[Jason Lassen]

Jason Lassen’s Character Journey Track

What I learned doing this assignment is… I may have too many characters. Once again my story keeps changing. It’s difficult to come up with so many profiles and story journeys that are not too similar.

The Toy Keeper

A. What is their Character Profile?

Role: The Carrier
Traits: Old, creepy-looking
Fears: None.
Wants/Needs: Wants to get more souls for the devil. Enjoys watching the deaths on the security system.
Likability / Rooting factors: We don’t want to like him.
How they react under stress: He laughs.
Relationship with other characters: They think he’s weird and creepy.

B. What is their Character Journey for this story?

Character Intro: He opens the gate and tells them the “Rules”
Denial: No denial. He knows the truth.
Their reaction at first horror: A smile and laughter
Relation to group after first horror: Not sure how he’s going to interact with them?
How they fight back: He lets the souls do his dirty work.
End Point: He lives to gather more souls.
What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? He survives.<div>

Heather

A. What is their Character Profile?

Role: Innocent Badass
Traits: Badass, confident, smart
Fears: Not knowing what’s going on.
Wants/Needs: To find a way to get out.
Likability / Rooting factors: She’s smart and sweet.
How they react under stress: Cool and thinks straight.
Relationship with other characters: She’s concerned about how to get everyone out safely.

B. What is their Character Journey for this story?

Character Intro: She reiterates to follow the rules
Denial: Concerned why this is happening and to get everyone out safely.
Their reaction at first horror: Runs to tell others.
Relation to group after first horror: Wants to work together to get out.
How they fight back: Using her smarts and staying calm.
End Point: She’s the only one to make it out.
What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? She dies to show no one really escapes the devils grasp.

Andrew

A. What is their Character Profile?

Role: Innocent Leader
Traits: Smart, caring, quick minded
Fears: Thinks something is fishy with Honey and Nathan.
Wants/Needs : Wants to find out the truth about Honey and Nathan.
Likability / Rooting factors: He’s sweet to Honey and very eager to help others.
How they react under stress: Calm and level headed.
Relationship with other characters: Wants to help others out.

B. What is their Character Journey for this story?

Character Intro: First to offer to help out get stuff inside the storage facility.
Denial: Doesn’t believe it.
Their reaction at first horror: Shocked but quick to react to get safe.
Relation to group after first horror: Wants to help others escape.
How they fight back: Using his smarts.
End Point: He dies at the hand of someone who he loved but they didn’t love him.
What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? He gets his revenge by killing Honey.

Roz (Toby)

A. What is their Character Profile?

Role: Complainer Bitch
Traits: Bossy, condesending, and thinks she’s “Better than” everyone.
Fears: None. She’s a cold hearted bitch.
Wants/Needs : Wants others to just shut up and do as she tells them to.
Likability / Rooting factors: We love to hate her.
How they react under stress: She doesn’t stress.
Relationship with other characters: She bosses them around.

B. What is their Character Journey for this story?

Character Intro: She bosses her workers, Gayle and Erick around at the entrance.
Denial: She enjoys being possessed.
Their reaction at first horror: She likes killing.
Relation to group after first horror: They are her play things.
How they fight back: She kills.
End Point: She is killed by Heather.
What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? The death we’ve been waiting for. She gets her comeuppance.

Honey

A. What is their Character Profile?

Role: Lover
Traits: Condescending, bitchy, know it all
Fears: That people will see what a fake she is.
Wants/Needs : Wants to continue her affair with Nathan under Andrew’s nose. Loves being sneaky and feeling like she smarter than everyone else.
Likability / Rooting factors: None. Love to hate her.
How they react under stress: No stress because she’s one of the possessed.
Relationship with other characters: She hates people.

B. What is their Character Journey for this story?

Character Intro: She’s excited to be at the storage unit with Nathan and Heather, especially Nathan.
Denial: No denial.
Their reaction at first horror: Loves it.
Relation to group after first horror: Preditor
How they fight back: With sex
End Point: Dies at the hand of the man she’s been cheating on.
What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? She gets her comeuppance.

