Marc KOENIG
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Marc KOENIG’s Horror Outline #1
Title: Element 119
Logline: An unknown metal found in an antique archeological site turns out to be a parasite turning people into ferocious killers.
Outline:
ACT I
1. INT. CAVE – DAY
Essence: Paul and Liz discover the « Gates of Hell »
Liz and Paul find a strange artifact among an archeological site known as the Gates of Hell, and they escape the collapse of the cave.
Horror situation: the antique artifact seems to react to their presence
Anxiety: they enter a creepy site where lie the remains of a slaughter
Release: Paul is clumsy and makes funny jokes
Surprise: a stone falls from the ceiling, almost hitting them
Suspense: sand, gravel, and stones keep falling… they might get crushed under tonnes of granite!
Dread: Liz rushes out. The cave collapses. Paul is still inside!
Release: Paul jumps out just in time
Shock: the strange needles penetrate Paul’s skin
Monster reveal: The needles are alive!
2. INT. LIZ APARTMENT – NIGHT
Essence: Liz examines the artifact, but Paul doesn’t feel good.
Liz finds out that the mineral found in the cave is welded to the skeleton vertebra and decides to send it to her sister to analyze it, while Paul’s behavior gets weird. He takes a bottle of Whiskey and gets drunk.
3. INT. CAR – NIGHT
Essence: Paul and Liz die.
As Liz drives Paul to the hospital, he draws a scalpel and cuts her throat. They die in a car crash.
Horror situation: Paul becomes evil and cuts Liz’s throat.
Anxiety: Paul tells Liz that he loves her veins, her flesh, her blood.
Release: she says she loves him and he seems to relax
Shock: Paul suddenly draws a scalpel and cuts Liz’s throat.
Dread: she loses control of the car and they crash in a ravine
4. INT. ATOMIC ENERGY CENTER (AEC) – BANQUET ROOM – NIGHT
Essence: Liz’s sister Jennifer and her colleagues learn about Liz’s death.
Jennifer, her husband Scott, and her colleagues Trevor, Sally, Irina, Bill, and Julia enjoy a party at the Atomic Energy Center when Jennifer gets a call and learns about the accidental death of her sister.
5. INT. LIZ APARTMENT – DAY
Essence: Jennifer finds the artifact.
Jennifer and Scott travel to Jordan to collect Liz’s stuff and organize to fly back the coffins to the USA. She finds the artifact and her sister’s letter, but she hides them from Scott.
6. INT. JENNIFER’S OFFICE – NIGHT
Essence: Jennifer illegally introduces the artifact into the AEC.
Jennifer secretly brings the artifact to the research lab. Trevor is suspicious about Liz’s activities in an Arab country with connections to terrorism, and he wants to know who Jennifer met there and what she did.
7. INT. ATOMIC RESEARCH LAB – NIGHT
Essence: Jennifer makes tests on the artifact and gets contaminated.
Jennifer finds out that the artifact is an unknown metal that she identifies as Element 119 in the periodic table, and its radioactivity increases when she closes into it. The sample suddenly blows up and thousands of tiny needles hit her and sink into her skin all over her body.
Horror situation: Jennifer is contaminated the same way as Paul previously
Suspense: the unknown element seems to react like a living creature
Surprise: the sample blows up and throws thousands of needles
Shock: the needles sink into Jennifer’s skin despite her efforts to rip them off.
Monster reveal: the Element 119 can produce and throw thousands of contaminating agents
8. INT. TREVOR’S OFFICE/ATOMIC RESEARCH LAB – NIGHT
Essence: Trevor finds out that Jennifer made an unauthorized test.
Trevor suspects a data heist and investigates. He finds Jennifer in shock and understands that she was on something illegal. Scott turns up and convinces Trevor to bring her to the infirmary.
9. INT. INFIRMARY – NIGHT
Essence: Jennifer and Scott vanish.
While Trevor reports the incident on a call to Sally – who was having sex with Bill in her office – Scott brings Jennifer to the infirmary. Jennifer’s behavior becomes weird. Julia finds the infirmary walls stained with blood, but Scott and Jennifer have vanished. Trevor activates the Red Flag procedure.
ACT II
10. INT. TREVOR’S OFFICE – NIGHT
Essence: The four scientists and the security officer are locked up with the monster.
Trevor activates the shut down of the basement of the Atomic Energy Center and calls everyone into his office. He suspects Scott and Jennifer to be the moles he suspects to have infiltrated the AEC. Irina goes against him.
11. INT. AEC BASEMENT – NIGHT
Essence: Trevor hunts the murderer
While Irina makes looks for Jennifer, Trevor uses the video cameras and doors’ remote control to send Jennifer into a trap. Jennifer is neutralized after a chaotic chase.
Horror situation: Irina becomes bait for Jennifer.
Suspense: Where is Jennifer? Is she dangerous?
Shock: Jennifer attacks Irina.
12. INT. INFIRMARY – NIGHT
Essence: Someone else gets contaminated.
Jennifer wakes up as they scan her body through an MRI. Jennifer splits something to Sally’s face and frees herself, causing a brief panic in the group. Trevor unwittingly shoots Irina, hurting her shoulder. Jennifer is knocked out but Sally understands that she has been contaminated.
Horror situation: Jennifer has become a ferocious killer.
Anxiety: The MRI shows strange foreign material inside Jennifer’s body.
Shock: Jennifer spits out a black substance on Sally’s face.
Suspense: What did she throw at Sally’s face? Is Sally contaminated?
Suspense: Sally tries to rip off the needles from her face but she can’t.
Shock: The needles sink into Sally’s skin and even one in Sally’s eye.
Fear: Sally has got the parasite inside her body.
13. INT. INFIRMARY – NIGHT
Essence: They heal Irina and discuss what they can do next.
Irina’s wound is superficial. Jennifer has been neutralized but there’s still no sign of Scott and he could be anywhere. Trevor calls for backup and a commando is on the way.
14. INT. INFIRMARY – NIGHT
Essence: Sally runs away with Jennifer.
Sally frees Jennifer and they both hide somewhere in the compound. Bill runs away.
Horror situation: Sally is affected by the same disease as Jennifer.
Surprise: Sally attacks Julia.
Suspense: Where are Sally and Jennifer hiding?
15. INT. CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT – NIGHT
Essence: Bill gets contaminated.
Jennifer and Sally send Bill into a trap and contaminate him. Sally kills Jennifer.
Horror situation: Bill gets chased and trapped in a room.
Suspense: They talk through a window. Bill tries to negotiate his salvation.
Release: Jennifer calms down and says that she is back to normal.
Fear: she becomes even more aggressive.
Dread: Sally cuts Jennifer’s throat before Bill, stating that Jennifer’s body is burnt.
Fear: Sally hits the armored window with an ax to get to Bill.
Dread: Sally sends a «seed» that blows thousands of needles into Bill’s face.
16. INT. JULIA’S OFFICE – NIGHT
Essence: Julia and Irina get close to each other.
Julia and Irina hide in the dark. They believe they are safe. Julia shows herself smitten with Irina. They comfort each other <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>and kiss<i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>.
17. INT. COMPOUND CORRIDORS – NIGHT
Essence: Bill locks them up again.
Bill joins Julia, Irina, and Trevor on their way to the exit. They understand too late that he’s contaminated. Bill blows up the only exit and kills the rescue team.
Horror situation: The rescue team is blown up and they’re locked up again.
Suspense: Bill comes to meet them and they don’t know that he was contaminated.
Release: The rescue team breaks in.
Fear: Irina understands that Bill is contaminated.
Suspense: Bill carries a bomb.
Shock: Bill blows up the way out, killing the rescue team.
18. INT. MONITORING ROOM – NIGHT
Essence: Sally breaks into the atomic research area
Irina, Julia, and Trevor join in the monitoring room and find out that Sally broke into the atomic research area and that she is releasing radioactive material. They decide to counterattack.
19. INT. ATOMIC RESEARCH UNIT – NIGHT
Essence: Trevor betrays the two girls to save his own life.
While Julia, Irina, and Trevor lead to the atomic research unit where Sally broke in, Trevor locks them up with Bill to keep them safe and runs away. Julia and Irina join forces to kill Bill and they succeed.
Horror situation: locked up with the monster
Shock: Trevor betrays Julia and Irina.
Panic: Julia and Irina must confront Bill who tries to kill them.
Horror: Bill spits a seed to Irina.
Release: Irina puts the seed inside a jar just in time.
ACT III
20. INT. TREVOR’S OFFICE – DAY
Essence: Trevor orders to kill them all.
Sally irradiates herself to grow the Element 119 bigger inside her body. Trevor calls a commando to kill everyone in the compound. Irina and Julia escape the atomic research unit.
21. INT. MONITORING ROOM – DAY
Essence: A commando breaks in.
Irina and Julia confront Sally and lose sight of each other as the soldiers break in and try to kill them all.
Horror situation: The commando strafes randomly at them.
Fear: Irina and Julia are under heavy fire.
Dread: Irina and Julia are trapped between Sally and the soldiers.
Release: Sally saves Julia by fighting a soldier.
Suspense: Irina and Julia lose sight of each other.
23. INT. RESEARCH LAB – DAY
Essence: General slaughter.
Irina fights against Sally. Two contaminated soldiers kill the others. Irina locks them up in a secured area of the compound.
Horror situation: Sally has become much more powerful.
Horror: Sally splits numerous seeds.
Panic: Contaminated soldiers kill and contaminate the others.
Hysteria: Irina is surrounded by Sally, contaminated soldiers, and the rest of them whose mission is to kill her. It’s a general slaughter, where everyone tries to kill the others.
24. INT. TREVOR’S OFFICE – DAY
Essence: Irina and Julia join again.
Irina kills a few soldiers and finds Julia. Together, they find out that Trevor is a CIA agent who wants to capture the Element 119 to make it a military asset. They reach his office and capture him.
25. INT. RESEARCH LAB – DAY
Essence: Julia has been contaminated.
Irina understands that Julia has been contaminated and they fight. Irina reluctantly kills Julia.
Horror situation: Julia wants to contaminate Irina.
Horror: Julia has become a monster.
Panic: Irina fights against Julia, not able to kill her.
Anguish: Irina ends up letting Julia die, killed by soldiers.
26. INT. ENERGY PROTOTYPE AREA – DAY
Essence: Irina blows up the place.
Irina sabotages the compound and escapes with Trevor, using him to open the security doors. They fight against a contaminated soldier and beat him. They escape.
Horror situation: A contaminated soldier chases Irina and Trevor.
Fear: The soldier stands between them and the way out.
Suspense: The compound is about to blow up.
27. EXT. ATOMIC ENERGY CENTER – DAY
Essence: Trevor and Irina fight against each other.
Once outside, Irina suspects Trevor of being contaminated. Trevor discovers that she took a sample of 119 in a jar. They fight against each other. A female security officer joins them as Trevor keeps Irina in his line of fire. But she shoots Trevor instead. A helicopter approaches. Irina passes out.
Horror situation: The parasite hasn’t been erased.
Suspense: Has Trevor been contaminated? Why did Irina take a sample of Element 119?
Release: A solitary security officer saves Irina.
Suspense: Who is the security agent who doesn’t hesitate to kill Trevor?
28. INT. RUSSIAN MILITARY COMPOUND – DAY
Essence: Irina is a Russian secret agent.
Irina wakes up in a Russian military compound. She meets a high-ranking officer and… they speak Russian together. As he tells him that they are analyzing the sample she brought, red lights flash. Back to the nightmare again.
Horror situation: The Element 119 is released again.
Fear: A general alarm blares. There’s a serious threat in the compound.
