I kind of wrote myself into a corner here. I created a Showdown month that was just like every other Showdown month (send in your logline and the best 5 get picked) except that I told you you’d also be judged on the first line of your script. Thus, it became confusing for me to choose which writers to highlight this weekend. Am I basing their entry on the logline or am I basing it on the first line?
I quickly realized that people who sent in the best loglines were not always the ones who sent in the best first lines, and vice versa. If I was to try and find entries that only had good loglines AND good first lines, there would probably be only one entry this month. So I went back to the tried and true – best loglines get featured, then whatever first line they gave me, they gave me. I’ll let you guys decide if those first lines are dealbreakers or not.
If you haven’t played Logline Showdown before, the rules are easy. I give you five loglines and you vote for your favorite one in the comments section. Votes will be tallied and the logline with the most votes gets a script review next month. You are encouraged to give reasons for why you chose your winner and feedback to the losers (but neither is necessary). Just so we’re clear: You’re voting for the best logline. But if you think the best logline has a weak first line, you’re free to let that influence your vote.
Let’s do it, shall we? It’s time for… FIRST LINE SHOWDOWN.
Title: RAZORBACK
Genre: Action/Thriller
Logline: After his only daughter dies of a fentanyl overdose, a vengeful Arkansas hog farmer purges his town of drug dealers and then ventures into the jungles of Sinaloa to dismantle the lab and confront the drug lord responsible for her death.
Title: Mal — War-dog
Genre: Action adventure
Logline: After stealing a traumatized K-9 from the army, a washed-up veteran battles a relentless posse through an inhospitable mountain range to give her a new life in the wilds.
Title: Bunker Mentality
Genre: Zombie comedy/satire
Logline: At the outset of a zombie plague, a group of high-ranking government officials struggle to manage the emergency response and petty feuds after they inadvertently trigger an overnight lockdown and seal themselves inside a secret military bunker – with zombies inside.
Title: Animosity
Genre: Horror
Logline: After he discovers the body of a murdered 9-year-old girl near his house, a popular horror author’s neighbors decide he must be guilty of the crime and take justice into their own hands.
Title: Tomorrow Never Knows
Genre: Thriller
Logline: In the aftermath of the Roswell crash, a hardboiled mortician who’s fallen for an army nurse must rescue her from being lobotomized by the military after she witnesses an alien autopsy.
