Claudia Barcenas
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ASSIGNMENT 4 –
What I learned from this assignment is targeting an audience. I did some research and looked at what who some of my favorite films did well with. I am also re-working the beginning to build a stronger hook.
Give us the decisions that are in your current High Budget script:
Genre – Horror Thriller<div>
Title – Currently “Soledad”Concept – A young professor discovers that an old childhood game is the key to finding her missing sister, and the door to unleashing the demons inside her ailing mother.
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Audience – The script has little gore but strong females leads with strong bonds fighting an evil entity threatening the family. I am targeting the under 25 female audience, which carried movies like The Conjuring and Mama to commercial success.
Budget – $1- 5 million
Characters – Strong female characters with strong bonds to each other. A young professor struggling with her ailing mother who knows more than she leads on, and a missing sister who torments the professor.
Journey / Character Arc – The professor’s cynicism about her family and the world is shaken and ultimately changed to one of embracing the dark side of her family.
Opening / Ending – The professor finds an overturned kitchen, dinner splattered across the floor and walls. She finds a broken picture frame of her family./The professor reunited with her family.
Tell us which of those decisions you could improve to make your script more marketable.
The title needs work. There dozen of small budget films with that title. The hook needs more work.
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Speciality: I am working to specialize in horror.
<font face=”inherit”>The second of the films for this assignment </font>
<font face=”inherit”>is The Conjuring. It was the highest grossing horror </font>film<font face=”inherit”> of 2013 and has had 2 sequels and other films </font>that have expanded its universe, including the Anabelle films and The Nun.
The Conjuring opens up with two young nurses begging paranormal investigators and demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren to help them after they gave the spirit of a dead girl named Anabelle permission to move into their doll. The Warrens clarify that Anabelle doesn’t exist and that an inhuman spirit was trying to trick them to get inside of them. The nurses are horrified but the Warrens manage to help them, taking Anabelle to a safe place. We later see the Perron family headed by Roger and Carolyn and their five daughters moving to an old farmhouse. The family is happy to be moving to a new place, all except their dog Sadie who refuses to come into the house, even as Roger tries to pull her in by the collar. That night, the girls play hide and clap and they break a wall, revealing a cellar downstairs. Carolyn wonders why the cellar was boarded up? This is the beginning of torture the family will endure. The following days the family wakes up to cold mornings, the clocks stopping at 3:07, the dog Sadie choked to death with her own chain, the youngest of the girls seeing a young boy through a music box, the girls smelling bad odors in their rooms, sleep walking, the presence of an evil spirit in their home threatening to kill the family, Carolyn being tricked by the evil spirit by the cupboard, Carolyn being locked in the cellar by the evil spirit, and finally the Witch revealing and jumping on top of the oldest daughter. The family is beyond terrified at this point and call on the Warrens for help. The Warrens arrive. While Ed interviews the family, Lorraine walks around the house, later revealing that she has seen and felt the evil entity, the Witch, hanging from a tree. It has latched itself to the family like gum, the Warrens say. They cannot escape it. The Warrens tell the Perrons that their house needs an exorcism, but first they must gather evidence to take it to the priest. Ed also asks them if they are baptized, and Roger says they are not a family that does that. Ed tells them to rethink that. In the meantime, Lorraine comes across a photo of the Perrons at beach. Carolyn tells Lorraine that it was great family day that she won’t forget. The group rallies to help each other. The Warrens bring their assistant Drew and a police officer to gather evidence. But the witch doesn’t reveal itself until it has possessed Carolyn. In the meantime, disturbances have occurred in the home, where Lorraine has fallen through the walls and has discovered the real reason for the witch possessing Carolyn. She wants her to kill her own children, as she did herself before she hanged herself. The Warrens take the evidence to the priest, where the priest doubts the Perrons would be helped since they are not of the church. The Warrens resist this, and the priest gives in. He’ll call for an exorcist. The stakes continue to rise, as the witch has already latched itself like gum to the Warrens, as their only child is attacked by the witch in the form of Anabelle and Carolyn has taken her youngest child to sacrifice. The Warrens rush back to the house, where they discover they cannot take Carolyn out of the home because the witch will kill her. Out of time, Ed decides he will do the exorcism himself, but he wants Lorraine to leave. Lorraine refuses, reminding him that God brought them together for a reason, and this is it. Ed performs the exorcism, but the witch proves too strong and escapes. Lorraine then implores with Carolyn to remember what she is fighting for, the day the beach with her family that she would never forget. The exorcism is successful and the families reunite.