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Marc KOENIG’s Scary as Hell Scene!
What I’ve learned doing this assignment is to create horror situations in the right order, to increase the degree of terror gradually, and play yoyo with the audience’s emotions through the release breaks, before the final panic.
Opening scene: Discovery and release of the Element 119
Horror situation: A couple of young archeologists uncover an antique site known as «The Gates of Hell», where a mysterious parasite waits for a new host.
- Emotion sequence: From Anxiety to Panic
- Emotions in between: Surprise, Shock, Suspense, and Anguish.
- Anxiety: Elizabeth uncovers an antique cave where something terrible happened.
- Anxiety: A venomous centipede hides inside her glove.
- Anxiety: A shadow moves toward her.
- Surprise: Her boyfriend Paul stumbles and drags her into his fall.
- Anxiety: mysterious black needles react to their presence.
- Release: Paul makes an inelegant joke about the smell.
- Shock: A stone falls from the ceiling, almost breaking her skull.
- Suspense: The cave is about to crumble and crush them.
- Suspense: Elizabeth is going to be bit by the centipede.
- Panic: The cave collapses! She rushes out screaming.
- Anguish: Paul is still inside the cave when it crumbles.
- Release: Paul springs out of the hole at the very last moment.
- Shock: Several black needles imbed on their own into Paul’s skin.
Scene draft
INT. CAVE – DAY
It’s dark. Muffled thumps sound against the rock. Debris suddenly crumbles and sun rays pierce through the darkness. The face of a woman in her late twenties, ELIZABETH, shows in the hole.
ELIZABETH
Yuk! Stinks like hell, in there!
Holding a storm lantern, Elizabeth crawls into the cave.
ELIZABETH
Holy shit…
A skeleton is tied up with chains to a granite throne in the middle of the cave. The skull is crushed. The jaw is broken. Human skulls and bones are spread all around.
She puts the lamp on a stone stand and removes her gloves. As she buries them in her pocket, one falls to the ground. She draws a camera and takes pictures, seemingly not noticing a shadow moving behind her. She lowers the camera and frowns.
ELIZABETH
What the hell is this?
Unseen by her, a centipede crawls past her feet and hides inside her glove lying on the ground behind her.
As Elizabeth reaches out to the skeleton, tiny metallic spines raise on its ribs with a faint rattling. They point at her hand, close to her skin, and — CLASH! Two hands hit down her shoulders and she yells as they drop her to the ground!
PAUL (O.S.)
Dammit!
A handsome man in his thirties, PAUL, sitting on the ground, wipes the dust from his clothes. Elizabeth jumps up, upset.
ELIZABETH
You think you’re funny?
PAUL
Sorry, baby! I tripped over that fucking slab. C’mon, help me.
They blow the dust off a flat surface and reveal an antique alphabet engraved in the stone and a bas-relief of an egg surrounded by dozens of arrows pointing out.
ELIZABETH
That’s Cuneiform.
Elizabeth puts on a glove. She pats her pocket and frowns. Paul takes a drink from a thermos flask and points at a specific series of symbols repeated several times.
PAUL
Is it what I think it is?
ELIZABETH
Yeah. The original Gates of Hell.
Paul lets out a yell of joy and kisses her neck.
ELIZABETH
Don’t get excited. There’s something else I want you to see.
Paul follows Elizabeth to the skeleton. He turns on a flashlight and lightens the chains around the wrists and ankles of the skeleton and the broken jaw and skull.
PAUL
Let’s rule out suicide.
ELIZABETH
What’s that black bulb, here?
Paul and Elizabeth move closer. A handful of sand silently pours from the ceiling behind them. Elizabeth sniffles.
PAUL
A distasteful antique boil.
ELIZABETH
It… smells, no?
PAUL
Oops. Sorry, honey. Exotic food…
ELIZABETH
Can’t you be serious for just one minute?
Bigger gravels fall and hit Elizabeth’s glove. She looks back and spots it. She moves to pick it up but Paul grabs her arm.
PAUL
Look at that. It’s amazing.
Paul points at the spines. They shine and shiver with a faint rattling, following Paul’s finger as he moves it, and — CRASH! A huge stone crushes a skull, startling them. Paul points his torch to the stone. Then up to the ceiling. Big crevices run through it. More sand and gravels fall again.
PAUL
Oh. That sucks.
ELIZABETH
We’d better leave.
Elizabeth picks up her glove. She moves her hand to its opening and — THUMP! A rock falls, barely missing her. She yells and drops her glove. The centipede runs out of it.
ELIZABETH
The cave is collapsing!
Paul reaches out to the skeleton. All spines bristle at once.
PAUL
RUN!
Elizabeth rushes to the hole. THUMP! THUMP! Two more stones hit the ground — THUD! One hits Elizabeth’s head.
EXT. ROCKY AREA – DAY
Elizabeth emerges from the hole and crawls out. She turns around and shouts through the hole while stones keep falling.
ELIZABETH
Paul? PAUL!
With a formidable rumble, the hole ejects a geyser of dust. Paul springs out in the same fraction of a second and drags Elizabeth into his fall. They lie on the ground, panting.
PAUL
Wow! Touch down!
Paul sits down, still holding his thermos flask. Elizabeth’s forehead is cut. Blood runs down her face. Paul takes a handkerchief and gently presses it on the wound.
ELIZABETH
I’m fine. Just a little dizzy.
Elizabeth stares at Paul and frowns. A few shiny black needles are stuck into Paul’s cheek, eyelids and forehead.
ELIZABETH
What’s on your face?
All needles suddenly imbed inside his skin. Paul winces.
PAUL
Ouch!
He rubs his face and gazes at his arm. Three small black needles instantly sink into his skin.
ELIZABETH
What was that?
Paul scratches his arm. There’s no sign of stings.
PAUL
Dunno. A splinter or something.
A loud cracking and a new rumble startle them. The centipede crawls out from the hole blocked with stones.
ELIZABETH
The Gates of Hell. Crushed and buried. Fuck.
Paul shakes his thermos flask which makes a tinkling sound.
PAUL
At least, I took a souvenir.
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Marc KOENIG’s Scares, Releases, and Creepy moments!
What I learned doing this assignment is how to add even more power to the horror situations, and improve the impact of the final terrifying situation of a scene by making the characters go through these 3 techniques. Thinking of the release moments as short breaths while drowning makes them quite efficient. Still having fun with all this, but my wife is getting worried (she doesn’t let me cut the chicken anymore, I wonder why).
INT. CORRIDOR – DAY
Flashing red lights illuminate the empty corridor. The door of a big electrical cabinet slowly opens. Bill gets out of his hideout and looks around.
He manipulates switches on the control panel. Lights turn off. He pauses. Startled by the distant sound of a door slamming and glass shattering on tiles, he creeps away.
Bill pushes a door where a sign reads: “CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT – RESTRICTED AREA”
INT. CHEMICALS STORAGE ROOM – DAY
In the dim light of the emergency exit lamps, Bill searches shelves full of plastic jars. In his back, a wide bay window overviews a dark experiment room. He mutters for himself.
BILL
Acetaminophen, meloxicam, Mega-fucking-biotox. Bill’s signature cocktail for freaky chicks.
Bill opens a metal case. It’s empty. He closes it again.
BILL
Store after use, assholes.
Bill turns around and looks through the window. Among a few laboratory bench tops, he spots what looks like a small compressor.
BILL
Gotcha!
CLANG! The tinkling of metal falling down makes him do a double-take. He whispers to the dark.
BILL
Irina? Is it you? Trevor?
Only silence.
BILL
Shit…
Bill turns around again and —
BILL
— AAAH!
BANG! He stumbles against the shelves and drops the jars.
A dark shape stands just on the other side of the window. It’s Jennifer. Standing still. Staring at him with no expression. She’s dead pale with black-encircled eyes. Her face is bruised and her teeshirt stained with blood.
BILL
Jeez, Jen! Honey, you scared the shit out of me.
Jennifer keeps silent. She tilts her head a little.
BILL
Listen, Jen. I won’t be any trouble. Let me go, please. I just wanna go home. Oh, my God, you look terrible. I can get you a doctor.
Jennifer stares down at the jars that fell at his feet.
A flashy label reads in bold letters “DANGER – POISON“.
BILL
Wha wha what?… Oh, no! This is nothing. I mean, this is for Sally. You know I’d never hurt you…
Jennifer’s expression turns to cold anger. She turns her eyes to the storage room entry door.
BILL
No no no! Stay where you are!
Jennifer walks away to the door.
BILL
NO!
Bill runs to an exit door in the opposite direction, hitting and shoving shelves in a panic run. The sound of the entry door banging against the wall echoes behind him.
INT. EXPERIMENT CONTROL ROOM – DAY
The door bursts open. Bill runs through a small office to a back door that he breaks open with a shriek and crumbles.
INT. CORRIDOR – DAY
Bill gets up and runs toward a door at the end of the corridor.
A distant shadow moves through the door window.
Bill stops and grabs the knob of a side door flanked by wide windows. It’s locked.
He tries one on the other side. It opens. He rushes in.
As he silently closes the door behind him, a door opens down the corridor. Jennifer walks in.
INT. OFFICE – DAY
Bill sits down against the door, sweating and panting.
A door slams. Bill holds his breath. He stares at the dark office in front of him. Desk, computers, chairs… A small flashing light catches his eye. A glass door with a digital lock! Bill exhales with relief and slowly moves to get up.
The red lights suddenly flash again, casting the square shape of the two windows between the corridor and the office and illuminating the whole room. Bill freezes.
The lights cast Jennifer’s shadow as well, standing still.
Bill freezes. Slowly moves back to lean against the door. He reaches out to the door latch. His hand trembles as he turns the latch very slowly.
Jennifer’s shadow moves to the door.
Bill closes the latch at the same second as the doorknob lowers. Bill shuts his eyes. The doorknob is released.
He opens his eyes again. The flashing lights cast Jennifer’s shadow moving away toward the end of the corridor.
Bill gets up. He cautiously looks through the window. The corridor is empty.
He searches the desk, opens a drawer, and takes out stuff from it. A small box spreads staples on the desk.
He finds a cutter and slides its blade out. He spins around, whipping the air with it. He startles at his own shadow on the wall. He shakes his head and sighs with relief.
Then there are two shadows in the square of light.
Bill shrieks and looks back. Jennifer stands on the other side of the window with an extinguisher on her shoulder.
Bill rushes to the back door and frantically presses digits on the keyboard. It buzzes negatively and a red light shows.
BILL
Don’t fuck with me!
INT. CORRIDOR – DAY
Jennifer hits the handle of the door with the extinguisher. It breaks after the third hit.
INT. OFFICE – DAY
Bill tries the combination again. His fingers tremble.
BILL
C’mon, open up!
A green light shows with a friendly buzz and the door slides open. Bill looks back.
Jennifer walks in. Drops the extinguisher. Draws a knife from her belt.
Bill hits a red button on the keyboard and rushes into the room. The door closes with a hiss and locks up just as Jennifer hits the window with a cry of rage.
Jennifer looks at the keyboard and types the combination.
Bill steps backward and kicks the digital keyboard hanging on his side. The housing breaks and sparkles fly out from it.
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Marc KOENIG’s level 3 of Horror emotions
What I’ve learned doing this assignment is how to include many types of horror emotions in the same confined, with only 2/3 characters, and escalate to the hysteria level that I thought I would not be able to reach. And I had fun with it! (Do I need a shrink, at this stage?)
Here’s the scene I chose from ACT III:
INT. EXPERIMENT CONTROL ROOM – DAY
Bill rushes in. Searches the desk, throwing objects all over the place. He opens a drawer and takes out stuff from it. A small box hits a screen and spreads staples on the desk.
