[Frank MacCrory]

Frank’s Horror Plot

What I learned doing this assignment is that it’s probably not the best plan to try to visualize the whole movie up front. It’s equivalent to writing sequentially and can get you stuck. This is a very useful exercise to put the essentials of the story in a framework and make sure nothing is missed.

ACT 1 — SET UP FOR HORROR

Atmosphere of Evil established: Crime scene investigators at the site of the monster’s spouse’s grisly murder, “This sort of thing just doesn’t happen around here”
Connect with the characters: Reporter doing a story on a blizzard happening at the ski resort on the first day of Spring, showing all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into making such a brief piece
The characters are warned not to do it: Resort director has sent the rest of the staff home, exasperated that the news crew and a couple of guests insist on riding out the storm
Denial of Horror: The building is warm and there are plenty of emergency supplies, what could go wrong?
Safety taken away: The resort director is the first to vanish, and he’s the one who knew where everything was
Monster: The nature of the beast: We see the resort director bound and gagged in another building, left bare-footed just in case they manage to somehow break their bonds

ACT 2 — THE POINT OF NO RETURN

Isolated / Trapped / Abducted: It becomes clear that no one is going outdoors, and it probably isn’t even safe to leave the main room, and the producer starts to lose it
One of us killed: The sycophantic intern turns out to be too annoying to live, abducted and soon the body is displayed, producer finishes losing it

MIDPOINT: The monster is worse than we thought!

Full pursuit by the killer: Questionable decision to scatter around the resort’s main building and hide, cameraman unaccounted for during abductions, rebel plots own escape, complainer (rebel’s love interest) abducted and killed out from under everyone’s noses
Terrorized: Cameraman’s attempt to rig the security cameras only results in finding the complainer’s body, then the cameras go out, more fleeing

ACT 3 — FULL OUT HORROR

Fight to the death: Reporter fights off the monster (monster is saving the reporter for last)
Hysteria: Producer has gotten dangerously unstable, so has cameraman is his own loner way, once producer manages to be quiet then no one hears him ever again as he’s abducted
The thrilling escape from death: Monster foils rebel’s escape plan but rebel isn’t killed, cameraman has extended cat-and-mouse pursuit with the monster, but obviously the monster ultimately prevails
Death returns to take one or more: Monster finally takes the reporter and lets the reporter see the rescuers approach before finishing the kill
Resolution: Rebel happens upon the resort director just as rescuers reach the resort, of course the monster is nowhere to be found

[Frank MacCrory]

Frank’s Characters for Horror

What I learned doing this assignment is that it’s good planning to know up front which characters will make it and which won’t. Prevents over-investing in a character, and distributes the stock roles appropriately across victims.

1. Horror Concept
The monster/villain: Sheriff candidate whose life was ruined by a local reporter’s expose

The interesting terror: Intentionally prolonging the reporter’s horror any way possible

An isolated and horrific environment: Snowed in ski resort (cell phones work, but no one can reach them)

The people who will be terrorized: press crew, two resort guests, resort staffer

Primal Fears:
Fear of the unknown
Fear that something terrible will happen
Fear of the unseen
Fear of psychopaths
Fear of pain or torture
Fear of death
(Fear of the cold)

2. Dying Pattern A: Characters are killed off one by one.

3. While the group has some “professionals” in it, this is more of an accidental social event.

Leader/Carrier: The local reporter takes charge as soon as the resort staffer disappears. To the monster, following the reporter’s orders means siding with the reporter (and thus targeting for death).
Rescuer/Innocent: The ski resort staffer is simply too competent and useful to the victims for the monster to leave in place. First deliberate victim, but merely bound and gagged since the monster has no real qualm with this person. Witnesses a lot of the killings. (Survivor)
Obnoxious: TV intern who is sycophantic toward the reporter, takes up a position of right-hand-man and does nothing but grate on the monster’s nerves
Loner/Red Herring: TV cameraman who sets off on his own to rig the resort’s security cameras into some protection against the monster
Out of Control: TV producer who is nominally in charge of the news crew but wigs out almost immediately
Complainer/Lover: Rich skier who’s too good for anyone else here, but listens to the reporter’s leadership
Rebel/Lover: Rich skier who goes beyond complaining to strike out for own survival, would like to take the Complainer along, becomes the monster’s lowest priority target. (Survivor)

[Frank MacCrory]

Frank’s Terrifying Monster

What I learned doing this assignment is that the monster isn’t a standard character, and that there are conventions to follow in its creation and revelation. They don’t all need to be stoic like Michael Meyers or Jason Voorhees (some like Freddy Krueger enjoy their work), but they are implacably fixed on their course of action and need to start out mysterious.

