, in 60 seconds the victim goes into paralysis for a few seconds, then violent seizure.
The spider injects or sprays victims with corrosive digestive juices which cause pustules to rise and burst, and dissolve tissue.
It can flick its pedipalps against glass and break it.
It can shake its legs and emit urticating hairs which can irritate eyes and lungs and cause them to swell rapidly.
Its face is grotesque.
It is fearless
It kills anything, human, animal, or insect that it thinks is a threat to it or its offspring.
It thinks everything is a threat.
It is so aggressive and deadly that the lead Arachnologist determines that it will create a species that will endanger ever other species on the planet.

Limitations:

It is a biological creature, therefore subject to fire, drowning, suffocation, being shot, stabbed, or smashed, etc. The problem is, it is so quick, and evasive, it eludes most attempts.

Weaknesses:

It can be put to sleep by being sprayed with a heavy dose of CO2.

It can be lured with jungle sounds, and the smells of home among the banana shipment which came from her place of Origin, the Pará River in north Brazil.

Plan/Purpose/Appetite

We find late in the story, it came on the banana boat, because it had planted a number of egg sacs in the banana clusters that the Brazilian-based Andrade Produce Company had harvested. It boarded the boat to America to watch over it’s egg sacs. When captured, separated from the banana shipment, and taken captive in the Anti-Venom lab, the spider fights, and kills to get free. It not only kills to protect, but kills to provide food for its offspring. In short it has an ultra-obsessive mothering instinct. Its plan is to get back to her egg sacs at the warehouse and the banana boat.

B. Sequence the reveals.

Opening/prologue: Start the mystery of the monster by showing us the result of their violence.

One of the crewmen encounters some sticky spider webbing among the bananas.

We see only a spider’s leg among the banana crates on the Brazilian Cargo Boat.

During 1st Act: Foreshadowing as clues

As the boat reaches the American sea port, it has killed four people. The Captain is locked in his cabin, too afraid to turn off the boat which keeps battering and bouncing off the dock.

The spider kills the Port Supervisor down in the engine room. We do not see the spider, but see what its bite and digestive juices do to a human. We also see the power and strength of its silk to reel in and subdue its prey.

1st Act turning point: Characters are locked into horror

Sheriff Mauer and State Med. Examiner, Keaton Mercer are tasked with investigating the deaths on the boat. Keaton enlists arachnologist, Dr. Rexy Lambert to help with the spider bite toxicology assessment.

Atticus Xanderman, a Brazilian arachnologist, mysteriously shows up to “help” but is really there to get the spider back. Turns out he is the breeder and has done so to make the world’s deadliest and quickest acting poison. Rexy’s toxicology report confirms, the venom is indeed most deadly and quick acting.

Sheriff Mauer is first to view the decaying corpses of the four Crewmen, a reveal of the lethality and rapid decomposition potency of the venom of the spider.

Keaton/Rexy/Atticus are tasked with removing it from the engine room. The spider’s stealth and stalking is revealed in this engine room scene. We still do not see the spider fully as it descends upon a pinned-down Keaton.

In this scene, they manage to trap it in a mechanical net, triggered to clam shut with the push of a button on the long handle. They also spray it with CO2 further masking our clear view of the spider. However, we see it violently rage like a caught fish.

1st half of 2nd Act: The monster is present, but hidden

The spider is taken to Rexy’s Anti-Venom Laboratory, where an attempt will be made to extract venom from it for the purpose of creating an anti-venom.

My monster reveal is like Steven Spielberg’s monster dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, where we saw the raptors, and the Tyrannosaurus rex in his ACT 2. We got a taste of their cunning and ferocity, but the fun dose came in ACT 3.

Mighty Joe Young is another example of the Monster tracked and captured in ACT 1 and studies and examined in ACT 2.

In the lab, we reveal other aspects of the spider, namely, that it takes a heavier dose of CO2 than any other spider, snake or scorpion. It actually wakes up while the venom extraction is taking place and nearly goes on the attack.

The extraction scene creates tension in having this spider out in the open. We think it’s going to sleep through the whole procedure, but surprises them by waking up. It rages viciously against the tongs which hold it, frightening everyone. They barely get it back in its glass enclosure.

Midpoint: Monster is worse than we thought
2nd half of 2nd Act: Monster pursuing / attacking characters, delivering clues with each attack

At feeding time later that day, College lab assistants, Reese Robins and Cali Ann Nichole return to the lab for feeding. Reese feeds the spider, but doesn’t heed instructions to put the weight back on the lid of the spiders enclosure. Instead, he gets distracted with romancing Cali Ann.

The spider gets out, showing its cunning, and attacks and kills the students.

We then see its ferocity as it proceeds to get in the cages of each venomous creature and kills them. We see its power to use its pedipalps to break glass to get into a spider’s enclosure.

We see the spider’s ultimate superiority when it takes on and defeats the lab’s King Cobra in an epic battle.

When Keaton, Atticus and Rexy do a thorough search for the spider in the lab, the spider, cunningly sneaks into Rexy’s large purse and stays hidden until she gets to her home to be with her daughter Lilly and dog, Rosco. We learn that the spider can become exhausted and full after feeding, that it is in resting mode at this point. It also becomes more lethargic in the day. It’s species, the Brazilian Wandering Spider only hunts at night.

3rd Act: Characters solve the puzzle and fight back, apparently killing monster

When Lilly moves to her upstairs bedroom and plays a video game with jungle sounds, we learn that the spider can be lured and calmed that way. Lilly does not get bitten, even though the spider crawls up on her in her bed. We discover that the spider has superior hearing and association of sounds with environments.

When the dog gets bit by the spider in a fight, Rexy uses the anti-venom on the dog, saving its life.

The spider’s resourcefulness kicks in again, as it finds a way to escape out the doggie door. Outside, it smells the aroma of the banana shipment and makes her way to Crutchfields Produce Warehouse where they are being held. We discover that the spider has superior sense of smell. Her babies are where the bananas are.

Sheriff Mauer, Keaton and Rexy head toward the Warehouse as well, thinking they must check to see if the spider has laid eggs and is trying to get back to them. Atticus, who had previously separated from them also appears at the warehouse with two CIA Operatives. Two egg sacs are found, one by Bob Crutchfield and the other by Sheriff/Keaton/Rexy. We learn that the spider is highly prolific.

The CIA Operatives attempt to take them. But the mother spider appears and readies to attack them. They drop the banana clusters causing the egg sacs to burst open, letting out two thousand baby spiders. They prove to be just as aggressive and swarm the CIA Operatives. The mother spider attacks and kills them, herself. Then bites Atticus and Keaton. Rexy tried to give Keaton a shot of anti-venom but Atticus deflects the shot into his own arm. The stronger anti-venom works. He survives. Without an anti-venom, Keaton has seconds to live, when the Sheriff provides a crazy solution— to shoot off the finger where he was bitten. Keaton survives.

Bob Crutchfield pulls out a homemade flamethrower which he has used throughout the years to incinerate Brazilian Wandering Spiders when they showed up in the bananas. He begins to incinerate the baby spiders successfully. However, he is overcome by the baby spiders which are now biting him and dies. The sheriff picks up the flamethrower and pursues the mother spider to the door. She sees all of her babies burning and dying and gives up. In this scene, we learn that she fears fire.

The sheriff sprays her, but only a little comes out and lands on her back. The spider flees out the door of the warehouse, across the dock and boards the Brazilian Cargo Boat. She goes into the engine room, still with fire upon her back. She climbs up to the ceiling in a corner where we learn of another egg sac. It is throbbing with baby spiders. We learn she is indeed extremely prolific.

Resolution: Survivors live…but somehow, the monster is still alive for the sequel

Rexy/Sheriff/Keaton have survived. Atticus has survived and run away.

In the engine room we see the mother spider’s exoskeleton crack down the top and a new, unburnt spider, larger and more grotesque emerge. We learn she can molt and is not fully grown to her full potential.

Just as the spider has boarded, we face a new twist, the Captain boards the boat with new crew and departs for the open ocean and Brazil.