Bill finds a big cutter and slides its blade out. He whips the air with it, whimpering with fear.
Through the opening of the door, he sees Jennifer walking toward him through the corridor and staring at him.
BILL
LET ME GO!
Bill runs to a glass door at the back of the room. He frantically presses digits on a digital keyboard. It buzzes negatively and a red light shows.
BILL
Don’t fuck with me!
Bill looks back. Jennifer closes in.
Bill tries the combination again. His fingers quiver.
BILL
C’mon, open up!
Jennifer walks through the door.
A green light shows with a friendly buzz and the door slides open. Bill hits a red button on the keyboard and rushes into the room. The door closes again with a hiss and locks up just as Jennifer hits the window with a shriek of fury.
Jennifer looks at the keyboard and types the combination.
Bill steps backward and kicks the digital keyboard hanging on his side. The housing breaks and sparkles fly out from it.
INT. EXPERIMENT ROOM – DAY
The lights on the digital keyboards turn off.
Jennifer hits the door. Her hands leave a trail of blood on the glass. She stares at Bill with burning rage. She’s dead pale, with black eyelids. Her teeshirt is stained with blood.
Bill steps backward, pointing the cutter at Jennifer.
BILL
GO AWAY! LEAVE ME ALONE!
Jennifer keeps staring at him but her face relaxes. She speaks to him with a sweet voice.
JENNIFER
Open the door, Bill. Please.
BILL
I WON’T! YOU’RE INSANE!
JENNIFER
I know, Bill. I know. But you said you can heal me. I want to be healed. I want it badly.
A tear runs down Jennifer’s cheek. She whines.
JENNIFER
I need you to take care of me. I feel so sick. Please, help me.
Bill looks confused. He makes a step toward the door.
BILL
What’s going on, Jen? Why are you trying to kill me? What the hell happened to you?
JENNIFER
I don’t know. But I feel better, now. I feel better when I’m with you. You’re my cure. Oh, Bill…
Jennifer slowly draws a heart with blood on the glass.
JENNIFER
Bill, I love you.
Bill lowers the cutter, turns around, and cries.
BILL
I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…
Jennifer’s face gets cold again.
JENNIFER
Then open the door.
Bill breathes deeply. He seems to put himself together again.
BILL
I’m sorry. I don’t believe you.
Jennifer violently hits the glass, startling him.
JENNIFER
OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR, ASSHOLE!
INT. SALLY’S OFFICE – DAY
Through the glass door, Bill steps backward to the back of the room. Jennifer puts her forehead against the door and closes her eyes.
SALLY (O.S.)
Did you at least inoculate him?
Sally stands in the doorway. She walks in.
Jennifer stumbles and lets herself on a chair.
JENNIFER
I’m tired.
Jennifer spots the staples on the desk. She reaches out to them but Sally pushes her hand and picks up the staples.
SALLY
Forget it. Your body’s drained.
Sally stops at the glass door and stares coldly at Bill, who tries to hide in the darkness. She puts the staples in her mouth, crunches them, and swallows them.
JENNIFER (O.S.)
I’m still… making one more seed.
Sally doesn’t even turn around.
SALLY
Expel it now.
Jennifer gets on all fours and opens her mouth. Her body is shaken by spasms. She pukes a small egg wrapped in glass and metal sprinkles and covered with yellow mucus.
Sally turns around and picks it up.
SALLY
That small?
JENNIFER
Best I can do.
INT. EXPERIMENT ROOM – DAY
Bill scans the room, panting. He spots a ventilation grid on the ceiling.
Sally walks back against the door and their eyes meet. She swallows the stone and leaks her fingers covered with mucus.
BILL
Oh my God…
INT. EXPERIMENT CONTROL ROOM – DAY
Sally keeps her eyes on Bill.
SALLY
I need a fill-up, sweetheart.
Jennifer draws the knife from her belt and hands it to Sally.
SALLY
Wait.
Sally takes a vase from the desk. It’s broad and low. She throws the flowers out and empties the water on the floor.
JENNIFER
This one? It’s gonna spill over.
Sally puts the vase under Jennifer’s neck.
SALLY
Are you kidding? Look at you. You’re fucking dry.
JENNIFER
Fuck you.
Sally takes the knife from Jennifer’s hand. She straddles Jennifer still on all fours, grabs her hair, and pulls back her head, exposing her throat.
BILL (O.S.)
Hey! HEY! NO!
Bill stands behind the door, hitting it.
BILL
WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DON’T HURT HER!
SALLY
Look at the valiant knight. So cute.
Sally places the blade against Jennifer’s throat.
BILL (O.S.)
STOP IT! SALLY! DON’T DO THAT!
JENNIFER
Just one more thing.
SALLY
What? Don’t waste my time.
BILL (O.S.)
NO! PLEASE! SALLY! LISTEN TO ME!
JENNIFER
I never liked you, bitch.
Sally scoffs, and grunts as she cuts Jennifer’s throat in a slow motion.
INT. EXPERIMENT ROOM – DAY
Bill punches the glass.
BILL (O.S.)
NO! OH GOD, NOOOOO!
He gets down on his knees and bursts into tears.
INT. EXPERIMENT CONTROL ROOM – DAY
Jennifer’s blood pours into the vase. Her eyes roll back.
SALLY
Feeling’s mutual, slut.
The vase fills up to its half with Jennifer’s blood. Sally shakes Jennifer’s head and throws her body aside. She drops the knife, picks up the vase, and stares at its content.
SALLY
Never matched the level.
Sally drinks the blood to the end from the vase. She wipes her mouth and throws the vase that shatters on the floor.
SALLY
Hmm. Feels better.
INT. EXPERIMENT ROOM – DAY
She turns her face stained with blood to Bill and gives him a cruel smile through the glass.
SALLY
I’m all yours, now, love.
Sally grabs an extinguisher hanging on the wall. She raises it and hits it against the door. THUMP! – It bounces on the armored glass without causing damage.
SALLY
Shit!
BILL
GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!
THUMP! THUMP! Sally keeps hitting the door, uttering a raging shriek on every blow. – CRACK – The glass suddenly cracks a bit. Bill steps backward. She pauses. Panting.
SALLY
Bill Bill Bill… You’ve always been a piece of work.
THUMP! CRACK! She hits the door again. Bill screams.
BILL
NO! I DON’T WANNA DIE! I’LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!
Sally shouts furiously with every blow. – CRACK! – The glass buckles and breaks, throwing splinters inside.
BILL
I KNOW WHERE THEY ARE! I CAN TELL YOU! I CAN BRING YOU TO THEM!
SALLY
Of course, you will!
CRACK! BANG! The extinguisher cracks the glass more and more.
Bill turns around. He drops the cutter on a table on wheels that he pushes to the middle of the room. He climbs on it, grips the ventilation grid, and tries to yank it out with all his strength.
Sally stops the hitting and gazes at him.
SALLY
I can’t believe it! You’re such a smart ass!
She gets back hitting the door again – CRACK! THUMP!
Bill screams with despair and terror until the grid breaks out. He loses balance and falls from the table, hitting hard the floor. He utters a loud scream of pain.
He painfully gets up, whipping. The cutter is stuck inside his waist. He grabs it and pulls the long blade out of his flesh with a long cry of suffering. He throws it away and squeezes his hands on the wound severely bleeding.
He gets up and brings the table back under the hole in the ceiling.
CRASH! – The extinguisher goes through the glass. Sally pulls it back and drops it on the floor. She sneaks her face through the hole.
SALLY
Little pig, little pig, let me come in!
Bill climbs on the table again. He hangs to the frame of the ventilation grid and jumps with a cry.
INT. VENTILATION DUCT – DAY
Bill has his chest almost in. He tries to hang on to something but the blood on his hands makes them slip.
SALLY (O.S.)
I’m gonna huff, I’m gonna puke, I’m gonna fuck your house in!
INT. EXPERIMENT CONTROL ROOM – DAY
Sally gasps and gulps. She bends over as her belly has spasms. She opens her mouth, she looks about to puke.
INT. VENTILATION DUCT – DAY
Bill cries and struggles to crawl his way inside the duct. The more he puts his hands everywhere, the more the surface gets slippy with blood. He slowly slides backward.
BILL
NOOO! PLEASE NOOO!
INT. EXPERIMENT ROOM – DAY
Sally stretches her neck and belches forth a black egg that she holds between her teeth. A yellow mucus runs down from her mouth to her chin.
She inhales deeply and spits it as far as she can.
The black metal egg bounces and rolls on the floor. It stops at the feet of the table on wheels.
INT. EXPERIMENT ROOM – DAY
Bill loses his struggle against gravity and slips out of the hole. He tries to hang on to the frame but it breaks. Bill falls from the ceiling height and hits his head on the floor.
Groggy, Bill tries to recover his senses.
SALLY
(muffled voice)
My time to screw you, motherfucker.
Lying on the floor, Bill turns around. And finds the black metal egg just a few inches from his face.
The egg cracks and makes a high-pitched whistle, while Bill lets out a loud yell of terror.
INT. EXPERIMENT CONTROL ROOM – DAY
Sally stands at the door. A brief flash of light illuminates the room with a muffled blowing noise. Thousands of tiny needles hit the glass like a tinkling cascade.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by
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Marc KOENIG’s Level 2 Horror emotions
What I’ve learned doing this assignment is to make dosage in the terror. Paradoxically, more constraints lead to more – or better – creativity. Knowing where I’m going and why I’m going there makes it easier to find many ways to reach my goal.
Here is a scene from ACT II :
INT. MRI SCANNING ROOM – NIGHT
Jennifer lies unconscious, tied up on a white table, surrounded by sophisticated machines covered in wires and hydraulic tubes. At the end of the table, a wide metallic ring hangs on a rail that runs above Jennifer’s body.
INT. MRI CONTROL ROOM – NIGHT
Trevor stares at Jennifer through a wide window.
Irina and Bill are seated at a control panel. Standing behind them, Sally nervously chews her nails.
BILL
Her level of radiation remains high.
I would recommend —TREVOR
— Shut up and switch that on. Now.
Bill hesitates. He gazes at Sally. Irina reaches out to the commands and pushes a button.
INT. MRI SCANNING ROOM – NIGHT
The ring lights up and diffuses an intense neon light. It starts to move along Jennifer’s body with a humming noise. A transversal bright line shows its progression from Jennifer’s head down to her chest.
INT. MRI CONTROL ROOM – NIGHT
An image of Jennifer’s skull gradually shows on the screen. Sally points at the image of her head.
SALLY
Is that foreign material?
BILL
Looks like it’s migrating inside her body.
INT. MRI SCANNING ROOM – NIGHT
As the light line moves down her chest, Jennifer’s body suddenly arches, and her limbs quiver.
INT. MRI CONTROL ROOM – NIGHT
Bill stops the ring.
TREVOR
Keep going!
BILL
She’s convulsing. The electromagnetic
field probably interferes with…
whatever’s inside.Trevor draws a gun and points it at Bill.
TREVOR
Spare me your scientific shit and
KEEP GOING!Irina reaches out to the button but Bill presses it before.
INT. MRI SCANNING ROOM – NIGHT
The ring moves again. Jennifer’s whole body quivers. A small tip forms on her belly, and something suddenly shoots out through the teeshirt, leaving a hole and a blood spot. It hits the ring with a high-pitched metallic sound.
INT. MRI CONTROL ROOM – NIGHT
TREVOR
What was that?
IRINA
Did it come from under her skin?
One more metallic hit sounds from the scanning room. Bill looks closer at the screen.