Nathan

A. What is their Character Profile?

Role: Lover Meathead
Traits: Asshole, Narcissist
Fears: None, he thinks he’s invincible
Wants/Needs : Wants to pump iron and pump Honey.
Likability / Rooting factors: None. Very hate-able.
How they react under stress:
Relationship with other characters: Cheating on Heather with Honey

B. What is their Character Journey for this story?

Character Intro: He’s posing with his arms up talking about pumping Iron
Denial: He’s one of the possessed.
Their reaction at first horror: He likes it.
Relation to group after first horror: He gets turned on sexually
How they fight back: He doesn’t
End Point: He’s hit on the head with weights by Honey while they have sex.
What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? He begs her to kill him while they are having sex. It seems to turn him on.

Erick

A. What is their Character Profile?

Role: Monster Bait Asshole
Traits: Like a sleazy car sales man, fake, brown noser
Fears: Afraid of people finding out what a fake he is.
Wants/Needs : To get ahead in life not mater the cost.
Likability / Rooting factors: None
How they react under stress: Cower and curl up
Relationship with other characters: Wants them all to like him.

B. What is their Character Journey for this story?

Character Intro: He and Nathan know one another. Erick admits to divorcing his past two wives because they got fat.
Denial: None
Their reaction at first horror: Excited, he’s also possessed
Relation to group after first horror: Excitement
How they fight back: He doesn’t get a chance to.
End Point: Nathan kills him.
What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? Friends killing friends?

Gayle

A. What is their Character Profile?

Role: Monster Bait Annoying
Traits: Nag, thinks she’s really smart
Fears: Her Mom, her family name, people finding out how week she is.
Wants/Needs : To be loved but is unlovable.
Likability / Rooting factors: None.
How they react under stress: Runs screaming
Relationship with other characters: Hates them but fakes liking them.

B. What is their Character Journey for this story?

Character Intro: Toby is bossing her around while waiting for the storage unit place to open.
Denial: She can’t believe it.
Their reaction at first horror: Runs
Relation to group after first horror: Fuck them! She has to save herself.
How they fight back: By running.
End Point: Killed by Toby.
What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? A mother will kill her own daughter while under this things possession.

Guitarist/Singer

A. What is their Character Profile?

Role: Rebel
Traits: Arogant, Lead Singer Syndrom, Gods gift to the world
Fears: People will find out he sucks as a musician and see through his bullshit.
Wants/Needs : Wants to be loved.
Likability / Rooting factors: He’s arrogant but kind of likable in an you love to hate him sort of way.
How they react under stress: Get angry.
Relationship with other characters: Bosses them around.

B. What is their Character Journey for this story?

Character Intro: He’s doing his vocal warmups for practice.
Denial: None.
Their reaction at first horror: Loves it.
Relation to group after first horror: Loves chasing them.
How they fight back: He doesn’t
End Point: Killed by Toby.
What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? The possessed will even kill one another. No one is safe.

Bass Player

A. What is their Character Profile?

Role: Rebel Level headed follower
Traits: Nice, kind, caring
Fears:
Wants/Needs : Needs to find a new band. Hates the singer.
Likability / Rooting factors: He wants to help others get out.
How they react under stress: Level headed.
Relationship with other characters: Caring, wants to help.

B. What is their Character Journey for this story?

Character Intro: He’s the glue holding the band together.
Denial: Can’t believe it but kind of can because the singer is that much of an ass.
Their reaction at first horror: Shocked and runs.
Relation to group after first horror: Trys to find people to help get out.
How they fight back: Hits back when necessary.
End Point: Jump scare just as he’s about to escape and killed by Toby.
What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? Sad he didn’t make it.

Keytarist

A. What is their Character Profile?

Role: Coward
Traits: Coward, clueless
Fears: Everything
Wants/Needs : To stay in the band forever
Likability / Rooting factors: He’s the goofball
How they react under stress: Run screaming
Relationship with other characters: They like him because he’s the funny one.