As Rexy, Keaton and Lilly go to the grocery store and see crates of bananas. These came from Crutchfields and had not been thoroughly inspected for the spider’s egg sacs. There is a small one at the bottom of the crate which we only see after Rexy/Keaton/Lilly have moved on to get apples and leave.

These two scenes create the set up for a sequel where the characters will have to deal with, not only the mother spider, but the spider plague which comes from her egg sacs.

C. Create Demand for each clue/reveal.

Throughout each ACT and sub-point of the story, we discover more about the spider’s lethality, cunning, and ferocity.

We also learn that her species is biological and can be subdued with CO2, killed with fire, lured with sounds and smell, and an anti-venom created by Rexy’s university team does work. So, we have hope.

Keaton, Rexy and the Sheriff work together to discover Atticus’s role in creating this “gain-of-function” spider.

Much like the Covid-19 virus was believed to have been manipulated in the Wuhan Lab, making it contagious among humans and causing millions to contract it and many die, the spider in this story will go on to create a plague with even greater challenges to overcome.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by  Kenneth Wood.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 1 month ago by  Kenneth Wood.

[Mike Coste]

This is interesting, Ken. I like how you use the plague metaphor with the spiders. So timely.

[Jalynn Venis]

Jalynn’s Monster Reveal Track

What I learned doing this assignment is that my big cat “monsters” were obvious, and so was my human psychopathic “monster.” I decided that the human monster need to act more subtly and be revealed slowly, so that he wasn’t obvious from so early in the screenplay.

Wildcats Outline

Wildcats Concept: Fraternity brothers play a drinking game with deadly results at the ranch estate of one of them. A frat brother entices the family’s big cats to eat the evidence of a dead pledge and when the cats get loose in the house, everyone is “game” and a hidden psychopath emerges.

Act 1 – Set-Up for Horror

Atmosphere
of Evil established

Three cars (a BMW, Mazda Miata, Ford Explorer) speed down a lonely road toward a country estate under a full moon. Cole, whose family owns the ranch, has three fraternity brothers in his car, plus a pledge; Ethan has one frat brother; and Wesley, a pledge, has another pledge with him.

The cars pull up to a ranch estate out in the middle of the countryside. The guys get out of the cars and walk along the big cat cages that lead into their wing inside the house. The cats growl. The panther puts his head against the bars, and Cole reaches out to give his head a scratch. He warns the others not to touch the cats, but Ethan tells a pledge it’s OK to pet the cougar. When Benji does, the cougar screams at him and scratches his hand with a claw before he can pull it away.

Connect
with the characters

The characters’ share stories about Cole’s “cats” as they drive up to the ranch estate.

The
characters are warned not to do it.

The guys are told repeatedly to avoid eye contact with the cats and not to pet them.

Denial
of Horror

Cole assures the guys they’re safe around the cats if they do what he says.

Safety
taken away

The pledges participate in a hazing drinking game. One pledge, Gary, refuses and is told to leave. Ethan “spills” some alcohol into the cats’ water. It seems to affect them badly

HORROR SITUATION: 8-10 drinks in an hour are enough to cause death. Ethan and the other frat brothers start everyone on Jell-O shots, then get the pledges to see who can drink the most Tequila the fastest and be exempt from fraternity chores for the first month.

REACTION: Benji, the most gung-ho of the pledges, drinks way too much, and develops severe alcohol poisoning.

HORROR SITUATION: Benji gets very sick and goes to the bathroom to upchuck. When he comes out, he decides to go sit with the big cats to try to sober up.

REACTION: When the cats see Benji inside their suite in the house, they get very excited and start pacing. Benji watches them for a moment before his eyes roll back in his head as he has a seizure and starts choking. Benji dies on his own vomit. The cats react wildly.

HORROR SITUATION: Malcolm goes looking for Benji and finds him in the cat compound. REACTION: He tries to rouse Benji, but realizes that he’s dead.

HORROR SITUATION: The guys debate what to do about Benji and if they’re going to get in trouble for his death. MONSTER REVEAL: Creighton, Ethan, Malcolm and Axel agree that they need to get rid of Benji.

Cole worries about what his father will say. One of the frat bros goes back to the big cat compound where Benji’s body is. He gets an idea and pours tequila into the cats’ water. The cats drink it and grow loud and angry.

REACTION: The panther and the cougar stride out, sniff Benji’s body, and pounce on him, tearing into his flesh. They fight each other a bit, then go back to eating the body. The third cat growls and screams.

Monster:
The nature of the beast.

Someone decides to get rid of the evidence and releases the cats from their cages to eat Benji’s carcass.

HORROR SITUATION: Wesley, who stopped drinking long before Benji did, gets helped to the toilet by some of the guys to vomit.

REACTION: Cole realizes that Ethan, Creighton and Axel have gone too far in coaxing the pledges to binge drink. He’s starting to worry that they have bigger problems than the mess Wesley is making in the bathroom with his projectile vomiting.

Act 2 – The Point of No Return

Isolated
/ Trapped / Abducted

When Cole sees that the cats are loose, he freaks and tries to get the cats back into their cages, but they’ve developed a taste for human flesh and go after him. Cole escapes, but so do the big cats. The frat brothers are running from the cat compound through the house, trying to get away from them.

One
of us gets killed

Axel follows Ethan in running away from the cats. When it comes to one or both of them getting eaten, Ethan pushes Axel into the path of one of the cats.

HORROR SITUATION: The cougar walks into the kitchen where two frat brothers Ethan and Axel are trying to find weapons. They grab knives. The cougar leaps up on the kitchen island and growls at them, pacing around it.

REACTION: MONSTER REVEAL: Ethan throws his knife at the cat, but it bounces off. He turns and runs. The cat screams and lunges for Axel who can’t get away in time and mauls him. Cole runs into the kitchen and talks the cougar down with a broom, too late to save Axel’s life.

HORROR SITUATION: The cougar is running down a hallway on the second floor. He sees one of the boys, Creighton, and goes for him.

REACTION: The frat boy climbs up on the railing of the overlook down into the family room. He sees a large light fixture and jumps for it. The cat stands up on the railing makes ready to jump after him. The boy lets go as the fixture starts to come loose from the ceiling and falls onto a couch. The cougar jumps to the light fixture. The boy leaps off the couch and runs as the whole fixture falls with the cat to the floor.

HORROR SITUATION: Ethan is hiding in a closet. The panther approaches and smells him. He sniffs all around the door. Finally, he rakes his claws down the door trying to open it.

REACTION: Ethan is holding onto the door handle like his life depends on it. He manages to keep the door closed until the panther gets distracted and moves on.

MIDPOINT – The Monster is Worse Than We Thought

Full
pursuit by the killer

When the guys realize that Cole can’t control the cats or get them back into their cages, they’re each on their own to avoid the cats as they prowl about the house and the frat brothers get separated from each other.

Terrorized

Cole is horrified that the cats have turned on him and tries to get them back in their cages unsuccessfully. He realizes he has to shoot them. He runs to his father’s study and gets a gun.

HORROR SITUATION: MONSTER REVEAL: Ethan finds Cole and tells him he needs to get guns and kill these cats before they kill the frat brothers. Cole is conflicted. These are family pets in his mind, but he realizes there’s no other choice.

REACTION: Cole heads to his father’s study with Ethan behind him. Cole pulls a rifle out of a gun case and grabs a holster with a pistol. Ethan picks a pistol and a sword off the wall. They load the guns with ammo.

HORROR SITUATION: Kellie, the housekeeper, is asleep in her bed when she’s awakened by a scratching at the door. She looks down at the light under the door and sees a big black paw raking the carpet under the door. She looks at the door handle? Is it latched? Before she can get out of bed, the panther throws his weight against the door and pushes it open.

REACTION: Kellie screams and the panther sees her and jumps up on the bed straddling her and pinning her down with fear. Cole sees the panther going into her room and races down the hall to her. He picks up a desk chair and pushes the cat off the bed and into her bathroom and closes the door.

HORROR SITUATION: The panther in Kellie’s bathroom breaks through a window and gets outdoors on a section of roof.