BILL
Oh my God! It’s from her stomach!
Bill throws his hand to a red button but Trevor catches his wrist and points the gun at his face. Irina instantly jumps from her seat and hits the button.
INT. MRI SCANNING ROOM – INSIDE SCANNER – NIGHT
Lights turn off. Two nails fall on Jennifer’s teeshirt stained with blood. Her body relaxes and the buzz lowers.
INT. MRI CONTROL ROOM – NIGHT
Trevor brutally releases Bill and points his gun at Irina.
IRINA
Shrapnels were piercing through
her abdominal wall. Will you shoot me for
saving her life?Trevor presses the barrel of his gun against Irina’s forehead. Irina closes her eyes and winces with anguish.
TREVOR
I decide whether we keep her alive or not. There’s a much
bigger threat in there. I will not hesitate to shoot any of you
who gets off my ass. Got that?Irina nods yes. Her chin quivers.
Standing in his back, Julia slowly reaches out to a paperweight – a fist-size ball of glass. Bill gazes at her with a terrified glance. Trevor does a double-take and cocks the hammer, pointing the gun at Julia’s face.
TREVOR
Need an experiment to support this hypothesis?
Julia releases the paperweight. Trevor uncocks the gun.
TREVOR
Good girl. Now Bill, would you turn this fucking scanner on again, please?
BILL
You’d better look at this, first.
Trevor leans over the screen where Bill points his finger.
BILL
Looks like a tumor in her abdomen.
The image on the screen shows a black spot down Jennifer’s belly, surrounded by smaller spots of various sizes.
SALLY
She ingested iron and glass splinters, and they seem
to converge to the tumor.IRINA
Jennifer’s sister described the same thing on
the skeleton where the metal was found.TREVOR
If they could confine it three thousand years ago,
why wouldn’t we?Trevor taps the barrel of his gun onto the screen.
TREVOR
Show me the head.
Bill drives a mouse to make a zoom of Jennifer’s skull.
Rows of tiny black needles draw paths to three regions of Jennifer’s brain, where they assemble in small pellets.
BILL
What the hell is that?
JENNIFER (O.S.)
Help me…
Everyone is startled and looks through the window.
INT. MRI SCANNING ROOM – NIGHT
Jennifer stares at them. An expression of deep pain distorts her features and tears run down her face.
JENNIFER
Help me, please… It burns…
Jennifer breaks down in tears.
INT. MRI CONTROL ROOM – NIGHT
They all turn to Trevor who still holds his gun.
BILL
We can’t leave her —
TREVOR
— SHUT THE FUCK UP!
SALLY
She’s in pain!
Trevor points his gun at the window.
TREVOR
She’s a fucking threat!
JULIA
Look who’s talking.
Trevor glares at Julia.
BILL
If we could anesthetize her, that would
relieve the pain while keeping her harmless.SALLY
Good idea.
TREVOR
How can you do that?
SALLY
We could use a mix of gas. Irina, you said
you worked in a hospital in Africa?IRINA
It was a bush hospital.
SALLY
What do you need to make a knockout gas?
IRINA
Nitrogen oxide… Oxygen…
Sally turns to Bill, who nods.
BILL
We’ve got all kinds of stuff.
Sally gazes at Trevor.
TREVOR
Okay, let’s try this.
SALLY
Bill, take Irina with you. Make the mix and bring it in
a two liters bottle. Julia, help me make a makeshift
inhaler from the protective equipment. We’ve got
masks and tubes.Bill and Irina rush out of the room. Julia walks past Trevor who grabs her arm to stop her.
TREVOR
Don’t be smart. I’m keeping an eye on you.
JULIA
Try to keep it above my ass for once.
INT. MRI SCANNING ROOM – NIGHT
Jennifer’s limbs shake, she keeps crying and moaning in pain.
Her five colleagues stare at her from a distance inside the room.
Sally holds a makeshift inhaler connected with a small bottle of gas. She turns a tap at the top of it. A hiss sounds.
SALLY
I’m ready.
Trevor points his gun at Jennifer’s body.
TREVOR
Okay. I cover you. Bill, hold her head.
Bill puts on thick gloves and moves to the edge of the table. Sally follows him with the inhaler while the others deploy around the table.
As Bill puts his hands on each side of Jennifer’s head, she opens bloodshot eyes all of a sudden. They share a look.
JENNIFER
Bill… darling… help me… You say
you love me…Sally freezes. She gazes at Bill, who avoids her eyes.
TREVOR
You’ll sort out your sex stories later.
Knock her out.Jennifer cries her eyes out and speaks with a whiny voice.
JENNIFER
Bill… My love… It hurts so much.
I need you.BILL
Shh. You’ll be fine, Jen.
JENNIFER
Swear that you love me…
Sally leans over Jennifer’s face with the inhaler while giving Bill a furious gaze.
SALLY
You son of a bi —
JENNIFER
— RHAAAAA!
Jennifer raises her head and in a sudden terrifying roar, expels a cloud of black dust straight to Sally’s face.
Sally shrieks and staggers backward. She drops the inhaler. Puts her face in her hands. They are all startled.
Bill backpedals and stumbles over a stool.
Jennifer bucks and screams like a fury on the table. Her ties weaken.
TREVOR
HOLD HER! HOLD HER!
Sally rushes out of the room.
The inhaler rolls on the floor, bouncing and spinning around as its loose tube throws gas with a hiss. Irina grabs it.
IRINA
Got it!
Bill tries to put his hands again on Jennifer’s head, but she bites his gloves. She bucks harder.
TREVOR
BACK OFF! I’M GONNA SHOOT!
Trevor walks toward Jennifer, gun at the ready.
Bill ducks down.
Jennifer’s leg suddenly gets loose and kicks Trevor’s arm. The gun goes off and is knocked out of Trevor’s hand.
The shot hits Irina, who falls backward.
The gun slides to the floor. Trevor rushes to pick it up.
Jennifer breaks a second tie, getting one hand loose. She tries to reach out to Bill who screams with fear.
Trevor raises the gun, aims at Jennifer’s face and —
— BANG! The bottle of gas hits Jennifer’s skull from behind. Jennifer crumbles on the table, knocked out.
Irina stands behind her, panting. Her shoulder bleeds.
She and Trevor share a gaze. She throws the bottle of gas at him. He dodges it. The object hits the wall and bounces on the floor.
Irina clenches her teeth.
IRINA
She’s out. Drop your fucking gun!
INT. BATHROOM – NIGHT
Sally leans over a sink, panting and shaking. She splashes her face frantically. The water gets black. Small needles fall in the sink and are washed out with black dust.
Sally stares at her reflection in the mirror.
SALLY
Holy shit!…
Tiny needles are sticking into her cheeks and forehead.
She looks closer. One needle is sticking into her eye.
SALLY
Oh no… no!
She tries to pinch a needle from her cheek but all suddenly imbed into her skin, and the one into her eye too. She rubs her eye in a panic and splashes water in it.
SALLY
NO! GOD NO!
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Marc KOENIG’s Level 1 Horror emotions
What I’ve learned doing this assignment is that using the interest techniques of level 1 horror emotions instantly creates a thrilling atmosphere and makes it easier to write visual scenes. It improves the writing by making it more efficient.
OUTLINE
INT. CAVE – DAY
A team of archeologists excavates an antique cave.
Anxiety: The ground is covered with rusted antique weapons and human remains.
Anxiety: A skeleton is tied up with chains on a granite throne, its skull crushed.
Elizabeth, an archeologist, examines the chained skeleton.
Anxiety: A strange black swelling seems welded to the spine.
Anxiety: As Elizabeth’s hand moves closer to the bones, a row of small black metallic spines raises and points at her skin as if to sting it.
Paul, Elizabeth’s partner, finds a tablet with an inscription in ancient writing.
Anxiety: Elizabeth recognizes the cuneiform symbols of « the primal gates to Hell »
Elizabeth asks Paul to examine the chained skeleton.
Anxiety: Paul removes his glove and approaches his bare fingers to the strange spines.
Surprise: a stone falls from the ceiling and breaks a skull in a loud cracking noise.
Anxiety: The cave is about to collapse
Anxiety: Paul reaches out to the flashlight among the bones with his bare hand
Paul feels a striking pain in his finger. He examines it with the flashlight.
Shock: three small spines imbed into his fingertip as if they were alive.FIRST DRAFT OF SCENE 1
INT. CAVE – DAY
It’s dark.
Muffled thumps against rock sound louder and louder until debris crumbles and sun rays pierce through the darkness and a cloud of dust. A man’s face under a helmet shows in the hole.
A light beam sweeps the ground, hitting rusted antique weapons, shields, then skulls and bones.
MALE VOICE
(in Arabic; subtitled)
Over here! I found something!LATER
The dim light of storm lanterns cast the shadows of a group of workers standing at a distance of human remains.
At the back of the cave, ELIZABETH, her late twenties, in army camouflage trousers, boots, and a dirty teeshirt, uses a torch to examine a skeleton seated on a granite throne.
ELIZABETH
Holy Jesus…The body is tied up with heavy chains sealed in the stone. The skull has been crushed. The light beam stops on the spine in the belly area. A black swelling riddled with slivers of metal and glass seems welded to the bones.
PAUL (O.S.)
Look at that.Elizabeth turns around. A man in his thirties, PAUL, gently wipes off with his glove a tablet hanging on the wall. Under a few lines of the antique alphabet, he reveals the drawing of a black egg out of which black drops seem to pour.
ELIZABETH
Cuneiform?As Elizabeth’s left hand has moved close to the skeleton, a row of tiny metallic spines silently raises from the ribs and points at her hand, a few inches from her skin.
Elizabeth walks away, and the spines lay down in their initial position.
PAUL
Is it what I think it is?Elizabeth slides her fingers along a series of symbols.
ELIZABETH
Oh my God. The primal gates of hell.PAUL
Bingo!He puts an arm around Elizabeth’s shoulders and hugs her with a laugh of joy.
ELIZABETH
Don’t get too excited. Come here, there’s something you need to see.Elizabeth walks Paul to the chained skeleton.
ELIZABETH
See that black bulb? I’ve never seen that before.Paul removes his glove to turn a small flashlight on. He brings his face closer to the hips of the skeleton.
A draft comes through the entry hole of the cave, and sneaks through the workers’ boots, lifting a small cloud of dust.
The small spines on the ribs seem to react to the stream of air and straighten up again as Paul approaches his face.
PAUL
What’s this?Paul points his bare fingers at the spines. They start to shiver imperceptibly. His hand gets closer and —
— CRASH! A big stone falls from the ceiling and crushes a skull, startling everyone. Paul springs backward and drops his flashlight. Elizabeth points her torch up.
Several crevices run through the ceiling.
ELIZABETH
That sucks.PAUL
Let’s take pictures and take out what we can now.Paul looks down. His flashlight lays against the skeleton’s ribs. He reaches out to it.
PAUL
Ouch!Paul withdraws his hand with a sudden move. He looks at his fingers barely visible in the dark.
ELIZABETH
Are you okay?Paul grabs the flashlight with his gloved hand and lightens his finger.
In a fraction of a second, three black shiny shards imbed inside his fingertip. Paul frowns. Rubs his fingertip. Looks again. Nothing.
PAUL
Got a splinter or something.ELIZABETH
The first-aid kit is in the Defender.
Don’t let that get infected.Elizabeth grabs a sophisticated camera from a bag and takes pictures of the tablet.