THE CONJURING HORROR CONVENTIONS:
ISOLATION – The isolation here is more physical as opposed to psychological as in other horror films. The families here stand strong and full of love. However, the demon isolate their victims in other ways. Carolyn, the mother, finds bruises on her body she didn’t have before. When she plays hide and clap with her daughter, Caroline hears claps and believes she is hearing her daughter breathing in the cupboard. She also find herself isolated in the cellar, trying run away from what is now an evil entity. Christine, one of the daughters, is not believed when she says she saw something behind the door. Lorraine falls through the walls and finds herself alone when she discovers the witch’s goal of using Carolyn to kill the children.
DEATH OR INSANITY – The monster in this case is an evil spirit possessing the mother, Carolyn, with the goal of using Carolyn to kill her own daughters. The witch won’t let Carolyn leave the house (for the exorcism) or the witch will kill her. Death is constant in the film, as women in the past killed their own children.
MONSTER VILLIAN – The monster reveals itself throughout the film by various means, including pulling on Christine’s leg while she sleeps and threatening to kill her family, bruising Caroline, stopping clocks, jumping on Andrea as a physical entity, revealing itself to Lorraine when she falls through the walls, the Anabelle doll almost killing the Warren child, and finally possessing Carolyn.
HIGH TENSION – The Warrens decide the house needs an exorcism, Lorraine falls through the walls and discovers who the evil witch is. Her intention is have Carolyn kill her own daughters.
DEPARTURE FROM REALITY – The Warrens explain the three stages of demonic possession, the Anabelle doll, Lorraine’s clairvoyance, and the possession and exorcism of Caroline.
MORAL STATEMENT – God brought us together for a reason, Lorraine tells Ed. This is it, she tells him (when Ed is about to begin the exorcism). Major themes of this film include family, love and helping one another, whether Catholic or not.
WHAT I LEARNED IN THIS ASSIGNMENT: One of the things that AUDIENCE members loved was that the film was full of constant jumps and scares. From the beginning we are introduced to Anabelle, a doll used as a conduit by an inhuman spirit, to the end where Carolyn, a mother of five girls, is exorcised from an evil entity that was trying to use her to kill her own children. But I believe the audience also loved the major themes of family and love. In this case, the family does not fall apart as in Smile (the first film I looked at for this assignment) and other psychological horror films. The Conjuring is a straightforward film about good vs. evil, where good ultimately prevails and the love of two families, the Perrins and the Warrens, overcome an evil spirit. The old saying Love Conquers All comes most into most focus when Lorraine reminds Carolyn to fight for that happy day at the beach she and her family once had. The major theme of a mother killing her children is also a highly emotional one for most audience members, and really resonated with them. The themes of love, a united family vs. the threat of killing children coupled with constant jump scares pulled this film over the top and made it the biggest horror film in 2013, leading to two sequels and other films that have expanded its universe.
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My specialty is Horror, and for my first movie I picked Smile. I hadn’t seen this movie, but according to The Numbers, it was the number 2 highest grossing horror film in 2022, second to Nope. I picked Smile over Nope because I thought it met the more conventional horror movie type.
Here’s how I believe it met the Horror Conventions
Horror Conventions:
The movie Smile (2022) met the horror conventions by:
ISOLATION: Dr. Rose Cotter’s close circle breaks away from her as she becomes/sounds increasing mentally unstable. Her boss questions Dr. Cotter’s judgment after she reacted too quickly to have a patient restrained. He orders her to take time off. Her fiancée doesn’t believe a word she says when she tells him she is seeing things that are threatening her. Her sister cuts her off when they have a fight over who was there when their mother was mentally ill. Her sister also accuses her of traumatizing her son. Rose Cotter feels betrayed by her fiancée and therapist as they meet without her to discuss her mental health.
DEATH: One of the major themes of the film is suicide. In this case, killing oneself in front of another person, traumatizing them in the process. Dr. Rose Cotter is threatened by this as she finds that the victims are not killing themselves, but are being forced to kill themselves in front of others. She knows she is next.
MONSTER/VILLIAN: The monster repeatedly inflicts mental torture on Dr. Rose Cotter. She hears voices, repeatedly sees Laura, the patient who killed herself in front of her smiling evilly at her, kills her cat and then hides it in a present for her nephew to see, makes her believe there has been a break in at her house, and finally begins to attack physically when the monster takes the shape of her therapist and tells her it’s time to die.