REACTION: The big cat walks around to a balcony, jumps onto it, and paws open a sliding glass door that’s ajar. He listens to the screams inside the house and trots off.

HORROR SITUATION: Another frat brother, Phillip, is hiding in a shower stall and holding the door closed. The panther comes in. The panther sniffs the air, and looks around but sees no one. He walks up to the shower and tries to push open the door.

REACTION: The boy holds it tight, but the cat jumps up onto a cabinet and stands up against the shower enclosure, looking down into the shower at the boy. He growls as Phillip screams at him. The boy turns on the shower and directs the head at the panther’s face. It doesn’t like that. The frat boys pound on the door and distract the panther, but the cat jumps into the shower enclosure with Phillip and mauls him, breaking the glass around the enclosure. Phillip grabs a shard and rams it into the panther’s neck and it runs off.

HORROR SITUATION: Malcolm on the second floor has found a whip and when he turns a corner trying to find the others, he runs into the cougar. He cracks the whip and spooks the cat for a few moments.

REACTION: Malcolm thinks he has the upper hand and tries to back away, but the cat follows him. He cracks the whip again, but this time the cat keeps coming at him. Malcolm gets to the stairway leading downstairs and runs down to a landing then trips and tumbles down the rest of the steps. The cougar follows after him and the panther pounces on him when he gets to the bottom. He screams hoping help will come.

HORROR SITUATION: Cole and Ethan are looking for the cats with their guns ready. The panther is chewing on Malcolm who is being eaten alive. When the cougar sees Cole, he leaps for him.

REACTION: Cole tries to react quickly enough to get a shot off. But the cougar is on him before he can. MONSTER REVEAL: Ethan takes the sword and rams it into the cougar’s side. The cat screams and runs off. Ethan helps Cole up as the panther stares at them.

HORROR SITUATION: Gary, the pledge who wouldn’t drink, doesn’t feel right about leaving the ranch. He turns his car around and drives back. He parks the car and walks in through the front door when he hears screaming.

REACTION: Gary sees the panther chewing on Malcolm and shouts then turns and runs leaving the door wide open. He scrambles up on the wired and barred cat enclosure and watches the cougar as it runs out the door looking for him.

HORROR SITUATION: Cole yells for everyone to get out of the house if they can.

REACTION: Ethan scrambles into the cat wing to see what’s left of Benji. To his chagrin, there’s still a lot of pieces left. Then he notices the cheetah is missing. Where did it go?

HORROR SITUATION: The cheetah is moving through a caged enclosure that takes it from inside the house in the cat wing to the outdoor enclosure. When it reaches the outdoors, it sees Gary sitting on top of its enclosure watching for the cougar.

REACTION: The cheetah runs toward Gary and jumps up in the air trying to get a bite of him. This scares Gary into falling off of the enclosure. He gets up just as Cole and Ethan are hauling Malcolm out of the house.

Act 3 – Full Out Horror

Fight
to the death

One-by-one, the other guys keep getting picked off by the cats and/or hiding from them.

The
thrilling escape from death

Cole and Ethan fight off the cougar and rescue Malcolm who later dies.

HORROR SITUATION: Cole and Ethan haul Malcolm out of the house and away from the entrance. Cole goes back in for Kellie and anyone else who’s still alive and pulls her out.

He gets Kellie into his Explorer. He sees Gary and tells him to get back inside his car. Then he goes back in for anyone else he can find.

REACTION: Kellie watches as Ethan tries to get Malcolm over to his car with Cole’s help. They get him inside the back seat. Cole tells Ethan he’s going back inside to look for others.

HORROR SITUATION: Ethan is walking around to the driver’s seat of his car. That’s the moment the panther jumps on top of the car, staring Ethan down.

REACTION: Ethan backs away and bumps into Cole’s Explorer. He asks Kellie to unlock the doors so he can get inside. Kellie scrambles to unlock the doors, but not before the panther jumps on Ethan and starts shredding him. The cat takes part of Ethan’s leg.

HORROR SITUATION: A badly mauled Phillip rises up from the back seat floorboard of Cole’s Explorer scaring Kellie out of her wits and telling Kellie not to open the car.

REACTION: Kellie pushes him away telling Phillip they’ve got to help the others. Phillip is almost out of his mind with fear and prevents Kellie from opening the doors for Ethan.

Horror Situation: Gary tries to help Ethan, but is attacked by the cougar who bites his head off. Ethan now has a chance to get into his BMW.

Reaction: Gary was foolish, and now Gary is dead.

HORROR SITUATION: Wesley is passed out on a guest bed after drinking so much. Cole finds him and carries him out with the rifle slung across his back. He stops to rest near the front door and yells for anyone else inside to help him. Creighton comes out of the library and grabs Wesley under one arm as Cole takes the other. They look towards the front door to see the cougar standing there eyeing them.

REACTION: Cole tells Creighton to carry Wesley while he reaches for the rifle. The cougar charges them and all Cole can do is whip the rifle butt around and hit the cougar in the head. It gets a paw on him and rakes his chest. Cole pulls a pistol out of his holster and shoots the cougar who bounds away.

Death
returns to take one or more.

The panther tears part of Ethan’s leg off, as he struggles to get into a car. Cole comes upon him and fights off the panther.

Resolution

Cole comes face-to-face with his pet panther, who he wounded earlier. He’s conflicted about shooting it, but it gives him no choice when it leaps at him. He shoots, the cat mauls him, but dies. The ordeal is over, or so we think.

HORROR SITUATION: The panther is mauling Ethan, kills Gary who tries to help when Cole comes back outside. When the panther turns on Cole, he has to shoot it with his pistol several times to kill it.

REACTION; Finally, his beloved panther is dead and the cougar appears and tears into the dead panther, then sees Cole and takes a last run at him. Cole puts bullets into his pistol just in the nick of time to shoot the cougar in the head. It falls inches from him and reaches a paw out to him with a sad cry. Cole cries over their deaths and this whole fiasco.

First responders arrive and gather up the dead and wounded. They wrap Ethan’s leg and wounds on his face. He’s lost a lot of blood and they don’t expect him to survive. Cole goes back to the indoor cat cages. He sees that the cheetah’s cage has been opened by someone, and the cat is gone.

MONSTER REVEAL: Inside the ambulance, Ethan’s eyes open in his bloody, bandaged face and he smiles.

[Mike Coste]

The Professor’s Reveal Track

What I learned doing this assignment is to consider how the audience will come to know the Monster.

The Monster is the Professor. He gives his victims problems to solve. If they don’t, someone dies.

His powers are rooted in his knowledge. He is clever and manipulative.

His limitation is that he works in the building. He is also human with all the physical limitations of a human.

His weakness is his ego. He demands respect.

He plans to catch his “students” in weakness, quizzing them until they miss something. They they die.

ACT 1: SET UP FOR HORROR

Atmosphere of Evil established: We see Emily walking into a classroom that she has never been to. The students are taking a test, and the teacher tells her to sit down and join them. Emily wakes up from the dream.

Horror Situation: Emily is trapped; she has to take a test she isn’t prepared for.

Reaction-Try to Solve It: She’ sits down to take the test.

Monster Reveal: We see a foreshadowing of being tormented by a teacher.

Connect with Characters: Jacob texts Emily to invite her to hang out. After they pick her up they meet up with the rest, and Emily tells them about her dream. Heather tells them a legend about a scary abandoned classroom building and suggests they go visit it.

Horror Situation: An abandoned building in which people have disappeared.

Denial of Horror: Disbelief in the story.

Monster Reveal: The past deaths caused by the Monster are discussed.

The Characters are warned not to do it: As they get to the entrance of the building, Jacob and Brad try to talk everyone out of it.

Horror Situation: The group reaches the building.

Denial of Horror: No problem to see.

Horror Situation: Warnings from Jacob and Brad.

Denial of Horror: The group decides to move on.

Safety Taken Away: Heather enters the building, and the rest follow. The door clicks, and they realize they are locked in.

Horror Situation: Locked in the building.

Reaction: The group tries to find a way out.

Monster: The introduction of the beast: A voice comes on the intercom telling the students to get to class. There is a test in Room 313.