The flashes shoot metallic glints on the dark bulb and among the spines surrounding it.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by
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Marc KOENIG’s Horror outline Version 01
What I learned doing this assignment is the efficiency of making an outline before getting into the story details. While building it, several new ideas and breakthroughs came into my mind. It helps to be creative and prevents writer’s block. Some interesting changes were brought to the story without changing the concept. And it seems to be just the start!
ACT 1 – SET UP FOR HORROR
Ext. Archeological site – day
A team of archeologists led by Elizabeth excavates a skeleton tied up with chains, surrounded by remains of people who suffered violent deaths. They notice strange black marks inside the body. A text engraved on a granite stele gives a warning about the «Tears of the devil».
Int. archeological institute – night
Elizabeth studies the skeleton where a strange black metallic stone is welded to the spine. She writes a message to her sister Jennifer to ask her to analyze it.
Elizabeth’s boyfriend Paul childishly plays with the remains of the bodies. Small metallic spines bristle to the contact of his hand and imbed inside his fingers.
A few hours later, he feels sick and suffers convulsions. Tears run down his eyes, containing microscopic crystal flakes.
Int. Elizabeth’s car – night
On the way to the hospital, Paul attacks Elizabeth while she drives the car. She loses control and they crash in a ravine.
Ext. Jennifer’s house – garden – day
Jennifer has invited some colleagues from the lab where she works to celebrate her wedding with Scott. They discuss the rumors that the CIA and FSB have infiltrated the lab.
In the middle of the party, Jennifer learns about the death of her sister in terrible circumstances.
Int. Research compound – day
A few days later, Jennifer finds the message from her sister attached to the parcel containing the piece of metal. Its aspect and its mysterious origin impel her to keep its analysis confidential.
She convinces two colleagues, Irina and Bill, to help her analyze the mysterious mineral, but she hides the operation from Scott and her superior Sally.
Int. Research compound – night
Scott comes back to the lab because he found the evidence that his newly married wife cheats on him
Trevor, the man in charge of the security, has his attention drawn by unusual activities in the lab.
Julia and John stay after hours because they have an affair.
Questioned by Trevor about the night activity, Sally comes to find out what is going on.
At 11 pm, these 8 people are inside the research compound.
Inciting incident: Jennifer conducts tests on the mineral. As she finds herself alone in a technical room against Bill’s advice, the stone unexpectedly vibrates, cracks, and blows up into millions of microscopic spines that spread all over, hitting Jennifer’s body, eyes, hands, up to her lungs as she breathes the air full of sharp prickles. Blinded and wounded, she slips and knocks herself out on the corner of a counter.
Following the explosion, Sally locks the door where Jennifer lies unconscious, due to a brief rise in radioactivity. Irina overrides Sally’s order by putting on a protective suit to break into the room and save Jennifer.
ACT 2 – THE POINT OF NO RETURN
Int. Research compound – night
Jennifer is brought to the infirmary.
While Sally, Trevor, and Bill go through the notes from Elizabeth and the figures that came up from the tests, Scott and Julia provide treatments to Jennifer.
Sally and Trevor realize that they have discovered Element 119 and that the ancient texts reveal that this mineral that they call the Devil’s tears is mysteriously related to vampirism symptoms. Trevor locks down the whole compound to prevent any contamination to the outside.
Jennifer wakes up and slaughters Scott. She bleeds him alive with dreadful cruelty to drink his blood and vanishes from the medical room.
They play the records of video cameras and watch the horrifying scene. They locate Jennifer on surveillance cameras and see her eating metal pieces and broken glass. They try to call for help but all communications have been unexplainably shut down.
Jennifer hides somewhere between them and the way out. They decide to chase and neutralize Jennifer with their means. The group divides between Trevor, Bill, and Irina who want to save Jennifer’s life, and John, Julia, and Sally who want to eliminate her. They make a technical room their headquarters.
The chasing group consisting of Irina, Julia, and Bill is attacked by Jennifer. Bill prevents Julia from killing Jennifer. Irina is wounded. They neutralize Jennifer. During the fight, Jennifer spits out spines to Julia’s face, but nobody else notices it.
Julia feels pain in her eyes.
They put Jennifer through a scanner. They observe the spines migrating to her brain and other vital organs. They see that she ate metallic objects and glass. A nucleus develops inside her body, close to the vertebral spine. Bill and Sally think it may be a kind of mineral parasite. An unknown threat. Trevor thinks it is nanotechnology from a foreign country such as China, North Korea, or Russia.
In the bathroom, Julia sees in the mirror spines burrowing inside her eyes. She feels them moving inside her head up to her brain. Julia gets hysterical in the bathroom.
John rushes to help Julia. Julia cuts John’s throat and butchers him.
Bill runs away. Trevor and Irina try to stop her. Sally hides behind furniture.
During the fight, Trevor leaves the room and locks them inside. Sally and Irina are locked up inside the room with Julia willing to kill them.
Irina and Sally join forces to dodge and counter Julia’s attacks but Sally gets badly wounded. They finally escape while Julia gets Jennifer loose.
The group joins again and a conflict breaks out between them. Irina beats Trevor after his betrayal, but Trevor draws a gun. Bill blames Irina’s lack of judgment since she took Jennifer out of the room in the first place.
They eventually calm down and elaborate a plan to neutralize both freaks. Bill tries to think of a cure.
Trevor sets up a trap to catch Julia but she sets him up. Trevor begs Irina to help him, but she sacrifices him. Julia kills Trevor and bleeds him.
Sally and Irina are attacked by Jennifer. Bill escapes. Irina hides in a storeroom where Jennifer pukes a piece of metal before locking the door. The seed starts to quiver and crack. Irina finds a thick glass jar, grabs the seed, and throws it inside. As she closes the top, it blows up but remained confined in the recipient.
Irina helplessly watches Jennifer bleeding Sally.
ACT 3 – FULL OUT HORROR
Irina finds the evidence that Trevor was a CIA agent, that he called for backup, and ordered them to capture Jennifer and kill all members of the lab.
The commando breaks into the lab. They find Julia and shoot her. But when they lean over her agonizing body, she spits spines on the face of two soldiers.
The commando is lured into the horror. The soldiers start shooting at each other. There are more monsters now than survivors. Everybody strafe everywhere in total anarchy.
Int. Research compound – day
Irina asks Bill to help them destroy the whole place and everyone inside by overheating an energy plant prototype. It will raise the temperature to thousands of degrees and melt everything, including the deadly mineral.
The two survivors struggle to make their way to the prototype. They cross Jennifer’s path again. Her appearance has become terrifying. Bill admits that he was Jennifer’s lover, and his love for her is the reason why he has kept trying to protect her.
Jennifer has gotten stronger. Bill fights against her and ends up killing Jennifer with a grenade, but he is hit by several spines.
Contaminated soldiers walk in. The two survivors fight relentlessly against them. Bill leads Irina to an evacuation duct.
Ext. research compound – day
Once outside, Irina finds out that he is the CIA agent and he orders his own capture for them to find a cure and to possess this terrible weapon. Irina tries to kill him but he knocks her out.
Just before he bleeds her, he gets shot. Armed mercenaries take Irina to a chopper. They speak Russian.
Int. Russian military base – day
Irina is detained in and interrogated about what went wrong in her mission and where are the plans for the fusion energy prototype.
As she learns that they brought Bill’s body for an autopsy, lights turn red and a loud alarm blares.
Irina says in Russian «big mistake.»
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Marc KOENIG’s Character journey
What I’ve learned doing this assignment is to think of every character as the main character with a journey, and to find a reason for their death and how they die.
ELISABETH
CHARACTER PROFILE
- Role: Monster bait
- Traits: Sweet, meticulous, generous, curious
- Fears: snakes, guns
- Needs: wants to learn about ancient civilizations, loves to read
- Likability: she shares her knowledge, she speaks foreign languages
- Reaction to stress: numb out
- Relationship: listening, forgiving
CHARACTER JOURNEY
- Intro: she finds a grave she has been looking for for ages
- Denial: she misinterprets the ancient crime scene
- Reaction at 1st horror: denial, misunderstanding
- Relation after 1st horror: panic
- Fight back: she doesn’t
- End Point: she dies instantly
- Insight brought to others: Panic is the worst reaction
PAUL
CHARACTER PROFILE
- Role: Monster bait
- Traits: watchful, arrogant, impulsive, generous
- Fears: he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to his girlfriend
- Wants/Needs: wants to be loved, to attract people’s attention
- Likability / Rooting factors: caring for his girlfriend, sportsman
- How they react under stress: confront
- Relationship with other characters: sassy, friendly
CHARACTER JOURNEY
- Character Intro: he helps his girlfriend but doesn’t listen to her.
- Denial: he touches the body, unaware of the danger of contamination
- Their reaction at first horror: denial
- Relation after first horror: …
- How they fight back: …
- End Point: he dies in a car crash
- What insight do their deaths or survival bring to the others/audience? Don’t be too self-assured face to the unknown and listen to wise people
JENNIFER
CHARACTER PROFILE
- Role: Carrier
- Traits: extraverted, adventurous, outgoing, deceptive
- Fears: loneliness, lack of love
- Needs: have fun, work in a team
- Likability: she is attractive, her fragility makes her appealing
- Reaction to stress: dramatize
- Relationship: sociable, friendly
CHARACTER JOURNEY
- Intro: devastated by her sister’s death that she learns at her wedding, she wants to find the answers her sister was looking for in her job
- Denial: she ignores her sister’s warnings about the stone
- Reaction at 1st horror: unarmed, misunderstanding
- Relation after 1st horror: panic
- Fight back: she has no time to fight back
- End Point: she is the last one to die
- Insight brought to others: keep prudent face to the forces of nature
IRINA
CHARACTER PROFILE
- Role: Survivor – rule breaker
- Traits: Brainiac, badass, courageous, loyal
- Fears: the sight of blood
- Needs: she wants to be the best
- Likability: badass, resourceful
- Reaction to stress: she takes charge and leaves no one behind
- Relationship: distant, helpful
CHARACTER JOURNEY
- Intro: she breaks rules to achieve an experiment and succeeds, although she is threatened to lose her job if she keeps ignoring the protocol.
- Denial: she overrides her superior’s order to save Jennifer
- Reaction at 1st horror: she takes charge
- Relation to group: she takes her own decisions to fight
- Fight back: she runs to the danger to put an end to it asap
- End Point: she survives the confined apocalypse, to find herself trapped in a new one.
- Insight brought to others: be smart and never give up
TREVOR
CHARACTER PROFILE
- Role: Leader / Red herring
- Traits: bossy, courageous, silent, pragmatic
- Fears: security breaches, losing control
- Needs: he wants to know everything about everyone, and to have control
- Likability: his sense of humor
- Reaction to stress: he sacrifices others to save his own life and get what he wants
- Relationship: he is distant and domineering.
CHARACTER JOURNEY
- Intro: he comes back to the lab to check what the team is doing so late at night, he locks down the compound on the first alert.
- Denial: he suspects a secret weapon based on nanotechnology
- Reaction at 1st horror: observant, individualistic, merciless
- Relation to group: he conflicts with all others, seen as unreliable
- Fight back: he locks down the threat, and he brings guns.
- End Point: he is sacrificed by Irina
- Insight brought to others: you reap what you sow
SCOTT
CHARACTER PROFILE
- Role: Moral one
- Traits: faithful, shy, prudent, boring
- Fears: pain
- Needs: have a mission
- Likability: reliable, in love
- Reaction to stress: overreact, dramatize
- Relationship: underestimated but appreciated by the others, he doesn’t open up.
CHARACTER JOURNEY
- Intro: Crazy in love with Jennifer, he is the happiest man in the world as he gets married to her. Until they learn about the tragedy of Elizabeth’s death.
