[Karen Crider]

Leslie, you and I have common ground in writing for kids, I just finished a new picture book about a girl who has to wear glasses. They are gosh-awful ugly and add five pounds to her thirty-seven pound weight. But I added a new twist to it and lent it some uniqueness. Good luck with the course, but most of all have fun…

[Karen Crider]

Horror 30 Class
Karen Crider

1. Tell us what or who your monster is:
Hawk is a vampire, accidentally exhumed when Chron Chronson and his nephews shared time together metal detecting. Chron’s nephew, Allen, knocked something loose with his shovel, inside a shallow grave, that pinioned Hawk’s rib cage to the ground. Once released, Hawk rose inside a mist. Allen didn’t have a chance.
2. Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:
Their Terror: Hawk, is a vampire, who with his kind, possess herculean strength, super speed in his actions and thinking ability. He reads minds, can hypnotize, but once he claims his own, he owns every inch of his victim. He is intensely loyal, loves some of his no matter what, is domineering, hogs attention/admiration to support his grandiose sense of self. In spite of these characteristics, he has no ability for empathy. He wants human blood, but is not aware he can contract rabies, tuberculosis and blood diseases. He is devoted to a clock given to him as a youth. His only connection to what he was, before he became a vampire…

I got side-tracked which is something I’m good at. Lol. I added these others as well—good for reference.
How does the monster pursue?
Hawk is not particular how he pursues his prey. Whether he mists into a bat that hides on the undercarriage of a victim’s vehicle, and enters their home for a warm lunch, or picks some unfortunate from a bar. He can hypnotize his victims, and carry them away in the night for a full buffet and a night of lovemaking. The result is always the same. Lunch is always on him, in more ways than one…
How does the monster isolate?
Vampire shape-shifts and are shrouds inside a mist. They have the ability to be present, and no one knows they are there. They look more for the company of humans, both before and after a feeding, physically, so they fit in somewhat at bars, restaurants, parks, fishing holes etc. But when they isolate, they are capable of going anywhere and watching anyone, anytime at night. Sometimes, their potential victims, sense they are around. A sulfur odor emanates, but is blamed on something long dead, like a mouse no one can find. Methane is another give-a- way, as there are vampires that only feed on animal corpses. Just because you cannot see them, does not mean they’re not there…
Their mystery:
We are always interested in what we do not understand, and though it’s reported vampires are not real, many individuals in deserted places in Montana swear up and down, they do exist. They say that’s why the population is lower there than other places. Some humans take the form of something lower than what they are, but these individuals, are maybe just misunderstood. They could be poets or someone pinpointed as someone not right. lol. (I was constantly chased by cops when I lived in MT. They thought I was a druggie. I was just a writer writing poetry in Memorial Park. lol.) Vampires are mysterious because of their macabre lifestyle, the dangers they inflict and their covert methods of surviving for centuries, turning whole populations into vampires…
Their Fear- Provoking Appearance:
Hawk and his cronies have no ability to carve a shadow or a reflection in a mirror. They are usually covered in dark garb. Hawk is gaunt and cannot be photographed, as his image will not take, neither can he be seen on film. Vampires cannot be in the presence of light, and that apparently is also reflected in their outer garments. They have claws and pointed ears. Hawk’s ears are especially noted as such, since he is centuries old. Sometimes, their previous human forms appear in a mist of what they looked like before they were submerged into vampire-hood. Hawk is gaunt. After consuming his latest victim, his eyes glow red. When he does not eat, his eyes turn the color of onyx or black coals. If he feeds on animals
Their Rules:
Vampires only come out at night. If they come out in daylight, they die, or are disfigured. Their skin blackens. They experience elevated hair growth and repeated exposure to disease. Hawk’s clock served to protect him from confusing dusk with day and dusk with night.
Hawk demands to do things his way, if hindered by any, he grows vindictive and cold.
Especially, around any they command. They have a long memory for offenses. If someone steals from him, they will pay. Hawk’s end goal is to enlarge his vampire empire anyway he can, taking humans every chance, he gets.
He is promiscuous. That is not so much a rule as a vampire’s nature. So, maybe it’s a rule of nature for vampires.
Vampires loathe garlic, crosses and holy water.
Their mythology:
Vampires are said to be myths, though the old ones in archaic villages and desert places swear they have seen them and seen their works. Perhaps, they are vampires themselves. It is said they are loyal to those they love. I believe that’s a myth. How can anything with such a black soul know anything of love; especially, when their nature has no empathy. One must have empathy to have love. It’s one of the ingredients necessary along with compassion and all the elements that bind love together.
Vampires drink blood, are immortal, avoid sunlight and are capable of morphing into whatever they choose. It is said they morph mostly into bats. All of these myths make up a vampire. The fact that they can hypnotize, read minds, and comprehend the actions of their victims before the action occurs is mind boggling. All of these actions/myths make vampires worthy of writing about. Thanks…

[Karen Crider]