Horror Situation: Someone has trapped them; they have a plan.

Reaction: They decide to look for a way to escape.

Monster Reveal: We hear the Monster’s voice. We’re still not sure who it is.

ACT 2: THE POINT OF NO RETURN

Isolated/trapped/abducted: They split up, looking for a way out. There is none.

Horror Situation: No escape.

Reaction: Frantically keep trying to escape.

One of us is killed: Monitor screens come on showing David trapped with 2 cups, one of which he has to drink: one is water one is poison. They have to go to Room 313 to answer the question to determine which one he drinks. They answer incorrectly.

Horror Situation: One of the group is kidnapped.

Reaction: Group goes to Room 313.

Horror Situation: The group needs to solve a problem to save them.

Reaction: The group tries to solve the problem.

Horror Situation: The first person dies.

Reaction: Terror. What next?

Monster Reveal: We get a sense of how the Monster operates. We’re still not sure who it is. Maybe Madison?

MIDPOINT: THE MONSTER IS WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT: The notice that Madison is not in the room, and they blame her, but the monitor comes back on and she is the next victim. They get another question wrong.

Horror Situation: Someone is missing.

Reaction: Denial, in a way. They assume she’s involved.

Horror Situation: She’s been kidnapped.

Reaction: More terror at the realization that someone outside the group is definitely responsible.

Horror Situation: The group has to solve a problem.

Reaction: The group tries to solve the next problem.

Horror Situation: Another one bites the dust.

Reaction: Terror. Now what?

Monster Reveal: Nope, Not Madison. He demands to be called Professor. We see him for the first time.

Terrorized: They wonder who’s going to be next. The lights go off, and Jacob disappears.

Horror Situation: Another one disappears.

Reaction: Waiting for the next shoe to drop.

ACT 3: FULL OUT HORROR

Fight to the death: They realize they have to find a way to answer the person’s questions. Jacob is in the room whining and complaining, trying to bargain with the monster.

Horror Situation: Jacob is captive.

Reaction: Panic at realizing what comes next.

Horror Situation: They’ll have to solve another problem.

Reaction: Worried about the next problem.

Hysteria: Emily gets the question right. Jacob is let go. Now they are told that the one who answers the question right is the next victim.

Horror Situation: They have to solve another problem.

Reaction: Temporary relief as Emily solves it.

Horror Situation: Emily’s next.

Reaction: Emily passes on a strategy.

Monster Reveal: He is going to keep quizzing them until they fail.

The thrilling escape from death: Before she is taken, Emily passes a note on to Brad. Brad asks the professor for an exam review.

Horror Situation: The monster is invited into the room.

Reaction: Time to put the plan to work.

Death returns to take one more: Jacob gets an extra credit question. If he answers correctly he’s released. He can also choose not to answer it and join the group. He takes the question and is incorrect.

Horror Situation: Another problem to solve.

Reaction: Jacob is abandoning the group. Mixed feelings as they are being abandoned but don’t want him hurt.

Horror Situation: A third one dies.

Reaction: Despair as it seems everyone will die.

Monster Reveal: He plays on their weaknesses and they will eventually miss something.

Resolution: The professor teaches the class. Brad asks for a sample problem, and the professor sends him to the board to do it. Brad wrestles the professor and pushed him out the window. We see the professor’s body motionless on the asphalt below.

Monster Reveal: The Monster is in the room. We see him close up.

Horror Situation: The monster is engaged.

Reaction: The monster is attacked and thrown out the window.

Monster Reveal: When the police come, the Monster is gone, without a trace.

[Kenneth Wood]

Mike, I like the way your story is shaping up.

[Mike Coste]

Thanks, Ken!

[Aram Bauman]

Spike’s Monster Reveal Track

What I learned doing this assignment is fleshing out what my monster is capable of and how to keep interest in her. Did I accomplish this? Possibly.

A. Who is your monster and what is their terror?

My monster is a voodoo priestess who is getting revenge on some kids who went too far.

Powers: Able to infiltrate their dreams and reality with visions. Can make someone’s life beautiful or wish they never were alive.

Limitations: Needs to have a personal item from the client or victim.

Weaknesses: Can be countered by other witchcrafts including voodoo.

Plan/Purpose/Appetite: At first the plan is to make their life miserable but then they get a Bruha to counter her spells and that does not sit well with the priestess.

ACT 1:

Connect with Characters: Typical high school kids doing teenage stuff. It’s all about the likes on IG.

Horror Situation: After pranking old lady in botanica things start to happen. They bump into minion on way out.

Monster Reveal: She seems to be a harmless old lady in a store.

Atmosphere of evil established: Logan has first of the visions in class. Chad finds weird alter in front of his door. He kicks it out of the way. Old Bruha senses he’s been marked.

Monster Reveal: Alter in front of door. The Bruha tries to give Chad info on what is happening.

Reaction: Chad thinks the old Bruha is a crazy old lady.

Spooky Situation: While editing the prank footage they see that most of it didn’t record but you can hear chanting in the background. In the static of the footage they notice symbols that you can barely see. Pissed off there was no footage Chad storms out. The others stay behind and play the chanting again. Deshon mentions that they should turn that off. As the chanting finishes, flies start to land on things.

Monster Reveal: Within the static the old lady’s face through the symbols.

Demand: They wonder what happened to recording.

Denial of Horror: They blow the visions off. Chad blows off Old Bruha.

Safety taken away: Dreams are effected. They can’t get sleep.

Horror Situation: Logan notices if he holds flashlight up to his hand he can see maggots crawling around inside of it. Shows it to Karen.

Reaction: They try to show it to other people but they don’t see it.

Horror Situation: Kamal is smoking weed with his friends.As he is checking IG he sees the minion with a life-size, life-like voodoo doll of Kamal on one of the posts. He puts a pin into the hand of the doll and Kamal drops his phone. When he picks it up there are maggots underneath it. No one else sees them.

Reaction: Kamal mentions this to Deshon.

Horror Situation: Karen is in mirror taking selfies with her cat and every time she takes on the picture comes out with a tooth sticking out of her face. She goes to take another but the minion shows up in the pic behind her. She freaks out and leaves.

Horror Situation: Chad is in the gym working out and after he does weights he goes to mirror to flex. The veins in his arms start to move around like they are worms. He tried to touch them but when he does his hand curles the opposite way. When he tries to point down his finger goes up.

ACT 2 — THE POINT OF NO RETURN

Internal Conflict in the group/ Character refuses to take action: Group gets together and talk about what they saw. Each is a little shaken up except Chad. He mentions the Bruha lady not knowing she is a Bruha. They ask if he has seen her again and maybe she can help. He thinks this is a stupid idea.

Reaction: The group starts to reject Chad.

Horror Situation: Logan is eating dinner with his folks. His mom puts the plate down in front of him and he says “he can’t eat this”. His mom asks why and he says “there are fucking bugs in it” and picks it up and shoves in her face. As he’s holding the plate up to her his arm starts to grow these things that look like barnecles but skin like. One of the barnecles start to throb and splits open and a baby frog crawls out. He drops the plate and more frogs start to hatch out of his arms. He runs to bathroom with razor but his arms are normal again.

Reaction: Calls Kamal to get some weed. He also calls Karen.

Connect with Characters: Logan, Kamal, Deshon, and Karen share their getting high stories while smoking weed in the park.

Spooky Situation: Kamal and Deshon are driving home and they notice a smell coming from the back of car. They open trunk to find some kind of shrine. Deshon takes pics. After tossing everything they close trunk the old Bruha is there giving them a scare.

Reaction: They both jump in car and speed off. Deshon go sees his aunt.

Horror Situation: Karen is going through IG and she comes across the minion. He holds a cat doll but there are real bones and blood on it. He wraps a string around its neck and pulls. She hears her cat screaming from other room. She finds it caught up in the window blinds dead.

Monster Reveal: The minion shows up again. This time there is death.

Demand: Karen is starting to figure things out.

Reaction: She takes the cat down and looks through the IG again for the minion.