- Denial: He can’t believe his wife is contaminated or has changed.
- Reaction at 1st horror: He would do anything to save Jennifer, whatever the cost.
- Relation to group: He conflicts with the ones who want to neutralize or eliminate Jennifer since she became uncontrollable and highly dangerous.
- Fight back: He struggles for his safety, as well as for Jennifer’s. He is a clumsy fighter, but he doesn’t backpedal in front of the danger when it comes to saving his wife.
- End Point: He dies together with his wife, sacrificing his life to save Irina and Bill, and because he can’t live without Jennifer.
- Insight brought to others: Love is stronger than evil.
BILL
CHARACTER PROFILE
- Role: Complainer.
- Traits: Workaholic, coward, obedient, dreamer
- Fears: Afraid of the dark, phobia of clutter.
- Needs: burying himself in work, avoiding interactions with others.
- Likability: he loves animals and plants.
- Reaction to stress: he flees from trouble, and doesn’t want to hear about problems.
- Relationship: he is the one who does all the annoying work. He is boring to others.
CHARACTER JOURNEY
- Intro: Jennifer holds him in the office after hours to help her analyze the stone.
- Denial: he blames Jennifer and Irina for mishandling and breaking the expensive machines in the lab. He is convinced that the incident comes from their negligence.
- Reaction at 1st horror: he wets his pants and runs.
- Relation to group: nobody cares about him. He isolates himself and tries to run on his own.
- Fight back: he just hides.
- End Point: he looks like the last survivor together with Irina but turns out to be contaminated as well and he tries to kill Irina.
- Insight brought to others: never lower your guard, remain vigilant even in front of seemingly vulnerable people.
SALLY
CHARACTER PROFILE
- Role: Obnoxious
- Traits: strict, conceited, venal, loner
- Fears: lose her job
- Needs: money, be busy with something
- Likability: she is a caricature
- Reaction to stress: she blames other people
- Relationship: people don’t like her and she doesn’t like people
CHARACTER JOURNEY
- Intro: she works late and finds out that Jennifer runs an unauthorized experiment.
- Denial: She thinks Jennifer did something wrong and caused the incident.
- Reaction at 1st horror: denial. She only thinks of the financial consequences.
- Relation to group: she is upset against everyone, and people are reluctant to protect her.
- Fight back: she comes up with plans to neutralize and kill the contaminated before they damage the compound.
- End Point: she is badly wounded by Jennifer, then blown up by a grenade
- Insight brought to others: money is useless in life and death situations.
JULIA
CHARACTER PROFILE
- Role: Innocent
- Traits: generous, funny, vindictive, fighting
- Fears: she hates animals
- Needs: seducing men, having sex
- Likability: charming, kind to every man
- Reaction to stress: she gets upset
- Relationship: she is appreciated by men, women are suspicious about her
CHARACTER JOURNEY
- Intro: she stays after hours to have an affair with Trevor.
- Denial: she doesn’t want to be involved in the incident, but she can’t go away once the compound is locked up.
- Reaction at 1st horror: she tries to help Jennifer, and she gets infected.
- Relation to group: she becomes the next threat after Jennifer, and everyone is very scared of her as she practices martial arts.
- Fight back: she tries to remove the spines but she endures fierce pain.
- End Point: she dies peppered with bullets when the commando shoots her with no mercy.
- Insight brought to others: the beauty and the beast can be one single person.
JOHN
CHARACTER PROFILE
- Role: Rescuer
- Traits: kind, sportsman, seductive, altruistic
- Fears: claustrophobic
- Needs: attract attention, having physical activity
- Likability: he is strong and courageous, reliable
- Reaction to stress: he takes charge.
- Relationship: he is appreciated. People trust him. He is helpful and serious about his job.
CHARACTER JOURNEY
- Intro: he is called to fix a machine that broke down following a misuse from Irina.
- Denial: he thinks the incident is due to the machine.
- Reaction at 1st horror: denial
- Relation to group: people rely on him to fix the material and find a way to get out by bypassing the lock-up.
- Fight back: he tries to fight Julia but he is too hesitant in hitting her and gets tricked… and killed.
- End Point: he dies his neck broken by Julia.
- Insight brought to others: when your life is at stake, sometimes you have to make the most difficult and contradictory decision to survive. In a case of an emergency, there’s no second chance.
SOLDIERS (5 in total)
CHARACTER PROFILE
- Role: Monster baits
- Traits: Obedient, brutal
- Fears: Unknown enemy
- Needs: Fulfill their mission
- Likability: they come to kill the monster
- Reaction to stress: they face the problem
- Relationship: coordination and protection between them
CHARACTER JOURNEY
- Intro: They break in to shoot everyone
- Denial: they think their mission will be simple, that they are the strongest
- Reaction at 1st horror: They shoot to kill
- Relation to group: keep shooting
- Fight back: do I have to say it three times?
- End Point: They all die
- Insight brought to others: guns don’t make you invincible
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Marc KOENIG’s Monster reveal track
What I learned doing this assignment is how to analyze the monster, think about it as a main character of the movie, get familiar with it, to make its resume! Its nature, where it comes from, its flaws and strengths, its main traits, its goal, its needs…
- What the monster is: a mineral, the undiscovered chemical element 119
- Powers: a shape-shifting mineral, radioactive, acts as a living creature, can spread itself in thousands of spines, can take cerebral control of human brains, turns them into predators
- Limitations: depends on its hosts to grow, ensure its protection, its transport, and its survival.
- Weaknesses: high temperatures, magnetic fields
- Purpose/Appetite: to grow and reproduce, using available organic creatures, and feed with iron, silica, and other metalloids.
REVEALS SEQUENCE
1. DEMAND: What caused these people’s violent deaths in ancient times, and why is one of them tied up with chains?
MONSTER REVEAL: A mysterious metallic stone is found unexplainably amalgamated with the body’s bones and remains of flesh, and paintings warn of danger.<div>2. DEMAND: What are these spines? Are they harmful?
MONSTER REVEAL: The metal spines turn a nice man into a mindless killer.3. DEMAND: What is the nature of this metal?
MONSTER REVEAL: Jennifer makes an analysis and reveals that it is an unknown metal, element 119.4. DEMAND: The piece of metal blows up into millions of spines that hit Jennifer and get inside her body.
MONSTER REVEAL: The element 119 is capable of spreading itself inside a human being.5. DEMAND: Jennifer kills the doctor. She drinks his blood and eats broken glass and bolts
MONSTER REVEAL: The element 119 has turned Jennifer into something inhuman. Killing people and feeding with metal and blood.6. DEMAND: They fight against Jennifer who spits in Julia’s face.
MONSTER REVEAL: The new host can directly contaminate other people.7. DEMAND: We need to know what is happening inside Jennifer’s body.
MONSTER REVEAL: They make a scan and see the metal spines converging to her brain and the guts, amalgamating with her organs as well as with the glass and iron she absorbed. This is a mineral parasite.8. DEMAND: paranoia – anyone who gets infected becomes a killer.
MONSTER REVEAL: element 119 wants more hosts and more blood.9. DEMAND: the hosts can reject seeds that blow up when close to a human being.
MONSTER REVEAL: You may get infected from a distance by being hit by spines or inhaling them.10. DEMAND: Julia and Jennifer join forces to attack the team.
MONSTER REVEAL: The hosts keep all their intellectual capacities, and their mind is focused on killing and feeding element 119.11. DEMAND: Irina throws the seed into a jar of water and avoids being contaminated.
MONSTER REVEAL: on its own, element 119 can be contained.12. DEMAND: They try to burn and blow up the lab to destroy or confine the element 119.
MONSTER REVEAL: The element 119 has contaminated the soldiers and the last survivors, except Irina. And they can join forces to make this plan fail.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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Marc KOENIG’s Characters death track
What I’ve learned doing this assignment is to give more subtext to the story through the « why » of the death of the characters, and to brainstorm more ways of killing the characters to make the story more surprising and unexpected.
Survivor = Irina, 25
Infiltrated Russian secret agent (revealed in the final scene), rule breaker, loyal, combative, deceptive with good intentions
The characters die in the following order:
Character 1 = Elizabeth (archeologist), 30
Why: the innocent one who unwittingly sets the monster free
How: Attacked by her contaminated boyfriend & Car crash
Character 2 = Paul (Elizabeth’s boyfriend), 35
Why: didn’t respect the dead body & security rules
How: Car crash
Character 3 = Medic, 50
Why: in denial, does the right thing, the most exposed to the new monster
How: Butchered with a scalpel & bled out
Character 4 = Scott (machinery engineer), 25
Why: in denial of the danger and helps a contaminated
How: Neck broken
Character 5 = Trevor (CIA agent), 30
Why: a bad guy, deceptive with nasty intentions<div>
How: Crushed in a hydraulic press
Character 6 = Julia (scientist), 25
Why: arrogant, in love with Jennifer</div><div>
How: Blown up by a grenade
Character 7 = Sally (scientist), 40
Why: unable to keep her self-control, she had an affair with Scott
How: Strafed by the commando
Character 8 = Scott (scientist – Jennifer’s husband), 30
Why: He cheated with his wife, he wants to join her
How: Butchered by Jennifer
Character 9 = Jennifer (scientist) 30
Why: “Patient zero”, in denial in the first place, she broke rules of security and she is at the origin of the chaos
How: Blown up with the whole lab by the explosion of the prototype
Character 10 = Bill (scientist), 25
Why: coward and arrogant
How: Shot in the head by a sniper
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by
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Marc Koenig’s Horror situation track
What I learned doing this assignment is to fill the outline as much as possible with horror moments, and find a way to make it escalate, while keeping the story flowing and coherent.
ACT 1 - SET UP FOR HORROR
The atmosphere of Evil established
A female archeologist excavates a skeleton tied up with chains, surrounded by remains of people who suffered violent deaths.
Horror situation – paranoia: something terrible happened in ancient times. Is the threat still hiding somewhere?
Reaction – denial: the archeologist manipulates the body like an artifact, unaware of its potential dangerousness.
A mysterious metallic stone is found amalgamated with the body’s bones. The archeologist sends it to her sister who works in a special lab. Her boyfriend touches the body. He feels a sting on his finger. Later, he catches a fever.
Horror situation – doing sthg forbidden: the boyfriend touches the dead body.
Reaction – denial: he thinks a skeleton can’t be dangerous.
Reaction – denial: she doesn’t think the gem can be a threat.
As she drives her boyfriend to the hospital, he gets mad and bites her. The car falls into a ravine and blows up.
Horror situation – face to face with monster: the boyfriend becomes a mindless killer.
Reaction – escape: she panics and throws the car into a ravine.
Connect with the characters
Scott and Jennifer get married and enjoy the party with their team of scientists. She receives a call telling her that her sister died. Later, she receives the stone by post, with a letter from her sister. Scott and Jennifer decide to analyze the mineral.
Horror situation – walking into a trap: they bring the stone to the lab.
Reaction – denial: nobody is worried about the unknown nature of the mineral.
The characters are warned not to do it
The stone turns out to be an unknown metal. Jennifer decides to conduct tests on it against the will of her boss, Sally. But the stone blows up in millions of tiny spines that hit Jennifer all over her body, eyes, and hands, up to her brain and lungs as she breathes the air full of sharp prickles.
Horror situation – sthg forbidden: she makes a series of tests without enough precautions.
Horror situation – injured: Jennifer feels as if she had thousands of darts under her skin.
Reaction – escape: she tries to escape the room but falls on the floor, getting more stings and knocking herself out.
