[Madison Stine]

Horror Conventions Assignment

Hatching Conventions:

Title: Hatching

Concept: Pushed by her cruel mother to be perfect, a young girl hatches a birdlike creature who stands up for her to disturbing effect.

Terrorize the Characters: The girl is under impossible pressure to be perfect. Whenever she’s hurt physically or emotionally, the creature retaliates in violent ways.

Isolation: The girl hides the creature from her family, fearing they will not accept it. When things escalate, the girl is blamed for the creature’s disturbing actions, further isolating her from those around her.

Death: The creature destroys anyone who hurts the girl.

Monster/Villain: A birdlike creature who hatches from an egg. It grows increasingly human, eventually becoming the evil twin of the protagonist.

High Tension: What will this dangerous creature do next?

Departure from Reality: A girl finds a mysterious egg that hatches into her evil twin.

Moral Statement: Perfection comes at an ugly price.

What makes this movie a great horror film? It builds an intriguing relationship between the protagonist and the monster. Yes, the monster destroys the protagonist’s life, but it also frees her from its evils. The protagonist loves and fears the monster.

My Script’s Conventions:

Title: Cupcake

Concept: A young tech couple buys an AI dog who reflects the flawed nature of their relationship.

Terrorize the Characters: The AI dog, Cupcake, learns from the couple, embodying their worst aspects and eventually destroying them.

Isolation: Built to be the ideal companion, Cupcake never leaves your side. She turns the couple’s luxury apartment into a hell.

Death: Everything Cupcake knows she’s learned from her human owners. Cupcake flips the owners’ training tactics on them, eventually leading to their demise.

Monster/Villain: Cupcake, the AI dog. On the outside, she’s the perfect pet–obedient, attentive, and adorable. She learns what her owners put in, which in this case, is emotional and physical abuse. She becomes a monster of her owners’ creation.

High Tension: What exactly did our couple welcome into their home? What is this technology capable of?

Departure from Reality: The “Perfect Pooch,” aka an AI dog, is available for purchase.

Moral Statement: Technology doesn’t solve, but exacerbates human flaws.

What I learned doing this assignment? Monsters are often scariest when they reflect our own flaws.

[Madison Stine]

Hi everyone, my name is Madi Stine. I’ve written two features and a few shorts. I hope to build out my horror-comedy premise while learning an efficient approach to writing future horror scripts. One unique thing about me is that I’m an avid knitter! Looking forward to going through this course with you all 🙂

[Madison Stine]

Madi Stine

I 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.