Horror Situation: Chad is on his phone going through filters. The one with the spiders come up and when he opens his mouth spiders crawl out. He laughs and does it again. This time real spiders crawl out of his mouth and out of phone all over his hands. He starts to scream but his mouth is stuck shut with spider webs.

Reaction: Chad runs to bathroom and can see eyes between the webs in his mouth.

ACT 3:

Try to Solve it: Chad and Logan look for old Bruha lady. They find her.

Reaction: The group goes to Bruha lady’s house. She does some Bruha stuff. This interferes with the voodoo priestess’ spell. All seems to be well after.

Monster Reveal: Priestess get angry and counters back with revenge on the Bruha.

Demand: A small battle between the crafts ensues.

Horror Situation: Karen finds Bruha lady dead in her house.

Reaction: Call group over to house. They call the cops but nothing gets done. They decide to go back to store and confront the priestess armed with stuff they got off some voodoo site online. Deshon speaks with his aunt again and is warned again. She gives him a trinket for protection and a black/UV light.

Horror Situation: When they get to the botanica the old lady is nowhere to be found. When they go into the back they find a door that leads to a stairway. They venture down the stairs in the back of the Botanica into the maze. Each person gets lost and find their worst nightmares.

Monster Reveal: Priestess’ evil maze where horrors await around every corner.

Demand: They continue in this maze with hopes they will run into the priestess and set things straight.

Fight to the death/Hysteria:

Chad and Logan are lost together. Chad turns a corner and the minion is there naked with white paint spells all over him. Logan cowards around the corner hearing everything, he just lays there crying as the sounds of torture echo out. Fingers start to come out of ground around him so he gets up and runs.

Karen’s hair gets caught in something making her lag behind. When she gets free she can’t find anyone until she hears the wimpering of a puppy. She follows the sound into an opening that has a gruesome scene.

Thrilling escape from death:

Kamal and Deshon hear Karen calling for them so they stop and turn around. When they turn back around Chad and Logan are gone. They both decide to get out of there and look for the stairs. Even though they are back-tracking they can’t find the exit. They can still hear Karen calling for them. They follow the voice. Deshon turns on the UV light and the walls illuminate with spells written all over them. In the darkness they see something glowing from the UV light. It morfs into a weird human-like creature and gives chase. When they turn to run their feet sink into the mud. They are scrambling over each other to get away but the creature is apon them. Deshon pulls out the amulet his aunt gave him which glows in the UV light and dispurses the creature just as it jumps to attack. The ground is solid again and they take off running.

Death returns:

Logan is running for his life in the maze and bumps into Kamal and Deshon. When the UV light hits him we can see what looks like maggots crawling under his skin. We can hear a muffled cicada sound. He is scratching intensely at this point. He tells them what happened and they look down the maze and can see a maggot trail so they follow it. It leads them into the alter room.

There sits the priestess in a throne like chair with cobwebs all over her seemingly in a trance eyes glazed over solid grey. Chad is being tortured by another minion. The cicada sound gets louder and louder and not so muffled anymore. Logan drops to the ground and the fingers come out again and grab him holding him down. Maggots spew out of him from everywhere until there is nothing left but bones covered in a gel like substance. The maggots crawl up the priestess’s legs. More stuff happens. Deshon’s aunt appears just when there is no hope and saves the day.

Resolution:

Kamal and Deshon are recovering somewhere. Deshon’s aunt is there tending to their wounds. She notices flies landing on Kamal but he doesn’t. She starts to pull out an amulet. Fade to black.

[Kenneth Wood]

Aram, your story is shaping up nicely.

[Aram Bauman]

Thanks. I have been having trouble keeping up with everything due to work. This is definitely helping me think about each element before dialogue.

[Kris Kristensen]

Kris’ Monster Reveal

What I learned from this assignment is that even though I knew my ending and the Quarterman’s final destruction, I hadn’t set it up. Probably because his death is more symbolic of my protagonist’s growth as opposed to him knowing the monster’s weakness… personally, I think it works without setting it up, but seeing a similar conclusion in THE THING, it certainly doesn’t weaken the ending by having the audience in on HOW to destroy the beast, in fact, it will give them something to cheer for when the protagonist reaches for the solution to the problem.

POWER: How is the Quarterman alive, having survived in the peat for hundreds of years?

POWER: How did the Quarterman disappear on its own accord?

PURPOSE: Rumors that Quarterman has been uncovered, Liam asks “what’s the Quarterman?”, and he’s told the legend that he would come back to take his limbs from those who killed him.

LIMITATIONS: Quarterman drags himself to his first kill.

LIMITATIONS: Quarterman mobility has increased in that he now has an extra limb.

POWER: When Quarterman arrives to kill Kieran, he has fused Nurse O’Leary’s arm to himself so that he now has two arms, becoming a little more mobile.

POWER: When Pete is cornered by the Quarterman he drives a sharp branch through the creature’s heart, but it does nothing to harm him.

POWER: When Quarterman attacks Drake, he has fused Kieran’s leg to himself.

WEAKNESS: FIRE… freaks out when Drake lights a smoke?

PURPOSE: Lonergan reveals that Sullivans are part of Quarterman’s target after reading an ancient tome journaling the town’s history.

POWER: When Quarterman attacks Sullivan House, he now has fused Drake’s leg to himself.

LIMITATIONS: Technology, Quarterman wrests a shotgun from someone, and uses it as a club. It discharges, he freaks out.

LIMITATIONS: Quarterman sets foot in a bear trap, can’t escape.

WEAKNESS: FIRE… After the Quarterman is trapped, Henry uses his lighter to get a better look and the creature flinches away from the flames.

POWER: Quarterman escapes bear trap when the castle is crumbling around him, by severing his leg, and taking another one on the nearest victim (Briggs).

POWER: Henry severs the Quarterman’s head, but he still isn’t dead.

WEAKNESS: FIRE… Pete sets the Quarterman ablaze, purging him and the family from the legacy.

[Kris Kristensen]

A little shameless self promotion since we’re using THE THING as a sample. My buddy and I just launched our commercial production company, and as spec piece we created this spot for Last Exit To Nowhere billing it as a sequel to THE THING.

If this is against group policy, I apologize, and feel free to remove… Just thought you might all get a kick out of it since we’re kind of on topic here.

https://www.dopeshoots.com/portfolio/project-one-ephnc-lxh2n

[Rachelle Storti]

Rachelle’s Monster Reveal Track

What I learned: The effort put in on the plot outline pays off and saves time plugging in other components.

Who is the monster and what is their terror?

Powers: Able to manipulate/control people through verbal reasoning, is visually terrifying (looks like the devil), can fly, has fangs and claws, is a surgical genius.

Limitations: Doesn’t leave the compound, social outcast, prefers to have his creations do the killing while he sticks to surgery, cannot be everywhere at once, is still human.

Weakness: Potentially has hollowed bones to make flight more plausible, vulnerable to manipulation if someone is able to verbally outwit him.

Plan/purpose/appetite: Obsessed with altering humans to create superior beings. May be punishing them in some aspects, performing surgeries to make the human’s image match their personality.

Demand/Reveals

Demand: Intrigue. Who is the monster and what does he do?

Reveal: The eyes and hands of a masked surgeon installing fangs in a woman’s mouth.

Demand: Curiosity. How will the band of misfits find their way out?

Reveal: The compound/maze was created by this man to trap or kill intruders.

Demand: Terror.

Reveal: Doctor wakes the Siren, tells Medusa to bring him the injured/rebel, and lets the Kamaitachi loose.

Demand: Curiosity. See more of the Doctor.

Reveal: Prepping to operate on the Rebel, reveal the entirety of Doctor’s face while scrubbing in.

Demand: Putting together the pieces.

Reveal: The choice to operate on a “healthy” subject versus the injured one.

Demand: Through conflict.

Reveal: Calm nature in dealing with the hysteria of the injured one and the pressure of the OR.

Demand: Through discovery.

Reveal: See the Doctor’s full form when he finds the Loner on the roof. Calm and collected, waits for the Loner to make his own decision.

Demand: Through characters trying to figure out the mystery.

Reveal: The Doctor lets loose Cerberus when victims are close to escaping.