Denial of Horror
Sally locks the door where Jennifer lies, due to a brief rise in radioactivity. They all think the accident is due to the machines, not to the stone. Irina overrides Sally’s order. She puts on a protection suit and saves Jennifer.
Horror situation – Injured: Jennifer has been badly wounded.
Reaction – try to solve: they bring Jennifer to the medical room.
Horror situation – impending doom: Jennifer carries mysterious spines that have been absorbed by her skin.
Reaction – denial: the group doesn’t think Jennifer is a threat.
Safety taken away
The lethal agent, whatever it is, is being released in a locked-up compound.
Monster
The unknown metal.
ACT 2 - THE POINT OF NO RETURN
The group thinks that the stone has been destroyed and that the danger is gone.
One of us killed
In the medical room, Jennifer slaughters the medic and drinks his blood. She eats metal pieces and broken glass as well.
Horror situation – physically tortured: she cuts and bleeds him alive.
The crew watches the scene on video cameras, horrified.
Horror situation – see another killed: The victim is bled out.
Horror situation – unknown motive: Jennifer’s behavior makes no sense.
Reaction: the group wants to call for rescue.
Isolated / Trapped
Phone lines have been cut off, and Jennifer hides between them and the way out.
Horror situation – trapped: they can’t call for backup, nor reach the exit.
Reaction – try to solve it: Trevor locks up the lab to prevent Jennifer from going out.
Horror situation – Isolated: They are completely locked up in the lab.
Reaction – try to solve: Scott, Irina, and Julia go chase Jennifer, while Sally, Bill, and Trevor go through Jennifer’s sister’s files and photos to try to understand what happened.
What the files show and suggest is terrifying.
Horror situation – suspecting contamination: Bill believes that Jennifer was contaminated by a virus.
Reaction – try to solve it: Bill suggests putting Jennifer in quarantine.
Horror situation – internal conflict: The group divides: preserving Jennifer’s life or eliminating her as a threat.
The chasing group of three is attacked by Jennifer. Scott lets Irina be wounded because he can’t hurt his wife. Julia has no mercy.
Horror situation: face to face with the monster. They fight against Jennifer.
Reaction-fight: Julia tries to kill Jennifer, while Scott and Irina try to neutralize Jennifer without injuring her.
Jennifer spits out to Julia’s face. The two others end up neutralizing Jennifer. They don’t notice what happened to Julia who feels pain in her eyes.
Horror situation – Impending doom: is Julia contaminated as well?
They put Jennifer through a scanner. They observe the spines migrating to her brain and other vital organs. They see that she ate metallic objects and glass. A nucleus develops inside her liver.
Horror situation – forces of nature: They face the unknown. A mineral parasite.
Reaction – denial: Trevor thinks it is nanotechnology from a foreign country.
In the bathroom, Julia sees in the mirror spines burrowing inside her eyes.
Horror situation – something inside your body: Julia feels the spines moving inside her head up to her brain.
Reaction – denial: Julia gets hysterical in the bathroom.
Scott rushes to help Julia. He breaks the door.
Horror situation – transformed: Julia becomes a savage killer too.
Horror situation – friends in danger: Julia cuts John’s throat and butchers him.
Horror situation – dilemma: Do they have to risk being killed or contaminated to save John?
Reaction – escape: Bill and Trevor run away.
Reaction – fight: Scott and Irina try to stop her.
Reaction – hide: Sally takes shelter behind furniture.
Trevor locks the door behind them.
Horror situation – no escape: Scott and Irina are locked up inside the room with Julia in a fury, who turns against them.
Horror situation – monster trying to get you: Julia tries to kill them.
Reaction – fight: Irina and Scott join forces to dodge and counter Julia’s attacks. Sally is badly wounded.
Julia gives up trying to kill them and frees Jennifer.
Horror situation – threatened: fighting against these two furies is impossible.
Reaction – escape: Sally, Scott, and Irina break out from the room.
MIDPOINT
Full pursuit by the killer
The group joins again and shelters in a room.
Horror situation – internal conflict: Irina jumps on Trevor. Bill blames Irina’s initial lack of judgment.
Sally and Scott calm them down and together, they elaborate a plan to neutralize both women.
Reaction – try to solve: Sally and Trevor want to keep them isolated.
Reaction – try to solve: Scott and Irina want to find a cure.
Reaction – fight: Bill intends to kill them both.
The monster is worse than we thought!
Trevor unexpectedly gathers weapons for all of them.
Horror situation – paranoia: The four other survivors wonder how he got guns.
Horror situation – face to face: Scott and Trevor think they catch Julia in a trap but she sets them up.
Reaction – fight: Scott and Trevor fight against Julia.
Julia kills Trevor and bleeds him.
Horror situation – dilemma: Trevor begs Scott to help him.
Reaction: Scott escapes, not willing to risk his life for Trevor.
Sally and Irina are attacked by Jennifer. Bill escapes. Irina hides in a storeroom. Jennifer pukes a piece of metal inside the room and locks the door.
Horror situation – tricked: Jennifer locks Irina up with a seed.
Horror situation – monster approaching: the seed starts to quiver and crack.
Reaction – try to solve: Irina finds a thick glass jar, grabs the seed, and throws it inside. As she closes the top, it blows up. She is safe. For now.
Horror situation – torture: Irina watches Jennifer bleeding Sally.
Scott comes back, holding Trevor’s body. He confronts Jennifer who runs away.
ACT 3 - FULL OUT HORROR
Fight to the death
Horror situation – trap: Scott and Irina answer a call on Trevor’s phone and find out that he is a CIA agent, that he called for backup, and ordered them to capture Jennifer and kill all members of the lab.
The commando breaks into the lab. They find Julia and shoot her. But when they lean over her agonizing body, she spits spines on the face of two soldiers.
Horror situation – deceptive: soldiers walked into a trap. Now some of them are infected.
Hysteria
Horror situation: out of the frying pan into the fire: The three survivors run from Jennifer and the commando.
Until the soldiers start shooting at each other.
Horror situation – trap: New seeds released by Jennifer blow up inside rooms where soldiers get in.
Horror situation: the commando is lured into the horror. There are more monsters now than survivors.
Reaction – fight: everybody shoots everywhere in total anarchy.
The thrilling escape from death
Scott and Irina find Bill hidden in a closet. Irina asks him to help them destroy the whole place and everyone inside by overheating an energy plant prototype. It will raise the temperature to thousands of degrees and melt everything, including the deadly mineral.
Horror situation – character’s refusal: too much scared, Bill refuses to move.
Reaction – fight: Irina forces Bill to help them.
Death returns to take one or more
The three survivors struggle to make their way to the prototype. They cross Jennifer’s path again. Her appearance has become terrifying.
Horror situation – face to face: Jennifer is stronger. Scott fights against her while protecting himself from the spines she throws.
Horror situation – dilemma: Can he kill his wife?
Reaction – fight: Scott kills Jennifer with a grenade.
Horror situation – contaminated: Scott was hit by several spines.
Horror situation – monster approaching: contaminated soldiers walk in.
Reaction – fight: Scott helps Irina and Bill reach the exit and asks her to kill him before he turns evil. He leads Irina and Bill to an evacuation duct they didn’t know about.
Horror situation – friend becomes evil: Scott turns evil.
Reaction – fight: Irina reluctantly kills him.
Horror situation – tricked: As they get outside the lab just on time, Irina recognizes a symptom of contamination on Bill.
Reaction – fight: She struggles against him but loses and gets knocked out.
Just before he bleeds her, he gets shot. Armed mercenaries take Irina to a chopper. They speak Russian.
Resolution
Irina is detained in a secret military compound in Russia. She is interrogated about what went wrong in her mission and where are the plans of the prototype.
Horror situation – trap: she learns that they brought Bill’s body for an autopsy.
Horror situation – lured into the horror again: lights turn red and a loud alarm blares.
Irina replies in Russian «big mistake.»
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Marc KOENIG’s horror plot track
What I learned doing this assignment is how to brainstorm a draft of the outline to fulfill every step of the horror story.
ACT 1 - SET UP FOR HORROR
Atmosphere of Evil established
In Mississippi Valley, 8th century, a cruel ritual sacrifice is interrupted by a group of rebels who capture the priest. He is tied up with chains and thrown in a deep well, topped with a stone.
Nowadays, the maniac’s skeleton is excavated by an archeologist, who finds in his remains a mysterious stone, very dense, which seems to have amalgamated with the man’s bones and flesh.
Connect with the characters
Jim and Jennifer get married and enjoy the party with a team of researchers they work with. The bride receives a call from the archeologist who wants her to analyze the stone as it doesn’t look like any mineral he knows.
The characters are warned not to do it
The woman realizes that this stone is of an unknown chemical element. It’s a new kind of metal, and it shows strange reactions to light and heat. She decides to run herself its analysis in a new modern lab, together with her husband and colleagues.
Denial of Horror
She decides to ignore the warnings of the archaeologist about the fact that the stone was somehow melted with the dead man’s body.
Safety taken away
As she is alone in a room making tests on it, the stone cracks and blows up into thousands of tiny spines that spread all over the room and stick into the walls and into the Woman’s body, in her arms, legs, in her eyes, and ears, up to her brain and lungs as she breathes the air full of these sharp prickles. The woman is brought to the infirmary, her whole body bleeding, but she wakes up and vanishes.
Monster
The unknown crystal comes back to life and has contaminated a human being.
ACT 2 - THE POINT OF NO RETURN
Isolated / Trapped
Jennifer locks the main door of the lab to prevent the staff from going out. Jennifer has become a vicious and ruthless killer. She starts to hunt the rest of the staff.
One of us killed
She slaughters the medic.
MIDPOINT
Full pursuit by the killer
Jennifer kills a few members of the staff and stores their bodies in the infirmary. The survivors try to elaborate a plan to escape.
The monster is worse than we thought!
Jennifer spits out another crystal, a seed. She hides it. As they discover the walls of another room peppered with spines, except for the shape of a body, the survivors understand that another one of them has been contaminated. Furthermore, the infiltrated CIA agent orders a mission to capture the monster and eliminate all the scientists.
Terrorized
The survivors can not trust each other anymore. They fight and threaten each other while they keep running from Jennifer. Two more die.
ACT 3 - FULL OUT HORROR
Fight to the death
A commando breaks into the lab and definitely locks it up to prevent the monster and the witnesses from escaping.
Hysteria
The survivors have to escape from the monster and the soldiers, who get killed one by one by the monsters. New seeds are released by the contaminated and they blow up inside rooms where survivors or soldiers get in. There are more monsters than survivors now.
The thrilling escape from death
Irina finds a way to neutralize the gem. She uses it to escape from the monster, save Jim, and heal Jennifer. They find a way out. They don’t know that Jim was hit by a spine in the neck.
Death returns to take one or more
As they get outside, John kills Jennifer. Irina survives and eventually kills him. The lab is blown up by explosives that Irina has settled inside. As she tries to get away from the area, she is abducted.
Resolution
Irina is detained in a military compound in Russia. Army officers ask her what happened that interrupted her initial mission. As she learns that they brought the body of the scientist she last killed for his autopsy, lights turn red and a loud alarm blares. Irina replies in Russian «big mistake.»
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Marc KOENIG’s Characters for Horror
What I’ve learned doing this assignment is to start brainstorming about plot and interest techniques through the creation of the characters and their « role » in the deadly journey.
Movie: ELEMENT 119
Group: Team of professionals (scientists)
Dying pattern: 7 characters together, killed one by one.
Carrier: Jennifer – scientist – She behaves as a fierce predator to kill and contaminate any organic being, as a carrier of the initial gem of Element 119.