HIGH TENSION builds quickly as Dr. Cotter doesn’t know what to believe, and doesn’t know what is happening to her. She tries to take control of her life by taking deep breathes and at one point just outright covering herself with her covers and attempting to ignore the voices calling to her.
DEPARTURE FROM REALITY : Dr. Cotter’s mental instability quickly turns into reality as the monster manifests itself physically, first as people she knows like her therapist and later her mother, then as a giant, a demon that towers over her. She fights with it, and seemingly defeats it by setting it on fire, only to realize that it still lives on, and eventually overtakes her.
MORAL STATEMENT: I believe this film’s social message is about treating trauma. If you don’t treat trauma and heal, it will kill you.
Here’s an outline of the film:
OUTLINE – SMILE
INT. BEDROOM – DAY: A Woman lays in bed. Eyes wide open, non-responsive. She’s dead. A thrashed floor. Food, pills, bottles strewn about. Buried behind the mess are pictures of a perfectly happy family. At the doorway, a horrified child looks in.
INT. DOCTER’S OFFICE – DAY: A doctor at her desk. She wakes from a nightmare. The phone rings and she answers, “Dr. Cotter.”
INT. THERAPY ROOM – MOMENTS LATER – A patient, Carl, suffering from a maniac episode whispers under his breath, I’m gonna die, nothing matters repeatedly. Dr. Rose Cotter enters along with a colleague, who tells her that the patient never talks, except for now. Dr. Cotter sits with the patient. He tells Dr. Cotter that he feels he is going to die and is afraid. Dr. Cotter reassures him that whatever he is feeling isn’t real and can’t hurt him.
INT. HOSPITAL NURSE STATION – Dr. Cotter makes her way to the nurse’s station and tells nurse she’ll put Carl on observation and says he is harmless. Nurse then tells Dr. Cotter Dr. Desaiy, her boss, is looking for her.
EXT. HOSPTIAL – DAY – An ambulance pulls up to the hospital. Paramedics pull a woman tied up on a gurney. She screams no, no!
INT. BOSS’S OFFICE – Boss asks Dr. Cotter if she sent a patient to residency over for more care. Dr. Cotter says that yes, the patient had a history of drug abuse and mania. Boss tells her she has no insurance, and Dr. Cotter angers, wishes the board would care more about their jobs and patients than about insurance. Boss tells her that he is not questioning her judgement, but needs a heads up next time. He then asks her if she has been here since last night working late hours?
INT. DR. COTTER’S OFFICE – Dr. Cotter puts on her coat and leaves, but then the phone rings and she runs back inside to answer it.
INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY – LATER: Dr Cotter walks with a nurse, explains to her that they have another patient, Laura, who doesn’t have a history of mania, but saw her professor hammer himself to death.
INT. THERAPY ROOM – MOMENTS LATER – [FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE MONSTER] Dr. Cotter meets Laura, a nervous, scared Ph.D. student. Dr. Cotter tries to reassure her. Laura tells her she is seeing things. It looks like people, Laura says. It wears people’s faces like masks, and it smiles at her. Feels something terrible will happen. Dr. Cotter tries her traditional method of treating, asking about her mental history, talks about being overwhelmed and trauma. But Laura tells her she is not listening to her, and that today she will die. Suddenly, Laura screams, jumps out of her chair and begins to choke on the floor. Dr. Cotter calls for help. But before help gets there, Dr. Cotter sees Laura smiling at her. Then Laura cuts her own throat in front of her.
INT. HOSPITAL – LATER – Dr. Cotter meets with police officers, who try to get an understanding of Laura’s mental state. Dr. Cotter tells them that Laura was suffering from paranoid delusions, and was convinced that some evil entity was after her. Then she says that before she died, Laura was smiling at her.
INT. MORGUE – LATER – Laura’s body is covered with a white sheet. A blood stain running from her face to neck forms an evil smile.
INT. DR. COTTER’S HOME – LATER – Dr. Cotter arrives home, where she is greeted by her cat, Mustache. As she is getting more comfortable she sees blood stains on her blouse. She quickly pulls her blouse off and showers. She later opens a bottle of wine to relax. As she begins to relax, she sees Laura, smiling at her from the dark corner of the house. Dr. Cotter can’t believe her eyes. Then she hears her fiancée, TREVOR, calling her. Rose! Dr. Rose Cotter drops her glass and it shatters on the floor.