• First Assignment: Horror Conventions
• Title / Concept: American Poltergeist
Concept: Horrific visions torment Taryn, her brother and college friends when they move into an infamous old house.
• Terrorize The Characters: The characters are tormented by visions, inanimate objects moving. Creepy environments, death, and threats of death, the background music. Their creepy host, the cop who cops lurking around, etc. They all add a dimension.
Isolation: Though they arrive as a crowd, they are all isolated in this grand mansion, that carries a history of Lizzie Borden who murdered her family in 1892. A hundred years later, it happens again. There is no escape. And now through Taryn, a descendent of Molly Borden, it’s about to happen again.
Death: Though they arrive as a crowd, they are all isolated in this grand mansion, which is the location of Lizzie Borden who murdered her family in 1892. A hundred years later, it happened again. Taryn discovers who she is as she invades an old trunk. She is of bad blood and becomes the monster who kills.
Monster/Villain: Taryn is invited to the mansion unaware she is kin to evil. (She was adopted as an infant. Her blood line creates a new monster who kills.
High Tension: Diane the owner of the mansion rented rooms to college students. She was creepy, cold and Indifferent. People died and were taken while yet alive. Vehicles would not start so Taryn could escape. Inanimate objects moved. Visions implied evil. The environment itself was creepy. Doors locked/unlocked on their own. A cop kept showing up, but is un-cop-like. He gives one kid a gun who used it to kill himself. People die, and are taken while yet alive.
Departure from Reality: The premise of Molly Borden is quite far-fetched. The idea of someone centuries later carrying the same pathogenic tendencies as Molly Borden is a bit much. Her coming upon her birth certificate and history from an ancient trunk in the basement is also seemingly convenient. A door Diane didn’t have a key for, and could not even enter leads to why she is the villain, and why the actual murders takes place in such a setting . All of it is a bit conveninet to my thinking. And then, once she realizes who she is, she’s in despair, knowing she’s doomed.

Moral Statement:
The college students got a great deal in rent. And as college students with all their bills and burdens, the evil mansion was worth their investing. Anything that seemed too good to be true can lead to a downfall. Greed is usually the layer that secures it all…
3. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film?
I think it could have been done better. In the end, Taryn shows her evil side and laughs the evil gotcha laugh. The ending was not what I would call a twist as it advertised long before the end what was going to happen.

4. With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.
Title: Killing Time
• Concept: A debt-ridden clock-smith steals a cursed, archaic clock that determines his fate.
•
• Logline: An obscure clock-smith steals a cursed clock taken from a vampire’s grave, not knowing the vampire wants it back, along with the clock-smith’s blood.
•
• Terrorize The Characters: A small village in Ekron, Montana, casts a ghostly shadow where a vampire shuffles to the local, antiquated church to meet his own kind. In a bag, he carries the latest soul of his taking. The youngest nephew of Chron Chronson. In time, he takes the whole family, except Chron. But Hawk has tried and failed. Evil lurks around every corner. Inside the bars, his truck, his rental. People die, including his wife. Vampires appear as a customer in Chron’s clock shop. His nephew dies while one attacks in his bedroom. And the blame is laid at Chron’s feet.
•
• Isolation: A small village casts a ghostly shadow when a vampire shuffles into a condemned church, after a family dislodges the stake that binds his soul while metal detecting. No one believes Chron about the vampires. They think he’s a murderer. He is persecuted. This is psychological isolation, the cruelest of all.
•
• Death: Everyone dies, including the vampires after they are lured to a barn dance at night where Chron helps them become the barbeque.
• Monster/Villain: Evil lurks around every corner. Inside the bars, his vehicle, his rental. People die, including his wife. Vampires appear as a customer in Chron’s clock shop. His nephew dies while one attacks in his bedroom. And the blame is laid at Chron’s feet. But the real villain is Hawk, the main vampire who wants his timepiece back. The one that helps him decipher the difference between dawn and dusk, between life and death. The cursed clock that lubricates its gears in blood.
•
• High Tension: The environment is charged with darkness and there’s evil on every corner. No one is safe. It’s up to Chron to save the village, but he may have to do it alone.
•
• Departure from Reality: Vampires are a departure from reality. Ghost towns are a reality in MT, and they say the population is sparse because of vampires, but can it be true, that vampires have managed to survive from centuries of blood-letting?
•
• Moral Statement: The vampires fill the sanctuary in the falling down church as in the form or bats– hundreds of bats. Sweet Benny, Chron’s youngest nephew, who is intellectually stunted, states innocently in conversation with his older brother, Allen, that when a church goes to waste, everything else is taken with it. This is the crux of the screenplay.
5. Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?” and put it at the top of your work.
It places the essence on what makes a horror screenplay viable. If you can identify these parameters you have the basic of beginning. The ending maybe another story. lol

[Karen Crider]

I, Karen Crider, agrees to the terms of this form: GROUP RELEASE FORM
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.

[Karen Crider]

Hi, I’m Karen Crider. I am a lifelong writer, but for the last few years, I have dabbled in scripts and have finished seven. This would be my eighth. This my first encounter with horror, something that’s out of my comfort zone. I always choose to work on elevating my skills. So, it’s not unusual to find my tapping the keys at three in the morning.