Demand: Through terror.

Reveal: As victims escape, Doctor swoops down and slashes the second Lover’s throat with his claws.

Demand: Through curiosity.

Reveal: When the Rebel looks back at the compound, the Doctor uses verbal manipulation to draw him further within.

[Bill Anderson]

Bill Anderson’s Horror Situation Track for MOTHERLAND

What I learned doing this assignment is how useful such clearly defined elements of this track are for testing the validity of the horror situations.

ACT 1 — SET UP FOR HORROR

Atmosphere of Evil established

The sparse leaves of an ancient, gnarled tree atop a rocky outcrop on an isolated farm shiver as the last sunlight of the day is crushed below the horizon by the menacing clouds of night: we follow the sugars of photosynthesis inside the tree down to its roots which will exude them into the darkness of the dirt. A twisted root swells and splits off a piece of the rock it’s penetrated – this snaps, falls to the bottom of the outcrop, and smashes into the skull of a fox that was eating the entrails of its prey. As the fox spasms in death, something we can’t quite make out in the darkness drags the fox to its underground lair, where it disappears just before a car headlights beam sweeps past, headed along the track to the isolated farmhouse…

HORROR SITUATION: some unseen force/thing kills a fox and drags its body underground.

REACTION – DENIAL Jan and Michael glimpse the fox disappearing strangely, but dismiss anything untoward.

REVEAL Unseen monster splits rock, kills fox, drags its body underground

DEMAND – what monster is this?

Connect with the characters

… the car brings eldest daughter Jan and her husband Michael to her father Jeb’s birthday celebration joining Jan’s two sisters: (pregnant) Beth + partner Jack, and Leah. Lively family reunion, fun and old scores about how the farm should be run – the one member they can all easily relate to is Jeb’s wise old farm dog who is beyond happy to see them all together…

The characters are warned not to do it.

… Jeb announces he’s going to sell the failing family farm and divide the proceeds. The family start to discuss why/if/how they’ll do this but, out of character, the dog begins to bark incessantly making talk impossible. The Gnarly tree hears the dog barking form a distance – there is no wind, but its leaves suddenly rustle vigorously. They stop. Still no wind. The leaves rustle again, more insistently. They stop. Still no wind. The leaves rustle again, even more insistently and the wind begins to blow and build up into a storm.

REVEAL – The tree’s leaves move unnaturally and seem to summon the wind/storm
DEMAND – Is the tree the monster?

Deaf veterinarian Leah senses something beyond the dog… Jeb hears prized pregnant cow in distress outside – through a night storm Jeb and Leah attend to complications with the birth of the calf, as the others lie awake. In the same moment, at the height of the storm: the gnarled tree is blown over, to reveal a skeleton rising up out of the ground entwined in the bolus of its roots, and permeated by a mycelial web; the two-headed hideously deformed calf is born as its mother dies horribly; Beth wakes everyone in the farm house screaming with Brackston Hicks contractions (Jan is jealous she’s not pregnant too)

HORROR SITUATION: crazy/possessed barking dog, birth of hideously deformed calf

REACTION – DENIAL: Jeb and the family ignores these unnatural harbingers HIDE: Leah hides her feelings of dread about how the dead calf and mother reflect her own deformed birth – killing her own mother.

REVEAL Jeb’s SELLING THE FARM announcement triggers crazy dog barking (we hear this from the POV of the gnarled tree whose leaves unnaturally suddenly rustle, stop, insistently rustle more, stop – suddenly the wind which wasn’t there before starts to build as if summoned by the leaves…) Cow in trouble with calf – rising storm – calf born deformed: dies along with mother – peak storm – tree blows over to reveal skeleton in roots and fungus – pregnant Beth has contractions… Start of unnatural, torrential rain…

DEMAND – why is monster triggered by proposed farm sale? Is the gnarled tree the monster? Is the skeleton the monster?

Denial of Horror

Daylight comes and the wind has subsided into heavy rain – a silent postman delivers a single letter: addressed to the Mother of the family – who died 30 years ago giving birth to Leah: it’s from a financial firm who have managed a nest-egg fund the Mother had secretly invested to mature now – on her 65^th birthday – and over the years it’s grown into enough that means they won’t have to sell the farm. Everything will be OK – All they need to do is produce mum’s death certificate and will and the money’s theirs…

Safety taken away

…but Jeb violently, irrationally refuses, to produce any documents – grabs the nest-egg letter and storms out of the house into rain that has become biblical in its intensity – he’s terrified, running to escape this gauntlet from his past…

HORROR SITUATION: Jeb refuses to act – Mother has come back from the grave

REACTION – HIDE: Jeb doesn’t want the family to discover his secret about Mother’s death.

Monster: The nature of the beast.

… when a landslide suddenly opens up the ground in front of him and he slides into the crevasse but doesn’t fall to the bottom: his neck is abruptly caught by a noose-like root that starts to asphyxiate him – family rescue him before he dies, but Jeb’s unconscious body is limp as they drag him out of the crevasse – Jeb’s neck is broken, but he’s breathing.

HORROR SITUATION: Jeb is nearly killed by Mother

REACTION – TRY TO SOLVE the family rescue injured Jeb and save his life. DENIAL – they all force themselves to believe it was an accident.

REVEAL As Jeb tries to escape mother appearing on the farm from the past (nest egg) landslide crevasse opens up to swallow him – monster root breaks his neck and tries to asphyxiate him – family rescue, but now isolated – cut off by the storm.

DEMAND – is the extreme weather-summoning tree also responsible for the extreme rain? The root that attacks Jeb? Connected somehow to the roots entwined with skeleton? Why would tree/root want to kill Jeb for threatening to sell the farm?

ACT 2 — THE POINT OF NO RETURN

Isolated / Trapped / Abducted

Landslides have blocked/riven the track out of the farm – no escape by vehicle – and there’s no landline or mobile signal to call for help for injured Jeb.

HORROR SITUATION: isolation, cut off from help

REACTION – TRY TO SOLVE

Rain stops. Beth gives nursing Leah a break as Jan and Jack search in Jeb’s office for Mother documents – barren Jan makes sexual advances to fertile Jack, but Beth is too close… Michael tries in vain to repair the landline, and Leah goes to see the extent of storm damage on farm

Coming back from broken landline Michael discovers Jan and Jack secretly having sex in a barn – Michael backs away… Leah discovers the uprooted skeleton and a distinctive ring on one of its fingers.

HORROR SITUATION: face to face with the monster

REACTION – TRY TO SOLVE / HIDE Leah secretly tries to understand

REVEAL Leah discovers the skeleton and links ring to her dead Mother
DEMAND – If the skeleton is the monster why isn’t Leah attacked? Why is Leah’s Mother a part of the tree? Why did Jeb bury her there?

Leah confirms the distinctive ring on a photo of her mother casually unearthed in Jeb’s bedroom by Jan and Jack, post coital Jan comes in and asks for damage report – Leah tells her just one tree blown down: Old Gnarly – she asks Jan if she remembers Mum wearing the ring in the photo, Jan asks why? Leah evasive, doesn’t reveal – Jan sees that Leah’s hiding something…

One of us killed

Jeb’s breathing becomes more laboured –

REVEAL _ Dog barks at something under Jeb’s couch – fungus growing up out of floorboards, mould appears in bedding around Jeb – invisibly affecting his lungs
DEMAND – is this fungus sent by the tree? Or a monster using the tree/fungus?

The family discover mould has mysteriously appeared in Jeb’s bedding – spores may be damaging Jeb’s lungs – Leah notices the same mould has appeared on the nest-egg letter– Dog barks at something under Jeb’s couch – Jack discovers and closely examines distinctive, unfamiliar mushrooms are growing through the floorboards – family put it down to a leak in the roof caused by the storm. Michael goes to the agrochemical shed and mixes up a strong solution of chemical fungicide which he applies to the floor as Beth sterilises the bedding. Jan goes to check out the fallen gnarly tree – sees the skeleton, takes the ring (Jan is too focussed on the ring to notice what we see: the same fungus as in the house has appeared beside the skeleton since Leah was there)

HORROR SITUATION: face to face with the monster

REACTION – TRY TO SOLVE / HIDE Jan secretly covers her tracks from Leah

REVEAL – Jan discovers skeleton and knows it’s her Mother

DEMAND – Why doesn’t the skeleton attack Jan? Why doesn’t Jan see the fungus inside the skeleton?