INT. DR. COTTER’S HOME – CONTINUED – Rose continues to look at the corner where Laura was standing but she has disappeared. She tells Trevor about a patient dying. He suggests they cancel their dinner plans. Dr. Cotter says no.
EXT. DINNER DATE WITH SISTER, HOLLY, AND HUSBAND – NIGHT – Rose’s sister talks about her perfect family. Rose is not mentally present in the conversation, and Holly has to remind Rose about her son’s birthday party. The conversation goes sour and Rose and Holly have an argument about selling their old childhood home.
INT. DR. COTTER’S HOME – LATER THAT NIGHT – Rose and Trevor arrive home. He turns on the alarm while Dr. Cotter feeds the cat. Trevor asks Dr. Cotter is she is okay. She says, yeah.
INT. HOSPITAL KITCHEN – MORNING – Dr. Cotter finds herself staring at the coffee machine. She holds a coffee mug with a smiley face. Another doctor startles Rose, says good morning, and Dr. Cotter snaps out of the state she is in. She finally says good morning.
INT. NURSE’S STATION – Dr. Cotter makes her way to the nurse’s station and asks nurse to send over a police report about yesterday’s patient, Laura, which contains information about a previous incident she was involved in. The nurse also tells Dr. Cotter about another patient who pulled her hair and swallowed it. Dr. Cotter is not shocked by it.
A police detective from yesterday, JOEL, stands behind her. Dr. Cotter wonders what he is doing here? Joel says that he didn’t know it was gonna be her yesterday, and is here to check in on her. Dr. Cotter gives him the cold shoulder, tells him he doesn’t need to check on her and walks away.
The nurse then reminds Joel that Dr. Cotter is engaged, but that she is single.
INT. DR. COTTER’S OFFICE – DAY – Dr. Cotter looks over the disturbing police report on Laura. Laura’s professor, Dr. Munoz, used a claw hammer, inflicted severe lacerations on himself, and he smiled at her before he died. Dr. Cotter startles by her phone ringing. It’s her sister. Holly apologizes for last night, and says that if Rose can’t make her son’s birthday party then she should just send an electric train as a present. As Dr. Cotter talks on the phone with her sister, she sees Laura again, this time through the window, looking and smiling right at her. Rose’s demeanor changes, and her sister asks her if she is okay. Dr. Cotter says yeah.
INT. HOSPITAL – LATER – Dr. Cotter does her rounds, checking on patients. She stops by Carl’s room. He sits in a catatonic state. Smiling. Dr Cotter calls to him, snaps her fingers in front of his eyes to try to get his attention. But Carl suddenly everyone is going to die, you’re going to die and repeats this various times. Dr. Cotter panics, and calls for Carl to be restrained. Carl is restrained by staff as he screams.
INT. DOCTOR SAYAD’S OFFICE – LATER – Dr. Cotter finds herself trying to explain herself to her boss. Carl was aggressive and psychotic, she says. Dr. Sayad says Carl doesn’t have that history, and questions Dr. Cotter decision: was she reacting to yesterday’s patient killing herself in front of her? Dr. Cotter agrees that she may have overreacted. Dr. Sayad orders Dr. Cotter to take a week off and get some rest. Dr. Cotter at first resists, saying that that won’t be necessary. But she has no choice.
EXT. HOSPITAL – DAY – Dr. Cotter walks to her car, feeling overwhelmed. In her car, she takes deep breaths trying to calm herself down.
EXT. CITY STREETS – LATER – Dr. Cotter drives, and sees a toy store.
INT. TOY STORE – MOMENTS LATER – Rose buys a train and box for her nephew, At the window outside, an eerie drawing of a happy family smiling.
INT. DR. COTTER’S HOME – LATER THAT NIGHT – Rose at home. She grabs some wine and some wrapping paper for her nephew’s present. Then she gets a text message from Trevor that he is stuck at work and will be home late. Rose makes her way through the quiet house to the kitchen to grab more wine. As she relaxes, something in the large window shimmers unnoticed by Rose.