B. What is their Character Journey for this story?

Character Intro: With the rest of the band fooling around before Storage unit is opened.
Denial: Can’t believe it.
Their reaction at first horror: Petrified and doesn’t want to be next. Literally runs down the bass player while escaping.
Relation to group after first horror: He’d use them as bait so he can get away.
How they fight back: Using the brains of others who are calm.
End Point: Killed by singer
What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? It’s a fun kill but we always hate to see the goofballs die.

Drummer

A. What is their Character Profile?

Role: Sacrificial Lamb
Traits: Cool, relaxed
Fears: A crazy singer
Wants/Needs : Wants to spend life in a drunken high.
Likability / Rooting factors: He’s silly and harmless.
How they react under stress: Calm because he’s drunk and high.
Relationship with other characters: Wants everyone to be drunk and high with him.

B. What is their Character Journey for this story?

Character Intro: Spinning drumsticks and spinning them in the air.
Denial: No time to deny
Their reaction at first horror: Dies before he can react.
Relation to group after first horror:
How they fight back:
End Point: Killed by singer
What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? A second death by a different killer. What’s going on?

Worker #1

A. What is their Character Profile?

Role: Sacrificial Lamb
Traits: lazy, complainer
Fears: Toby
Wants/Needs : Wants a new job
Likability / Rooting factors: We can all relate to having a job we hate.
How they react under stress:
Relationship with other characters: Co-worker

B. What is their Character Journey for this story?

Character Intro: Toby bossing them around not calling them by their name, just “You” or “Thing One”
Denial: No time to deny.
Their reaction at first horror: No time to react.
Relation to group after first horror: They are the first horror
How they fight back: Can’t
End Point: Killed by Toby
What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? The killings have begun.

Worker #2

A. What is their Character Profile?

Role: Sacrificial Lamb
Traits: Hard worker
Fears: Toby
Wants/Needs : To get work done and go
Likability / Rooting factors: Hard worker
How they react under stress: Runs
Relationship with other characters: Co-Worker

B. What is their Character Journey for this story?

Character Intro: Toby bossing them around not calling them by their name, just “You” or “Thing Two”
Denial: Shocked
Their reaction at first horror: Runs
Relation to group after first horror: Trying to find help and a way out.
How they fight back: Trying to find others.
End Point: Killed by singer
What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? Killers kill anyone.
</div>

[Jason Lassen]

Jason Lassen’s Monster Reveal Track

What I learned doing this assignment is… I really enjoyed this exercise. I like a slow reveal, but it made me think maybe it’s too slow? As fun as it is to write death scenes, I realized I may have too many characters.

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

The Devil discovered a vortex where he can directly possess items that are accompanied by evil spirits in the form of children. The items are watched over by the Toy Keeper.

Powers? The children whisper in the ears of people who are around the item they possess and try and convince them to “Play” with it. And by play, they mean to use the item to kill.

Limitations? The whispers only work on people who are sinners or have done wrong to others purposely.

Weaknesses? People with a good heart can not hear the children’s whispers and can only become victims but are safe from being possessed.

Plan/Purpose/Appetite? If a person good or bad is killed by one of The Devils Toys, the devil gets their soul.<div>

B. Sequence the reveals.

01 – A man standing at the end of a hall in a storage unit facility. We only see this for a second before it goes dark. We hear the man running and breathing heavy. The lights come back on when we hear the man turn on the hall light timer. He looks around and goes out a door into yet another dark hallway. We continue to hear him run and breath. Finally, he comes across some light. It’s from the main rolling gate of the facility. As he runs he can see the outside. He gets to the gate and breaths a sigh of relief. His relief is cut short by the door slamming down and cutting him in half.

02 – An eerie drone shot shows a vast forest with nothing around for miles until we come across the storage unit facility. There are people gathered around the main door waiting for it to open.

03 – While outside waiting a few people look around as if they hear something. They shrug it off.

04 – They are warned about the lights going off every thirty minutes and having to be turned on.

05 – People start asking other people they are with if they hear voices.

06 – Our first kill. While she’s doing it she talks to the voice that she hears. The lights go out.