Leader: Sally – the expert in crystals and chemicals – she’s the most qualified to understand, anticipate and neutralize the monster
Moral one: Jim – the carrier’s husband – he does what he can to keep the whole team alive while trying to find a solution to save his wife. He’ll end up saving her and become the new carrier, releasing the monster outside
Rescuer: John – the maintenance operator – his skills in mechanics and his bravery make him the savior on multiple occasions
Red herring: Scott – the computer expert – isolated in a control room, he communicates with the team in the lab. He can lock or unlock doors, switch power on and off, etc. He turns out to be a mole from the CIA in charge of keeping Sally’s research under survey. His goal is to keep the monster alive and capture it to make it a new weapon
Obnoxious: Julia – scientist, secretly in love with Jim – her only goal is to survive, even if it means sacrificing all others, except for Jim, who would be the last she would consider to let behind her
Rulebreaker: Irina – the team rookie – takes her own decision without any consideration of the leader’s instructions. She turns out to be a spy. Her goal is to destroy the threat and get away from Scott who unmasked her
Monster baits: a few soldiers called in by Scott – heavily armed but very quickly slaughtered by Jennifer
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Marc KOENIG’s monster – Title: ELEMENT 119 – An unknown crystal released from an archeological artifact comes to life, and colonizes organic hosts, turning them into savage killers.
What I learned doing assignment#2 is that brainstorming about the monster’s “specifications” gives clues to creating new horrifying situations, which themselves lead to finding more deadly skills for the monster. A kind of “terrifying virtuous circle” of imagination.
1. TERROR:
- Terrorize: The living crystal is in an unstoppable growing process.
- Pursue: It is shape-shifting, uses mimetic skills, unseen and fast.
- Isolate: It is inside your body
- Terrible things: Gets inside the body by ingestion, inhalation, or perforation. It cuts, stabs, hits and poisons. It turns its host totally insane, and aggressive.
- Death: It destroys its host by cutting its body inside.
- Inescapable: It can hide everywhere and break into every place
2. MYSTERY:
- How can the living mineral be destroyed?
- How to stop it from growing?
- How to remove it from the host? Or from your own body?
3. FEAR PROVOKING APPEARANCE:
- It is shape-shifting
- It can grow spikes and blades
- It has a crystal appearance with metallic sheen
- It emits metallic screechy sounds
- It can blow itself up to turn into a cloud of microscopic spores
4. RULES:
- Once released, the crystal randomly looks for hosts.
- It is attracted by heat and vibrations.
- Once inside your body, it turns you into a psychopath looking for any mineral source, with a special taste for the iron contained in human blood.
- As it ends up poisoning and slaughtering inside its own host in a short period of time, it never stops looking for more hosts, preferably bigger ones.
- Its only goal is to feed to get bigger and bigger.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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Marc KOENIG’s Horror conventions
I brainstormed and changed my mind about the concept. Here’s the new one.
What I learned from Assignment#1:
The conventions are a source of inspiration to create new terrifying situations. They teach you how to “hit where it hurts”.
Analysis of my project
1. Title/Concept:
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>ELEMENT 119
An unknown crystal released from an archeological artifact comes to life, and colonizes organic hosts, turning them into savage killers.
2. Terrorize characters:
- A living mineral creature seemingly invincible, uncontrollable, unpredictable, shape-shifting
- Acting like a parasite
- Always looking for new hosts
- It can turn invisible through mimicry
- It can cut, stab, hit, poison
- Its human or animal hosts get turned into salvage killers
- Hosts develop an insane behavior for themselves (eating glass/metal to feed the crystal) and for others (uncontrollable fury leading to savagely killing people)
- Hosts die after some time in a terrible pain
3. Isolation: Locked up in a research lab, tied up on a gutter, lost in a metallurgical plant
4. Death: Killed by the contaminated host – Slaughtered, stabbed, or poisoned by the crystal – Killed by soldiers using rifles, flame-throwers, chemicals.
5. Monsters:
- The human host turned into a killer
- The crystal outside the host
6. High tension: Releasing something that has been isolated for unknown reasons
Impossible to identify hosts at first sight. Only their behavior shows it. Even hosts themselves ignore that they are infected until they feel weird needs (eating metal etc).
The impending destruction of the lab by the army
Any metallic object can be the crystal using mimicry7. Departure from reality: Living minerals don’t exist.
8. Moral statement:
Good values
- <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Courage:
trying to heal someone although they’re a threat
- <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Self-control: keep calm and smart even in scary situations
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Lines not to cross
- <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Despotism:
sacrificing innocents to create a new weapon
- <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Self-interest: betraying friends to protect your own life
- <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Greed: letting people die for money
</div>
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Marc KOENIG’s Movie conventions
Sample movie analysis
1. Title/Concept: 28 DAYS LATER – A young boy and his older sister must escape from a secured compound devastated by a terrifying disease.
2. Terrorize characters: A highly infectious virus turns people into fast-moving zombies. They hunt humans to slaughter them. A simple bite or a saliva contact can instantly infect you. Being infected is even worse than death. Someone who loves you might turn into a monster in seconds. These zombies are fast, tireless, fierce deadly creatures.
3. Isolation: Locked up in a bunkered house, confined in a military zone, crammed into a dark quarantine room, stuck into a car, alone in the subway.
4. Death: slaughtered by zombies, killed in a deadly crowd movement, shot by snipers, chopper strafing, flame-throwers, chemical weapons.
5. Monster: the fast-running zombies
6. High tension: the zombies are getting closer, and they’re moving fast. The virus is released in the compound. Screams of terror in the dark without seeing the zombies, the only hope of a cure is a young boy who may get killed by soldiers, every deserted place in the country can hide zombies, the devastated towns are a print of the terror, the impending bombing of the compound from where they try to escape, the shapes of the zombies running to them from a distance, but closing in too fast.
7. Departure from reality: This situation has never happened, yet is the fear of the spread of a virus very present in people’s minds now!
8. Moral statement:
- Courage – not rescuing your beloved face to the fear of death,
- Truth – lying to your children about that lack of courage,
- Grudge – be guided by a feeling of revenge and let someone be infected because of you, without taking into account the consequences for others’ lives.
- Apathy: killing innocent people to prevent the disease from spreading
- Sacrifice – being prepared to sacrifice your own life for humanity’s safe.
Analysis of my project
1. Title/Concept: Spores – Locked up in their research lab, a group of scientists is hunted by the carrier of a terrifying disease.
2. Terrorize characters: A highly infectious microscopic mushroom turns people into ruthless killers by attacking their brains. You get infected by breathing its spores. The infected hunt you to catch you and turn you into another carrier, or to use your body as a reserve of organic matter for the mushroom to grow.
3. Isolation: Locked up in a lab, stuck in a hermetic capsule, crawling alone in a duct.
4. Death: slaughtered by the infected, killed by soldiers with rifles, flame-throwers, chemicals.
5. Monster: the ruthless and clever infected.
6. High tension: the infected’s minds focus on hunting and killing. The microscopic spores are spread away by the ventilation system. It is impossible to identify an infected at first sight. Only his behavior shows it, but then it’s often too late. The impending destruction of the lab from where they try to escape. Traps are set by the infected to catch them.
7. Departure from reality: This disease doesn’t exist.
8. Moral statement:
Good values
- Courage: trying to heal your beloved although they’re a threat
- Sacrifice: being prepared to sacrifice your own life for humanity’s safe
- Self-control: keep calm with a smart mind even in terrifying situations
Lines not to cross
- Greed: sacrificing innocents and endangering humanity for the creation of a biological weapon
- Self-interest: betraying friends to protect your own life
What I learned:
The conventions are a source of inspiration to create new terrifying situations. They teach you how to “hit where it hurts”.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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Marc Koenig’s Horror concept
I made confusion by posting the pre-class assignment here… Sorry, guys
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Marc KOENIG.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by
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Hi everyone,
I am Marc KOENIG, from France. I was an engineer in a previous life and decided to become a professional screenwriter 3 years ago. I have written 4 scripts so far – 2 in English and 2 in French – and was optioned for 1. I look forward to learning how to write a horror movie because I love this genre!
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Marc KOENIG
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.
This completes the Group Release Form for the class.
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Marc KOENIG Finds the Essence
What I learned is that the essence is the very first step to create a scene. The essence is to the scene what a high concept is to the whole story. And if the essence of the whole story is its DNA, then the essence of the scene is one of its genes.
The script I choose: THE BOURNE IDENTITY
Scene 1 Location: INT. FISHING BOAT BUNK ROOM
Logline: Giancarlo interrogates the rescued stranger about what he found in his hip.
Essence: The stranger has totally lost his short-term and long-term memory.
Scene 2 Location: EXT. ZURICH PARK
Logline: The stranger easily – and almost unwittingly – knocks out two agents who control him.
Essence: The stranger has amazing fighting skills, but he doesn’t know where they come from.
Scene 3 Location: INT./EXT. US CONSULATE BUILDING
Logline: Jason Bourne escapes the consulate building although he is hunted by a dozen trained soldiers.
Essence: Jason Bourne is wanted by the authorities.
Scene 4 Location: INT. PARIS APARTMENT
Logline: A Treadstone asset assaults Jason Bourne.
Essence: Jason Bourne is hunted to be killed, but he is much more skilled even than special force soldiers.
The scene with the most profound essence:
Scene 5 Location: INT. LITTLE RED CAR
Logline: Jason and Marie reach the end of the journey Jason paid for. Marie wants to stay with Jason. He feels he doesn’t want to leave her.
Essence: Jason and Marie feel something for each other.
Jason and Marie reach what should be the end of the journey together but they both feel the moment of time they have to spend together is not done yet. Marie is looking for a better life and Jason is looking for his own life. They need each other.
Scene
INT. THE LITTLE RED CAR — DAY
STREET NEAR BOURNE’S APARTMENT — DAY RED CAR cruising through town. MARIE driving. BOURNE checking building numbers as they pass —
BOURNE
Slow down. No, don’t stop. Just…MARIE
(looking over)
That’s it? Is that it?
AN APARTMENT BUILDING. Big building. Elegant but cold.
BOURNE
Four-fifty. That’s the address…MARIE
Looks familiar?
BOURNE
No.
(staring back asthey pass–)
No. Go around. Keep going…MARIE pulling up — turning a corner — watching does. But he’s pre-occupied — eyes scanning — all in —
MARIE
Where?
BOURNE
Yeah. Pull in here. Park it.MARIE angles into an alleyway. Cuts the engine.
MARIE
So this is it, right?
BOURNE
I guess.
Dead pause. She’s waiting. He’s still scanning
MARIE
I should go.
BOURNE
I don’t remember any of this.MARIE
Jason…He turns back. She’s staring at him.
BOURNE
Sorry. The money, right?Before she can say anything, he’s digging in the backpack. He pulls out another stack of hundreds. Hands it over. She takes it. It’s not what she wanted, but she’s used to being disappointed. Fighting it.
MARIE
Okay, so…BOURNE
Thanks for the ride.MARIE
Anytime.Silence. That moment. He focuses. Getting it.
BOURNE
Look, I don’t know what’s up there.MARIE
You got me pretty fucking curious.BOURNE
Look, you could come up. Or you
could wait if you want. I could
go check it out. You could wait.MARIE
Nah…(hide the pain)
With you, I mean, you’d probably
just forget about me, right?
BOURNE
How could I forget about you?
(he smiles)
You’re the only person I know.MARIE smiles. We’ve never seen it before. Worth waiting for.
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Hi Eric,
I love your concept! I think I’ll hesitate on my glass of red wine tonight 😱
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Hi Brandon,
Ukulele music in a horror movie would be absolutely delicious 😄