Suddenly, the security alarms blasts, frightening Rose sending her glass crashing against the floor. Rose frightens and makes her way across the house, grabs a pair of scissors, and pulls on the front door’s handle. It’s locked. She manages to turn the alarm off and makes her way back to the living room and sees the back door opened! Then she jumps out of her skin as the phone rings. It’s First Line Security – the alarm company checking to see if she is all right. But the voice on the phone quickly turns on her. It asks her if she is sure she is alone in the house, and tells her to turn around. As Rose begins to turn, she startles at the phone blasting again. She turns in it’s direction and sees the phone in its place. Rose checks her hand and it’s empty. Rose finds she doesn’t know what is going on. She makes her way to the phone and picks it up. It’s First Line security. [ROSE IS FEELING UNCERTAIN, CRAZY]
EXT. ROSE’S HOUSE – NIGHT – Police are outside the house. They reassure a frightened Rose that no one is inside the house and that false alarms always happen. They wonder if the back door was already opened. Trevor arrives and asks what happened?
INT. ROSE’S HOUSE – LATER THAT NIGHT – Rose serves her cat’s food and calls out for him. Trevor wonders why Rose set the alarm, and she says she doesn’t remember setting it. She says her head has been foggy. She says she is okay and kisses him. She asks him to look for Mustache. She hasn’t seen him. As she walks away, Trevor notices the broken glass on the floor. Did she break another glass?
EXT. ROSE’S HOUSE – NIGHT – Rose looks for and calls out for Mustache. Something lurks in the wooded backyard.
INT. ROSE’S CHILDHOOD HOME – DAY – Rose’s mother lays seemingly dead on the bed. Her eyes wide open. Then she comes back to life, expelling her breath.
INT. ROSE’S BEDROOOM – DAY – Rose rises from a nightmare. Trevor sleeps next to her.
INT. ROSE’S LIVING ROOM – LATE NIGHT – Rose listens to a recording of Laura’s suicide late at night. Then she picks up the SOUND of someone’s breath, like someone else is in there with them. Rose rewinds several times to listen in closer. As she listens in closer…a MONSTER growls at her and sends her flying off her chair. A terrified Rose crawls and grabs a kitchen knife. Trevor comes in and tells her to put the knife down. [MONSTER MANIFESTING ITSELF MORE HEAVILY]
INT. THERAPIST’S HALLWAY – DAY – An uppity scale therapist walks in to her office and is surprised to see Rose sitting on her steps looking nervous and anxious.
INT. THERAPIST’S OFFICE – CONTINUOUS – Rose tells therapist about the day her patient killed herself in front of her and how she is feeling. The Therapist asks her to consider whether she is not reacting to her mother’s suicide. Rose doesn’t want to dwell on that and asks for a prescriptions. She says she’s been seeing things since her patient killed herself. She’s been experiencing echoes of what she saw, hallucinations but they feel corporeal and unsettling. The therapists tells Rose she doesn’t seem delusional, but hasn’t healed from some trauma. She suggests Rose come back to see her. Rose agrees, but asks for a prescription again. The therapist refuses, telling her they can talk again next week.
INT. ROSE’S BATHROOM – DAY – Rose applies concealer to hide the bags under her eyes. She breaks a smile, but it comes off sad and weak. She knows it.
INT. ROSE’S SISTER’S HOME- DAY – A birthday celebration. Rose is at the door with her nephew’s present. They sing happy birthday to him. The happy little boy opens his presents. Then it’s time to open Rose’s present. The excited little boy’s face frowns as he pulls out a dead cat from the box. Rose quickly runs to grab Mustache, and sees that everyone is looking at her. What the hell is wrong with you?, her sister screams. Rose screams at them, says it wasn’t her, that they have to believe her. Then she sees Laura sitting on a chair, looking at her and smiling menacingly at her. Rose falls back on a glass table and falls through, cutting her arms. Rose screams helplessly.
INT. HOSPITAL – LATER THAT DAY – Rose sits on a hospital bed looking at a pain assessment tool chart with smiling faces on it. Dr Sayad marches in alarmed. She said it was accident, but Sayad suggests she see someone professionally. Then Rose sees Trevor and her sister arguing outside.
EXT. ROSE’S HOUSE – NIGHT – the couple’s car pulls up and Rose tells him that she needs him to know that she is not crazy, but that something is threatening her, and it also killed her patient. It’s an evil spirit or energy. Trevor doesn’t believe her and he exits the car. Rose follows him out, telling him that she is not crazy. Trevor then questions her sanity, reminding Rose of her mother’s mental health problems, that they are genetic, wondering if she killed Mustache.
[ISOLATION BEGINS]
INT. ROSE’S BATHROOM – LATER THAT NIGHT – Rose looks at herself in the mirror. She has bags under her eyes, wraps around her arms. She cries and tries to put herself back together.