07 – The guitarist complains of not being able to perform because the voice won’t stop talking to him. He kills the drummer. The lights go out.

08 – A light is turned back on and the person jump scares another person.

09 – Keytarist sees a unit open and goes to it for help. It’s Toby, who says, “Why do you keep talking to me?!” And she kills again. The lights go out.

10 – Guitarist runs after worker #2, singing, “Let’s play, let’s play, play with our toys.” The lights go out and you can hear the singing. The worker turns the lights back on and gets impaired by a guitar. The lights go out.

11 – Erick, Nathan, and Gayle confirm with one another they all hear the voices of children. Nathan kills Erick. Flashback of Erick’s sinning past. The lights go out. We hear a child’s voice whisper, “Let’s play.”

12 – Toby talks with the voice saying she’ll play. Gayle acknowledges she also hears the voice but doesn’t know what it means by your hands are also a toy. Flashback to Gayle’s sin. Toby kills Gayle. The lights go out.

13 – Nathan and Honey are having sex yelling, “Let’s Play! Let’s Play!” Flashback to Nathan’s sin. Honey kills Nathan

14 – The Guitarist and Toby compare what each other’s voices are saying to them while each is at the end of a long hall of unit doors. The guitarist is on a mini motorcycle holding a mic stand like a joust. He yells, “Let the games begin, bitch!” He chases her and stabs her with the mic stand. She puts his scarf in the wheel of the bike and revs it up. Flashback to Guitarist sin. Toby kills the guitarist. The lights go out.

15 – Andrew confronts Honey. Honey stabs Andrew and with his last breath, he slits her throat. Flashback to Honey’s sin. They both die. The lights go out.

16 – Jumpscare as the Bass player and Heather see the way out. Toby kills Bass player.

17 – We hear the voices talking to Toby. Toby and Heather fight. Flashback to Toby’s sin. Toby dies.

18 – Heather runs outside. She starts crying from being overwhelmed. She is harpooned and dragged back into the storage unit. The door slams down. The lights go out.

C. Create Demand for each clue/reveal.

The reveal of the voices is slow. At first, we don’t know why the killers kill. We think it’s just Toby but then the Guitarist kills. Both claim to hear voices. Then we get flashbacks on some characters and not others. Slowly revealing that the people who hear voices are the ones who kill and are the ones with flashbacks to sins. By the end, the audience can fully hear what the voices are saying.

</div>

[Jason Lassen]

Jason Lassen’s Character Death Track

What I learned doing this assignment is… How quickly my overall script changed by putting the deaths in order and answering why and how.

Character Death 1: Worker #1
Why: No reason. The audience wonders why Toby killed them.
How: killed by Toby by being laminated from head to toe.

Character Death 2: Drummer
Why: No reason. The audience now is confused why there are two killers for no apparent reason.
How: Impaled by dozens of drumsticks by the Singer/Guitarist

Character Death 3: Keytarists
Why: No reason
How: Toby starts off hitting him with the weed whacker and finishing him off with a bush trimmer.

Character Death 4: Worker #2
Why: No reason. Another senseless killing.
How: The Singer/Guitarist drives their guitar into the back of the worker and they reach around and plays a few chords and takes a selfie.

Character Death 5: Erick
Why: He does whatever it takes to move up in business including ruining people’s lives. Divorces woman because they get too fat for him.
How: Nathan pushes a mirror on him while he’s posing and gets his arms cut off.

Character Death 6: Nathan
Why: He cheated on Heather with Honey and he’s a killer.
How: She hits him with weights during sex on the weight bench. She gets up and drops the barbell on his neck decapitating him.

Character Death 7: Gayle
Why: Toby realized Gayle was stealing money from the school and ran it into the ground
How: They embrace and Toby strangles her yelling, “You stole money from my school. I have so much love to give! Take my love!”

Character Death 8 & 9: Honey & Andrew
Why: Andrew tells Honey he knows about the affair with Nathan.
How: She stabs him with a piece of broken glass. He removes it and slits her throat.

