What I liked most about this showdown was that every time I opened an e-mail submission, I would read the logline and think, “Ooh, this sounds good!” You can’t even begin to understand how amazing that feeling is when you compare it to what I usually go through, which is that I have to repeatedly read ten submissions to find a single decent logline.
With that said, if I’m being 1 million percent honest, there were no standout first scenes here. Which isn’t the end of the world. It’s hard to write a great first scene. Heck, it’s hard to write a great anything.
One of you posted a published top 10 list of the best agreed-upon opening horror scenes of all time and even that list starts to get weak towards the bottom. The 11 thru 20 best that you also posted made me realize just how rare it is to find a strong first scene.
But I think there’s a clear best scene in this bunch. Curious to see if you guys vote it to the top. I will reveal which one I thought was the clear winner at the end of the weekend. You can vote until Sunday, 10pm Pacific Time.
If you’ve never voted in a showdown before, it’s easy. Read as much of each scene as you can then use the comment section to cast your vote for your favorite scene. I’ll review the winner after the weekend.
And since I know this question will be asked, there were 62 writers who submitted their first scene for the showdown.
Good luck everybody and have an awesome screenwriting weekend. It goes without saying: Write your asses off!
TITLE: Karoshi: The Drive
Genre: Horror
Logline: A reporter investigates the stories of people who are literally working themselves to death, then realizes she can’t eat or sleep or rest either, she must keep working on the story, hoping to undo the curse before it kills her too…
Full Scene: LINK HERE
Title: CLEAVE
Genre: Horror
Logline: At a couples retreat for failing marriages, a husband and wife face an extreme form of therapy that requires purification through pain. As the therapy grows increasingly brutal, it becomes clear that their hosts have no intention of letting them leave alive.
Full Scene: LINK HERE
Title: The Devil in 5D
Genre: Horror
Logline: A woman begins to suspect the man living in the floor above her is actually Satan, and the building itself a portal to hell.
Full Scene: LINK HERE
Title: Immolation
Genre: Horror
Logline: Haunted by her husband’s fiery suicide, a young widow infiltrates a trauma-support cult connected to his death only to find herself seduced by its charismatic leader, who promises spiritual liberation through self-immolation.
Full Scene: LINK HERE
Title: Bite to Bite
Genre: Horror
Logline: From bite to bite, we follow the zombie infection as it spreads – each victim’s story unfolding from the moment they’re bitten to when they pass it on.
Full Scene: LINK HERE
Title: The Zakim
Genre: Horror – Monster in a Box
Logline: A group of motorists become trapped when a monster intended to be the ultimate killing machine gets loose on Boston’s Zakim Bridge and the military won’t let anyone off until the beast feeds.
Full Scene: LINK HERE