INT. ROSE’S HOUSE – NIGHT – Rose looks at Trevor sleeping quietly. Then she moves to the second bedroom, where she pulls a laptop and looks over Dr. Munoz’s information. Suddenly she begins hearing voices – help me. Rose begins to shake, closing her laptop and covering herself with the blankets. The voices keep coming, louder this time. Rose tries to ignore them.
EXT. CITY STREETS – DAY – The screeching of tires as a car comes to a violent halt. Rose stands frighten and frozen as the car has nearly run her over. Rose continues to walk and knocks on a door. The door opens and a woman stands at the door. Rose: Mrs. Munoz?
INT. MUNOZ LIVING ROOM – CONTINUOUS – Mrs. Munoz tells Rose about the professor’s strange behavior before he died. He was talking to himself, screaming at night, doing strange things. Rose asks if Dr. Munoz ever describe what he was seeing?
INT. MUNOZ STUDY – CONTINUOUS – Rose sees drawing of evil entities with an evil smile. Mrs. Munoz also tells Rose about Mr. Munoz never getting over his brother’s death. Here Mrs. Munoz tells Rose that Professor Munoz started seeing things when a woman killed herself in front of him at a conference. Rose realizes a pattern, and insists if Mrs. Munoz has a name of the woman who killed herself. But Mrs. Munoz grows suspicious of Rose, thinking she’s a sick fan and throws her out.
EXT/INT. ROSE’S CAR – DAY – Rose sits nervous and anxious, thinking of next steps.
INT. JOEL’S HALLWAY – DAY – Rose knocks on Joel’s apartment. Joel is surprised to see her and Rose just walks right in.
INT. JOEL’S APARTMENT – CONTINUOUS – Rose needs a favor and doesn’t want Joel to ask any questions. She asks him to look up Dr. Munoz’s police file. He gave a witness statement about Angela Powell, who killed herself in front of him. She then asks him to do the same search for Angela Powell. She also witnessed a suicide. They watch a video of the suicide and Rose realizes the man smiling before the takes his life. Joel asks what is going on but Rose doesn’t answer. Instead she asks for a print out of the file.
EXT. COUNTRY ROAD – DAY – Rose’s car drives through the country road.
INT. ROSE’S HOUSE – DAY – Rose walks in with a printed file in her arm. She calls out for Trevor. She walks in to find Trevor talking to her therapist. Rose feels betrayed, tells Trevor she confided in him about her fears, and now he is questioning her sanity by talking to her therapist. they argue over whey they are still together. Rose walks out on him. [ISOLATION from Trevor and Therapist]
EXT. ROSE’S SISTER’S HOUSE – DAY – Rose knocks on her sister’s house and sounds crazy with her story of what is happening. She babbles about an evil curse killing her patient, her cat and now is after her. She shows her photos of the dead people in her file, telling her sister that it has happened to other people. Her sister tells her that she sounds just like their mother. But the conversation breaks down into her sister never being around. But Holly says she is trying to move on, and Rose traumatizing her nephew. [ISOLATION from her sister]
EXT/INT ROSE’S CAR – MOMENTS LATER – Rose sits in her car, taking deep breaths, trying to get some control. Then her sister knocks on the window, startling Rose. Rose looks up, only to see her sister’s head fall and hang on the window. It’s smiling. Rose breaks, screams helplessly inside her car. [MONSTER]
From inside – her nephew watches Rose screaming.
EXT/INT CAR – NIGHT – Rose cries inside her car. Then she finds herself scarfing some food down. Her cell phone rings. It’s Joel. He demands to know why she didn’t tell him about the connection between the others and her patient. He tells her he keep digging for information, and found that there are 20 other cases, but only 19 suicides. One is a murder, and the murderer is in prison. He is alive after he broke a pattern. Rose needs to talk to him.
INT. CAR – NIGHT – Rose and Joel race toward the prison. Joel tries to make sense of what Rose is telling him about the cases. That an evil entity is jumping around, and people are killing themselves. Rose clarifies that it is not suicide, but the thing is forcing them to kill themselves. Rose then asks Joel how much time before people kill themselves, and Joel says 4 days. Rose says today is her fourth day. Joel then assures her that nothing will happen to her, and she holds his hands.
EXT. PRISON – MORNING – Rose and Joel pull up to the prison gates.
INT. PRISON – MOMENTS LATER – Rose and Joel walk up with a security guard to Prisoner’s door. Security guard tells him that the guy is a total nut case, and that they only have 10 minutes to talk with him.