Character Death 10: Singer/Guitarist
Why: He raped groupies of the band.
How: After he stabbed Toby with a mic stand, she takes his scarf and puts it in the tire of the mini motorcycle.

Character Death 11: The Bass Player
Why: He’s the last jump scare.
How: Toby, who we thought was dead, is not and she kills him. How is still TBD.

Character Death 12: Toby
Why: She’s a horrible person.
How: Killed by Heather. TBD

Character Death 13: Heather
Why: The audience thinks she’s going to survive when she makes it outside.
How: A harpoon goes through her chest, opens up, and pulled her back into the storage facility.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by  Jason Lassen.

[Jason Lassen]

Jason Lassen’s Horror Situation Track

What I learned doing this assignment is…How important the horror situation track is for the flow of the movie.

STEP 1: Brainstorm 20 to 50 potential horror situations for your story.

Guitar in gut

Mic stand kill

Drum sticks

Laminator

Paper Cutter

Paper Cut

Mini Motor Cycle

Giant Mirror

10lbs Weights

Staple Remover

Greasy Grill Brush

Vibrator

Paint Remover/Paint Thinner

Harpoon

Weed Waker

Brush Timmers

Toner Cartridge

STEP 2: Determine which of those work best for your plot.

Lights go out every 30 minutes.

Doors shuts at 6 pm

All the halls look the same

No windows

Dynamics between characters

Why do some people hear the voices of children and other people do not?

STEP 3: Add a Reaction (denial, solve it, hide, escape, or fight) to the selected Horror situations.

Once characters realize shits going down they run to find a way out and try to find places to hide, like other storage units. They decide to fight back when all else seems hopeless.

STEP 4: Put Horror Situations/Reactions in the plot and label them.

ACT 1

Atmosphere of Evil established: The Toy Keeper is a creepy old man who warns them to be out by 6 pm and that the lights need to be turned on every 30 minutes and that the main metal rolling door is the only way in or out.

Denial of Horror: All the characters laugh and shrug off the old man like he’s crazy and being dramatic.

Horror Situation: Some of the characters start to hear the voices of children while others do not. Why?

Connect with the characters: All the characters are at their collective storage units and we are getting a rough idea who they are. They start to break up and go to different units.

Atmosphere of Evil established: Toby gets upset at her workers, cutting the fingers off one with a paper cutter and then sticking the other into a laminator.

Horror Situation: Screams from the person who’s fingers have been cut off and from the person being put head first into the laminator.

Reaction – Escape: The person with no fingers runs for their lives while their co-worker is being laminated.

Connect with the characters: People hear screams and go to try and help while others stay behind.

Safety taken away: People find the bodies of the dead and realize somethings not right.

Horror Situation: People soon learn the storage facility is like a maze and difficult to navigate. And, there’s only one way out.

ACT 2 — THE POINT OF NO RETURN

Isolated / Trapped / Abducted: They realize they are trapped with people who are killers.

Horror Situation: The lead singer/guitarist of Sloppy Joe impales the drummer with drum sticks. The other band mates go running looking for a way out.

Reaction: The bass player from Sloppy Joe runs into Andrew and Heather and tells them his guitarist went crazy claiming to hear the voices of children and killed their drummer. Andrew and Heather share they found the body of a laminated person. They realize there are now two killers both claiming to have heard the voices of children.

Horror Situation: Second employee is killed by the guitarist. Toby kills the keytarest from Sloppy Joe.

Reaction: Both kills are seen by the bass player and Andrew and Heather. They see there is no rhyme or reason they just want to kill. They run in horror.

Connect with the characters: Honey and Nathan leave their bedroom made up in one of the units and run into Gayle and Erick. No one has seen Toby, Andrew or Heather.

Horror Situation: Erick and Nathan start arguing over who looks better and get into a pose off in front of the wall size mirror.

Character Death: Nathan gets frustrated and pushes the mirror on to Erick while he’s posing showing of his “guns”. Erick standing there with cuts all over him and still posing, in shock while his arms just fall off his body.

Reaction: Honey and Gayle run away screaming in horror.