Fungus growth is astonishingly rapid and Jeb is deteriorating so fast that they decide to send for help.

HORROR SITUATION: consuming fungus, unseen poison, rot, decay

REACTION – TRY TO SOLVE they will get medical help for Jeb

Jack volunteers to walk miles to the nearest doctor, and Michael says he’ll accompany him. On their journey they pass the uprooted skeleton tree but don’t see the skeleton as they leave the farm to take a shortcut through a wood. The skeleton sees Michael kick some of the distinctive fungus growing nearby – some of the same fungus inside the skeleton slowly opens its gills to release spores…

Jan re-examines the nest egg letter for any clues about Mother and sees that it is now riddled with mould – she hears Jeb’s laboured breathing – Jan completely re-evaluates the nest egg money – it is not a kind gift, it is malicious – Mother has come back to make mischief – for revenge!

Michael confronts Jack for having sex with Jan and threatens to reveal it and jeopardise Jack’s relationship to Beth and his share of the farm. Jack dismisses impotent Michael with contempt, and Michael attacks him. But bleeding Jack is only hurt enough to get mad and chases terrified Michael through a forest. Jack is overtaken by what looks like a root unearthing itself like a snake wriggling under fallen leaves to catch up with sprinting Michael: Jack sees the root surface to trip up Michael who flies though the air, smashes his head on a rock, and falls face down in a pool of storm water….

HORROR SITUATION: environment changing around you/monster approaching/see another killed

REACTION – DENIAL

REVEAL – Fungus inside Mother skeleton connects with fungus Michael harms/poisoned – roots unearth themselves to chase Michael and kill him
DEMAND – roots connected to Mother skeleton acting to avenge fungus/Mother? Roots somehow symbiotically collaborating with fungus? (Like roots and fungus in fact do all the time!!)

MIDPOINT: The monster is worse than we thought!

Full pursuit by the killer

Jack knows what he saw but can’t understand it – he lifts the root beside him from under the leaves and confirms it’s freshly uprooted itself. As he puts it down it seems to retighten itself to the ground. He hears Michael choking in the water, but as he goes to help him leaves of the forest floor start rippling as they move towards him from various directions. Jack abandons Michael (who drowns) as he runs for his life – he leaps over the tracks of the subterranean roots as they catch up with him, but they can swiftly change direction and there are more and more of them coming – a three way root pincer movement almost gets him as he propels himself out of the wood into a grassy field near the farmhouse – the grass moves towards him in waves as he sprints back to the house…

HORROR SITUATION: Monster trying to get you/ environment changing around you

REACTION – ESCAPE Jack flees back to the safety of the farmhouse

REVEAL – unearthing roots co-ordinate in increasing numbers to chase Jack
DEMAND – what has Jack done to be chased? Thwarting the monster by helping Jeb? Why is Jack chased back to the farmhouse? Is there someone/something in the farmhouse the monster wants Jack to protect? Everyone in the farmhouse tries to fathom this escalation of the monster.

Terrorized

… Jack bursts into the farmhouse in terror and tells what’s happened – Beth is terrified, believes bleeding shaman Jack’s story, Jan is distraught and suspicious of Jack’s crazy explanation of Michael’s disappearance/demise. Leah is concerned for Jeb and looks again at the mushrooms near Jeb that Jack earlier cut to examine closely – sees Jack wide-eyed with fear of everything outside. Jack goes to the chemical shed and pours a defensive ring of neat, toxic herbicide around the edge of the concrete slab surrounding the farmhouse. (he fails to consider the creeper growing up the outside of the house)

HORROR SITUATION: suspecting someone has been possessed

REACTION – TRY TO SOLVE IT

Leah goes to Jack and Beth’s room and discovers that Jack has kept some dissected pieces of the mushroom there.

HORROR SITUATION: suspecting forces of nature

REACTION – TRY TO SOLVE IT

Jan discovers Leah in Jack’s room and challenges her – what’s she doing in there? – Leah tells Jan she suspects Jack is hallucinating – that the mushroom he was handling is psychedelic – none of his story is real and that Michael is probably fine.

REVEAL – Jack has kept some of the (possible monster) fungus in the farmhouse
DEMAND – Is Leah right to assume hallucinogenic toxicity or is it more than that?

ACT 3 — FULL OUT HORROR

Fight to the death

Jan conspiratorially shows Beth the photo of Mum’s ring then reveals the real thing – explains it’s from mum’s skeleton unearthed under the gnarly tree, how she found it and why she thinks that Leah’s hiding something – knows something she’s not telling. Tells Beth Leah thinks Jack’s just hallucinating from mushroom contact. Beth believes what Jack says happened – Jan needs to know for sure if Michael’s dead – Beth tells her not to go – it’s not safe – look what happened to Jack! Who else could go? Beth: If Leah’s so sure it’s make believe… but it’s unsafe for her too! Jan: I think mum’s come back for vengeance: did you kill her? Neither did I – it was Leah that killed her in childbirth! Let’s send her to find out what’s happened/Get help for Jeb – Beth reluctantly agrees.

Jack finishes with the herbicide and shows Leah on a map of the farm where he last saw Michael. Jan sends unsuspecting Leah out into the scary wood as an offering to monster (but officially to find Michael and also get help for worsening Jeb… )

HORROR SITUATION: internal conflict in the group/being lured into danger/suspecting forces of nature

REACTION – TRY TO SOLVE IT

As Leah and the dog tread carefully through the threatening scary forest, Jan and Beth search for paperwork in Jeb’s office that might explain the nest egg’s arrival but eventually find the Mother’s death certificate – she didn’t die in childbirth, she was poisoned – who poisoned her?

REVEAL – The mother died from poison – not in childbirth from Leah
DEMAND – Who poisoned her?

Hysteria

… as the forest shimmers, hisses, creaks and groans with supernatural threat, Leah and the dog come upon the body of Michael, already being consumed by fungus and penetrated by roots…

HORROR SITUATION: monster approaching, seeing another dead, rotting body

REACTION – HIDE:

REVEAL – Leah discovers Michael’s body on the forest floor – she turns it over and there is hugely unnatural advanced decay – his body is already hollowed out by fungus and maggots which crawl out of his mouth – eel-like amphibian scavengers wriggle out of hie eye sockets…
DEMAND – How did this decay happen so quickly?

On the shock of seeing Michaels grotesquely decayed face the forest floor explodes in a tsunami of roots and leaves heading straight for Leah – she’s knocked to the ground,

HORROR SITUATION: face to face with the monster

REACTION – ESCAPE:

REVEAL – Huge numbers of roots unearth and speed towards Leah
DEMAND – What is it about this particular place? Why are there so many more roots than before? (the monster’s GROWING in the dirt!)

But the roots are all rushing past her – she’s hardly harmed – but she sees that all this malice is headed towards the farmhouse

HORROR SITUATION: impending doom/face to face with the monster

REACTION – FIGHT: Leah rushes to defend her family

REVEAL – The roots monster roots doesn’t kill Leah – it’s rushing back towards the farmhouse.
DEMAND – Why has Leah NOT been killed like Michael? Why is she not being chased like Jack? Why has the monster rushed past her NOW?

Leah starts running back the way she came, following in the wake of the roots that are gathering power…

Jan and Beth hear creaking from under the floorboards under Jeb…

HORROR SITUATION: monster approaching

REACTION – HIDE: Jan and Beth make no movement as they hear roots moving underneath the floor where they stand… and heading towards Jeb

REVEAL – Creaking floorboards under Jeb suggest monster has got past Jeb’s defences and may be under the house.
DEMAND – How did the monster get past Jack’s defences? (Jack didn’t think of the creeper growing on the outside walls of the house – which were highlighted to us, not him when Jack finished pouring the herbicide circle.