INT. PRISON ROOM – CONTINUOUS – A nervous Rose walks in and asks the prisoner about what he was experiencing before he committed the murder. The murderer will talk, but not in front of the cop. Rose lies to the prisoner and tells him whatever he experienced is happening to a patient of hers, a young woman. The prisoner talks about breaking the chain by killing someone and having a witness. He tells her to make a mesh of things. This thing feeds on trauma. An agitated Rose inadvertently blurts out that she can’t kill someone. The prisoner then realizes that it’s Rose who is cursed, and screams to her to get away from him. She won’t pass it on to him.
EXT PRISON GATES – MOMENTS LATER – Rose marches out of the prison through the gates. Joel runs after her demanding to know what the prisoner said. A shaken Rose tells Joel that the prisoner is out of his mind and she walks to the car avoiding any questions.
INT. CAR – LATER – Rose and Joel drive away in silence.
INT. ROSE’S APARTMENT – LATER THAT DAY – Rose enters her apartment clutching her file. She gets a call from the therapist, but she doesn’t answer.
Rose sits on a chair, nervously biting her nails. She gets a text from Trevor, saying they need to talk. Rose suddenly rips out a nail and she bleeds.
Rose washes the blood off her nails. She sees the large knives on the table and begins to pull one out when…
The doorbell rings. Rose sees her therapist outside at the door. Rose quickly hides the victims’ files.
INT. ROSE’S DOOR – MOMENTS LATER – Rose doesn’t want to let the therapist in, but the therapist pushes, telling Rose that she will let the authorities know Rose is a danger to herself if she doesn’t convince her otherwise.
INT. ROSE LIVINGROOM – MOMENTS LATER – Rose tries to convince the therapist that she is no longer seeing things. Her phone rings, and when Rose picks up the phone, it’s the therapist on the other line – the real therapist. She tells her she has been trying her phone the whole morning and is concerned about her. Rose sees the fake therapist in front of her and It begins to smile at her, evilly. Rose tries to run away, but the thing chases and grabs her face.
INT. ROSE’S CAR – DAY – A nervous Rose sits in her car. Next to her is a large knife. She picks it up and hides it in her sleeve. Then she exits the car and walks to the hospital entrance.
INT. HOSPITAL – DAY – As Rose walks down the hallway, a nurse asks her about being on leave. Rose just says she is picking something up from her office. Rose then walks into Carl’s room, and he pulls away from her frightened. Rose approaches him and tells him it’s okay. Dr. Sayad walks in, and tells Rose she is not supposed to be near patients. With a witness in hand, Rose stabs Carl multiple times, but Carl pain turns into a mockery of pain. Rose keeps stabbing, and as she sees Dr. Sayad screaming, he takes his hands to his face and peels the skin off his own face. [nightmare]
INT. ROSE’S CAR – DAY – Rose wakes up screaming from a nightmare. Then Dr. Sayad startles her, asking what she is doing here? She doesn’t know, and Dr. Sayad tells her that she shouldn’t be alone right now. Rose then realizes what she needs to do—be alone. She drives off crazily but not before Dr. Sayad sees the large knife in her car.
INT. ROSE’S CAR – CONTINOUS – Rose continuous to drive recklessly. A phone call comes in. it’s Joel. She tells him she knows what she needs to do – be alone to deprive the entity of passing it on and to face it. Rose hangs up and continues to drive.
EXT. ROSE’S OLD HOUSE – LATE AFTERNOON – Rose arrives at her old childhood home, now dilapidated. She leaves her phone inside the car. Joel continuous to call and Rose walks into her old house.
INT. OLD HOUSE – CONTINUOUS – Rose walks through the dark and empty house. She comes upon her mother’s door, and opens it.
INT. MOTHER’S ROOM – The door opens, and Rose as a child stands at the door way. On the bed, she sees her mother asking Rose to get help. But Rose is too frightened to move. Rose! Her mother screams. Rose runs and shuts the door.
INT. MOTHER’S ROOM – The door opens again. This is present day Rose. She sees her mother’s empty bed and holds back tears. She closes the door.