Horror Situation: Nathan hit Honey in the back of the leg with a 10lbs. weight. It knocks her down and Gayle runs out the door. Nathan continues to throw weights like frisbees at Honey.

Character Death: He walks over to her body on the floor, holding a 50lbs. weight in his hands. “You’re not the only one I’ve cheated on Heather with. LOOK AT THESE GUNS!” He smashes Honey on the head with the weight.

ETC..

[Jason Lassen]

Jason Lassen Horror Plot

What I learned doing this assignment is… the importance of the kills, when they come and who they are.

ACT 1 — SET UP FOR HORROR

Atmosphere of Evil established: Drone shot over a vast forest. A storage unit facility is revealed to be in the middle of nowhere.

Connect with the characters: All the characters are standing outside waiting to get into the facility. This is where they realize they all have things in common.

The characters are warned not to do it: The Toy Keeper warns them to be out by 6 pm and a reminder to turn on the lights in the halls every 30 minutes.

Denial of Horror: They all just shrug off the warning. Safety taken away: The lights go out and one character scares another.

Monster: The nature of the beast: Toby hears the voices of the children.<div>

ACT 2 — THE POINT OF NO RETURN

Isolated / Trapped / Abducted: It passes 6 pm, the lights go out once again, they all hear the sound of the main metal spooling door closing. They are now trapped in the facility.

One of us killed: The lead singer of Sloppy Joe stops mid-song because he can’t concentrate due to the voices of the children in his ears. He proceeds to kill the drummer with a bunch of drumsticks and makes him look like a pincushion. The other band members run.

MIDPOINT: The monster is worse than we thought!

Full pursuit by the killer: Toby kills her two employees.

Terrorized: Some of our characters are now hearing the voices of children louder and more frequently making them act more violent.

ACT 3 — FULL OUT HORROR

Fight to the death: The deaths start to pile up.

Hysteria: The people who don’t hear children are running from their aggressors and trying to find a way out.

The thrilling escape from death: Some of the people start defending themselves and attacking the aggressors.

Death returns to take one or more: Heather has to kill Toby, who we thought was killed by the rockstar.

Resolution: Heather runs out the main door, thinking she’s safe and as she looks up into the blue sky only to see a harpoon come out of her chest, open up, and pull her back into the facility. The door closes and we hear the Toy Keeper laughing.
</div>

[Jason Lassen]

Jason Lassen Characters for Horror

What I learned doing this assignment is… It’s important to know your characters backstory and reason for being in the story. Also, coming up with characters to kill off can be quite enjoyable and fun.

Concept and the Group: Sinners.

Dying Pattern – Putting a group of characters together and killing them off, one by one.

Characters

The Carrier: The Toy Keeper has been assigned by the devil to oversee the storage facility.

Lovers: Honey and Nathan. They arrive with their spouses, it turns out they have their own unit complete with a bed for naughty indiscretions.

Innocents: Andrew and Heather. The spouses to Honey and Nathan that have no idea that their spouses are having an affair.

Rebels: The Band Sloppy Joe. Four guys that practice in one of the storage units. The lead guitarist/ singer has some skeletons in his closet the band doesn’t know about.

Complainer: Toby. She’s the mom to Gayle and mother-in-law to Erik, who have their own family storage unit as well as one for the French immersion school she created many years ago.

Monster Bait: Gayle and Erik. She’s constantly nagging Erik and bragging about how she’s going to inherit the school her mother started. Erik loves to watch himself in a huge mirror while he works out in their storage unit.

Sacrificial Lambs: Two nameless and faceless employees of Toby who are bringing boxes from her school to the storage unit and organizing it.

[Jason Lassen]

Jason Lassen’s Terrifying Monster

What I learned doing this assignment is… even if your back story is not revealed in the first movie it is good to have it in mind while writing. It helps with the development of the story and it’s always good to know where you’re going with it.

Tell us what or who your monster is – The monsters are the souls of sinners in the form of children. They attach themselves to items in the storage facility. They are controlled by the Toy Keeper and he gets his orders from the devil himself.