REVEAL – Jeb sees the roots assembling, scotched by and recoiling from the herbicide at the perimeter of the slab, but he feels something under his feet – he puts his ear to the concrete and hears a deep, scraping rumble
DEMAND – Have the roots gone deep under the concete?

REVEAL – The creeper on the outside of the house starts to come alive
DEMAND – Jack decides the monster has activated the creeper and axes branches trying to get in the door…

REVEAL – The creeper monster is growing too fast for Jack to contain – breaking through windows.
DEMAND – What can Jack do to protect everyone in the farmhouse?

HORROR SITUATION: impending doom/face to face with the monster

REACTION – FIGHT: Jack attacks the roots

Inside the farmhouse, the rattling of the roots below the floorboards and the crawling of the creepers growing on the outside walls, breaking the glass in the windows jolts Jeb back into consciousness – he calls out his wife’s name, he feels her coming. Jack is using an axe to chop roots as they come inside but there are too many

REVEAL – The roots have penetrated into the house.
DEMAND – What can the family do to save themselves from a death like Michael’s?

Jan screams that it’s Jeb the mother wants, not them, and tells Jack to help her carry Jeb outside to stop the house and its occupants being attacked.

HORROR SITUATION: dilemma – sacrifice Jeb to save everybody.

REACTION – TRY TO SOLVE IT

But Beth won’t allow this to happen to her father – she struggles to protect him, and Jan attacks her pregnant sister.

HORROR SITUATION: internal conflict in the group

REACTION – FIGHT: Jan attacks Beth

Jan barely notices the root wrapping itself around her ankle as she struggles with Beth – until the root abruptly pulls her off Beth and lifts her though the air as it suddenly pulls her outside, lethally smashing Jan against the walls as her body flies through the window.

HORROR SITUATION: see another killed/out of the frying pan into the fire…!

REACTION – TRY TO SOLVE IT: put out the fire.

REVEAL – Monster kills Jan by pulling her out through a window
DEMAND – Why did monster kill Jan first? Chose her over Beth, Jack and Jeb? (Jan was attacking PREGNANT Beth/unborn child)

On the way, Jan’s flailing limbs knock over oil lamps which starts a fire inside. Beth and Jack immediately start to put out the fire, but as soon as Jack sees Beth has the fire almost under control, he seizes the opportunity of Beth’s distraction and picks up Jeb and carries him outside.

HORROR SITUATION: internal conflict in the group

REACTION – FIGHT: but the contraction stops Beth in her tracks

Firefighting Beth roars in protest – but a contraction starts and she falls to her knees – now the fire instantly regains its strength …

The thrilling escape from death

… Leah arrives back at the farmhouse as Jack rushes out of the door carrying Jeb – Leah sees roots and creepers suddenly turn on Jack and Jeb – Jack is grabbed by the ankle, falls forwards and let’s go of Jeb – before they both hit the ground, a root reaches up, wraps around Jack’s neck and pulls his entire body upright and backwards – snapping Jack’s back and neck.

HORROR SITUATION: seeing another killed

REACTION – FIGHT – Leah will protect fallen Jeb

REVEAL – Monster kills Jack as he carries Jeb out of the house to give him to the monster
DEMAND – Why doesn’t monster kill Jeb too? Is it because Jeb’s landed on the concrete which is somehow safe? The monster would kill Jeb if it could only get to him.

Roots are converging on Jeb as he hits the ground, but a scream from Beth inside the house seems to give them pause.

HORROR SITUATION: friend in danger/dilemma: who to save?

REACTION – FIGHT: Leah rushes in to burning farmhouse

Leah rushes past Jack’s spasming body into the burning farmhouse – inside it’s ablaze and Beth is screaming with contractions, but she’s not being attacked by the roots, Leah sees that the roots seem to be trying to put the fire out, sap hissing as they’re burned in the attempt – she tries to help labouring Beth out of the fire, but structural timbers collapse onto Beth’s legs – she is trapped – in spite of the efforts of the roots the fire is out of control – Leah cannot move Beth and she cannot breathe

HORROR SITUATION: trapped/dilemma: who to save?

REACTION – TRY TO SOLVE IT

REVEAL – Monster appears to try and protect Beth from the fire that has trapped her inside the farmhouse – the fire hurts the monster – it’s costing the monster dear to protect Beth.
DEMAND – Is it because the monster wants to save her granddaughter? Beth? Leah?

Leah grabs a knife, c-sections the baby out of her dying sister and manages to get out of the house alive with the dripping new-born…

Death returns to take one or more.

… Leah goes to Jeb who’s still just alive, lying on the ground that’s still rippling with menacing roots around him. Dying Jeb whispers to Leah – we hear him, but Leah can’t make sense – his lips hardly move: When mother was alive she and father farmed the land organically: they had two daughters and the land could sustain the family. The father wanted a son. The mother knew they couldn’t afford another child, but the father persuaded her that a son would be an investment in the farm, not a drain of resources – production could increase by more than what the son would consume. But they had another daughter, Leah Against mother’s wishes, the father unilaterally decided the only way forward was to borrow money and turn the farm into an intensive, agrochemical concern. This turned the mother’s postnatal depression into suicidal despair. She poisoned herself with the chemicals she believed her husband was poisoning their farm. Jeb asks for forgiveness – Leah forgives him, but… A root cracks open the concrete, emerges from beneath the ground and slides over his neck, before suddenly tightening and severing his head.

HORROR SITUATION: see another killed

REACTION – FIGHT: but it’s too late

REVEAL – The monster finally manages to penetrate the concrete, grow a root around Jeb’s neck, and tighten it to decapitate him as he’s granted forgiveness by Leah.
DEMAND – Is Leah in danger because she forgave her father when the monster couldn’t?

Resolution

Leah strides away from the burning farmhouse with the baby and the dog. Even from a distance the flickering flames cast their light on the mother’s skeleton hanging in the roots of the tree. The dog barks as if possessed as it tries to block Leah’s path to her mother, but she will not be stopped – furious, she defiantly holds the baby up to her mother’s skull and dares to shout “Enough” – the dog stops barking but her mother’s unblinking eye sockets meet Leah’s gaze…

REVEAL – The monster is confronted by Leah challenging it.

DEMAND – What will the monster do in the sequel…!

[Bill Anderson]

Bill Anderson’s Horror Situation Track for MOTHERLAND

Apologies: here’s the missing monster –

A. Who is your monster and what is their terror?

• What are its powers?

It uses roots and fungal mycelium alive in the dirt to sense (hear, touch, smell, taste) and attack its prey. The roots can grab, asphyxiate and tear its victims limb from limb, the fungal spores can infect and poison. It can summon the wind.

• What are its limitations?

It cannot see. It is less powerful in the open air and underwater.

• What are its weaknesses?

Toxic chemical herbicide and fungicide; fire

• What is its Plan/Purpose/Appetite?

To avenge its lethal poisoning and restore the land to fertility

[Andre]

Andre’s Monster Reveal.

Who is my Monster and what is their terror?

The Monster in my movie “The Planetary Prince” is Human nature, humanity itself. We suspect the Monster to be Lucifer, Satan and the Devil, but that trinity did not kill Jesus. For human freewill was established before the devil arrived. This is uncovered throughout the case of Gabriel vs. Lucifer.

· Powers? To kill, for sport, for profit, self-created government to authorize the killing for resources or any means desired.

· Limitations? Very limited. On every level.

· Weaknesses? Mortal and less evolved as a species.

· Plan/Purpose/Appetite?

Sequence the reveals? From Pre-Amble 500,000 years to modern day trial of Gabriel vs. Lucifer.

What I learned doing this assignment is …

[Andre]

This is the problem:

If freewill Man is endowed with the powers of creativity in the inner man, then must we recognize that freewill creativity embraces the potential of freewill destructivity?

And when creativity is turned to destructivity, you are face to face with the devastation of both Evil and Sin—oppression, war, and destruction.

Evil is a partiality of creativity which tends toward disintegration and eventual destruction.

All conflict is evil in that it inhibits the creative function of the inner life—it is a species of civil war in the personality.

-Urantia Book 111:4.11 (1220.10).