INT. HOUSE – CONTINUOS – Rose looks for a flashlight, closes the curtains. She walks with a lantern throughout the dark house as night falls. She sits on a chair preparing to face the monster. Then she makes herself to her mother’s room. She hears her crying. Her mother sees her and walks to Rose, telling her it’s okay. She tells her she is sorry, making Rose tear up. She wants to be a good mom, but things can be too much. She asks her if she is ashamed of her, why couldn’t she save her.? The monster pushes Rose’s mental health, until Rose tells her she was afraid of her. She was a monster. Rose says she’s been carrying that guilt, but has to let it go. Rose knows this isn’t real. The monster as the mother tells her that her mind makes it real. Rose begins to walk away and close the door. But the monster grabs hold of the door and is now a hideous demon now towering above Rose. Rose runs and loses the monster, but it quickly latches on to her. Rose fights back, throwing the lantern to the monster. The monster catches fire, and Rose watches it burn. Rose then closes the door behind her. [DEPARTURE FROM REALITY]
EXT. HOUSE – CONTINUOUS – Rose walks away from the house as the house burns down. Rose watches it burn.
INT. ROSE’S CAR – NIGHT – Rose drives away.
INT. JOEL’S APARTMENT – NIGHT – Rose at Joel’s door. She looks like she’s been through hell. She walks in feeling safe. She apologizes for dragging him into her mess. She confesses she pushed him away, kept her distance from him when she met him. She is sorry for that. She asks if she can stay the night and if he can stay with her tonight. Joel says of course he will stay with her, forever, and gives her an evil smile. She runs away from it, opens the door and dashes out. [MONSTER – DEPARTURE FROM REALITY]
EXT. WOODED AREA – NIGHT – She finds herself outside in the woods. She turns to look behind her and sees her old house again. [DEPARTURE FROM REALITY] Then she hears Joel calling behind her. She sees him and can’t accept what will happen. She runs into the house and locks the door. Inside, she sees the monster coming at her, laughing at her. She screams. The beast tears it’s skin off it’s face. Rose drops to her knees with no more energy to scream. The beast tears open Rose’s mouth and inserts it’s head into her. [DEPARTURE FROM REALITY]
EXT. ROSE’S OLD HOME –Joel kicks the door open.
INT. ROSES OLD HOME – CONTINUOUS – Joel walks in and calls out to Rose. He finds her pouring gasoline on herself. Her face has an evil smile, and she lights herself up. Joel watches helplessly as Rose kills herself.
WHAT I LEARNED DOING THIS ASSIGNMENT:
I had fun doing this assignment. The biggest take aways were looking at a new way of breaking down a film by doing scene by scene of the film, making me realize the hard work work and dedication to screenwriting.
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Hi Everyone,
I’m Claudia. I’ve written 2 scripts, one a horror thriller and one a thriller, and several short ones as well. I work in Reality TV and hope to expand my wings by learning how to reach out to producers to get my own work out there, as well as learning the craft of professional screenplay writing.
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Hello, I’m Claudia.
I’m bringing a finished script called Soledad and an unfinished one called Lucia, both in the $1 to $5 million range. I’m sad to say that they are both still working titles.
From the teleconference I learned the hard work and dedication it will take to get writing assignments.
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As a member of this group, I agree to the following:
1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class available to anyone who is not a member of this class.
2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.
I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.
3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.
4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.
5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.
6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.
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I just realized my assignment may be late, so I apologize.
What I learned in this assignment is that you don’t need a lot of characters and locations to tell a great story. You can use SOUND to increase tension and fear between actors.
PART I:
All of my ideas can be considered contained stories and can be pitched in 1 sentence. I’m still trying to figure out what is unique about them.
PART II: Claudia’s Guidelines for The Horde.
TITLE: The HORDE
AS THEY DID IT:
A. People – It’s a zombie movie, using a large group of actors running from a horde of zombies, walking together, trapped in one or two rooms.
B. Stunts – A lot of running and close up fighting.
C. Extras – Large number of extras to play zombies chasing them.
D. Wardrobe – a lot of blood and torn clothes
E. Hair and Make Up – zombie, bloody make-up
F. Kids and Animals – None
G. Quarantine – Many actors and extras all in one location.
COVID GUIDELINE VERSION:
A. People – Minimize the number of actors will give them more space.
B. Stunts – minimize them number of zombies in chase scenes, add tension by using SOUND instead.
C. Extras – minimize zombies to a small group instead of a horde (some of which may special effects).
D. Wardrobe – as is if the limit the number of zombies.
E. Hair and Make Up – as is.
F. Kids and Animals – don’t use any.
G. Quarantine – Removing the large number of zombies and make a small group. Use SOUND behind walls and roof instead of visuals to add to tension of invading zombies. Minimize the number of actors to carry the story.