Their Terror: The Toy Keeper lets the kids know when it’s time to play. The children begin to whisper in the ears of the tenants of the storage units. If the person can hear them they are a sinner and are susceptible to manipulation to do horrible, horrible things.

Their Mystery: We don’t see the children, we can only hear them. toward the end of the film, we get glimpses of them having their fun and asking people to play with them.

Their Fear Provoking Appearance: The Toy Keeper is a creepy-looking old man but the killer can be any person with sins in their soul.

Their Rules: No one with a dirty soul is safe from the children’s desires to collect new playmates. ANYONE can be a killer.

Their Mythology: Long ago, a man built his home on the location of an evil energy vortex. Items within this vortex would become possessed by evil spirits in the form of children wanting to “play” with them. At first, the children wanted to “play” with everyone. The man who built the home was assigned, by the devil, to be the kid’s Toy Keeper and made sure they can only have an effect on the sinners of this world. In return, the man has been made immortal but under the control of the devil.

[Jason Lassen]

What I learned doing this assignment is how to dissect a horror movie and it’s components.

<div>
</div>

Title / Concept: The Decent. A group of women get together every year and do extreme sports. This year, they go spelunking.

<div>

Terrorize The Characters: The characters quickly learn they are not alone beneath the earth’s surface. They are alone, in tight spaces, and in the pitch dark.

Isolation: The humanlike creatures that live in the caves have evolved to live and thrive in the dark, unlike our main characters.

Death: The main characters are pushed to their physical limits navigating the caves as well as their mental limits when other characters get hurt. One character has to stay quiet while watching another character get eaten by human like creatures.

Monster/Villain: Subterranean human-like creatures, that have adapted to survive in the pitch dark.

High Tension: The main characters decide to go to a cave no other human has explored and is off the charts. No one else knows where they are, they HAVE to find another way out when the main entrance is destroyed by an avalanche. All while trying to not get eaten by the caves human-like residences.

Departure from Reality: The movie takes place in an unexplored cave.

Moral Statement: Truths about friendships are pushed to the limit and what the characters really think of one another comes out, including one character admitting she had an affair with the husband of another character.

I loved that this had an all-female cast! Dark and cramped spaces can be very scary. The gallons upon gallons of blood doesn’t hurt either.

My Concept

Concept: The Devils Toy Box. A storage facility built on ground that is possessed by the devil. Not only do the items in the units possess the people that come in contact with them there is also a demon overseer of the objects that help them carry out their evil. </div>

Terrorize The Characters: All the hallways of the storage facility look the same and it’s easy to get lost and confused. The light switches, once turned on, go off every 30 minutes and have to be turned back on.

Isolation: Strangers gather at a storage unit facility and get lost in the maze of halls that all look the same.

Death: Once the characters realize they can’t find their way out, tensions rise and people succumb to the control this building and its possessions have on them all while being stalked by the keeper of the devil’s toys.

Monster/Villain: Anyone can become a killer along with the keeper of the toys.

High Tension: Every hall seems to lead to another hall that looks all the same. The lights knobs need to be turned on on a regular basis and only stay on for 30 minutes at a time before they have to be turned on again. That is if you’ve turned it all the way on…

Departure from Reality: A storage facility where the devil keeps his possessed items that in turn possess the people they come in contact with. The toys have a keeper whose mere existence enhances the toy’s power. Toys can be anything from a pencil, to a mattress, to a coffee mug, anything can become a tool too kill.

Moral Statement: The devil has discovered people who cheat on their partners are of less moral value and easier to for his “Toys” to possess.

[Jason Lassen]

I, Jason Lassen, agree to the terms of this 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.

[Jason Lassen]

Hi I’m Jason Lassen, and I’ve written a handful of scripts and one multi-award-winning book.

I’ve had this horror script idea rolling around in the ol’ noggin for a few years now and I’m hoping this course can help me refine it and hopefully get it produced.

I’ve been keeping a journal since I was 18, I’ve been hit by lightning, and I was once held as a political prisoner during the Yugoslavian civil war. And yes, I’m a supporter of the Oxford comma.