1. The monster is a disgraced former candidate for sheriff in a remote mountain area.

2.
Their Terror:
From the victims’ perspective, someone simply disappears then later the body will be displayed somewhere they are likely to find it. One early victim doesn’t reappear at all, the audience knows the monster is keeping that one alive but not why beyond a curt “I have no quarrel with you.” That unfortunate soul gets to witness most of the killings. When a victim disappears at night, the monster hits the lookout with a tranq gun, removes the selected victim, and the rest wake up in the morning to find someone missing. [Edit: having them try to sleep seems to violate the High Tension requirement. There can still be two people together for some reason; one gets tranq’ed and the other vanished.]

Their Mystery:
The monster is human, but generally the audience is only going to see gloved hands or booted feet, with gradually more revealed through the film. The monster taunts the remaining victims through messages and/or how bodies are displayed, but only speaks to someone who is already snatched and alone.

Their Fear Provoking Appearance:
Logically, the monster should be wearing hunter’s snow/alpine gear without the high-visibility vest. Some scarring from the first, pre-film victim — the monster’s spouse — who fought back (monster thinks the spouse was insufficiently supportive during the disgrace).

Their Rules:
The selected victim needs to be taken silently, which places constraints on when and where an attack can take place. It’s not a compulsion, simply a conscious decision to heighten the terror among the remaining victims. Since the monster is human, the traps and confrontations need to be feasible.

Their Mythology:
The events at the snowed-in ski resort are an elaborate revenge plot against the local reporter who ruined the monster’s life with an out-of-proportion expose. This person was running for sheriff, not Mother Superior! In any sequels, the monster would target someone who (in the monster’s eyes) performed a similar unfair abuse of power.
Note that there’s no particular reason for the monster to be male or female. Female might be more unique, but it’d require a bit more effort to play with the audience’s expectations that the killer is probably male.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by  Frank MacCrory.

[Frank MacCrory]

Halloween (1978) Horror Conventions

What I learned from this assignment is that conventions are still there even for a movie “from a different era,” and that one can get through an entire horror plot without any supernatural elements.

1. I picked this movie because I hadn’t seen it before.

2. Title: Halloween (1978)

Terrorize the Characters: Popping in & out of view; locking & unlocking things

Isolation: Suburban town; the “isolation” is that neighbors don’t pay ANY attention to each other

Death: Everyone (except the bad guy) dies almost instantly once attacked

Monster/Villain: Michael Meyers

High Tension: Repeatedly follows or stops briefly

Departure from Reality: A six-year-old Meyers kills a teenager who sees him coming

Moral Statement: Misbehaving teenagers get attacked (responsible for their actions) while misbehaving little kids are innocent (don’t get attacked)

3. Victims weren’t completely clueless (e.g., Annie had the presence of mind to honk her horn when grabbed), though the apathy of police and neighbors was a bit much. Spawned a famous franchise.

4. Concept: Colder

Terrorize the Characters: Leaves bodies where others will find them… Merely kidnaps and restrains the resort staffer he has no quarrel with, which just makes them a witness to lots of horrible killings

Isolation: Ski resort cut off by a late-season snow storm, local news crew plus tiny number of staffers and guests (cell phones work but no one can get to the site)

Death: Kills off people one by one, gets more elaborate as time goes on

Monster/Villain: Disgraced candidate for sheriff whose life was ruined by this local reporter’s expose

High Tension: Makes sure people know of each death, taunts them, but no hint of who’s next

Departure from Reality: Villain seems to have superhuman hunting/survival skills, at least compared to this group

Moral Statement: Beware disproportionate revenge for disproportionate actions

[Frank MacCrory]

Hi everyone, my name is Frank MacCrory.

I’ve written two feature scripts (one of which is a horror script that I realize is going to need a lot of rework, so I won’t touch again it until after this class). I’ve also written a number of shorts.

I’m hoping to get a better handle on writing emotion, both portraying what the characters are going through and leading an audience to experience certain emotions. Getting a producible script wouldn’t be bad, either!

I’m an Army vet who started off working in the technology end of military intelligence, and I’ve been working in various parts of the “technology” sphere ever since. Screenwriting is a release from the kind of highly technical stuff that I usually write (seriously, it has math that’ll make your eyes bleed).

[Frank MacCrory]

Frank MacCrory

I agree to the terms of this release form.

[Frank MacCrory]

I think it’s just for our own use to fill out other assignments?