The voting begins NOW!
How excited am I for Halloween Horror Showdown? Let’s put it this way. My favorite candy in the universe is the Reese’s peanut butter cup. Halloween allows me to buy bags upon bags of Reese’s peanut butter cups from the supermarket and nobody questions me. “Of course these are for the trick-or-treaters. What? You think I would eat all of these by myself? Ha ha ha ha. What a silly idea. That’s way too much candy for one person.” But as only I, and Scriptshadow readers know, those Reese’s will never reach a child’s hands. Because they’re mine! All mine!!! Mwahahahahahahha!!!”
I got some KILLER entries this year. Horror is clearly the genre people on this site are the most passionate about. Most interesting logline that didn’t make it: “Seven influential philanthropists must fight for their lives after attending a charity event secretly hosted by a murderous cult of billionaires. Ready or Not meets Die Hard.” Favorite “Why You Should Read:” Because we all know that feeling when you kinda like the people you follow online, but also kinda want them to die.
Just know that there were a handful of entries that were very close to making the cut. So don’t get down on yourself if you weren’t picked. This was a close race!
If you’re new to these parts, you’re probably confused about what’s going on here. Well, the Scriptshadow Showdown Series is a quarterly screenplay competition where anyone can send in their script and compete. I go through all the loglines and pick my favorite five. I post those five loglines, along with the scripts themselves, so that you can download and read the scripts.
Your duty is to read as much of each entry as you can then vote for your favorite in the comments section (just write the title of your favorite script and your vote is counted). Feel free to add commentary on why you picked the script and also why you didn’t pick the others. Showdowns double as an opportunity for the competing screenwriters to get feedback and improve.
A new feature for this showdown, by the way, which I’m sure you’ll all love. I include the reason I picked each script!
Good luck to all of you. Let’s find a killer screenplay!
Title: Cinder (taken down – writer and script are making progress. :)
Title: My Dinner With Andre
Genre: Horror/Thriller/Black Comedy
Logline: A struggling journalist is invited to dinner by a canceled actor suspected of cannibalism. But as the night descends into chaos and madness, she not only questions if the accusations are true, but if she’ll make it out of the house alive.
Why you should read: It’s a ripped from the headlines story that mixes original Hollywood monster movies and into the real-life monsters of Hollywood resulting in a macabre, modern-age horror hybrid.
Why I picked it: In addition to being timely, this seems like the perfect little intimate horror flick that would be cheap to make.
Title: Alone
Genre: Horror
Logline: Stalked by a supernatural force that only strikes when she is alone, a monophobic young woman joins a group retreat to conquer her fear of isolation. But she soon finds there is no safety in numbers, as the combined anxiety of the group amplifies the demons that hunt them.
Why you should read: This script is fully vaccinated against pandemics. It contains a small cast, limited locations, and a high concept that could be produced on a budget. It takes the primal fear of being alone and packages it as a new brand of monster.
Why I picked it: Anxiety has become a much bigger problem in society since the pandemic so I was drawn to a story about anxiety, and I liked the clever twist of the group anxiety making the monster even stronger.
Title: The Short List
Genre: Horror-Thriller/Dark Comedy
Logline: A self-made Black executive is invited to join an eclectic group of colleagues from his elite private equity firm for a weekend retreat at the estate of their mysterious boss and soon realizes they’re fighting for the same promotion — and their lives.
Why you should read: “The Short List” was a semi-finalist in this year’s Nicholl Fellowship, landing in the top 150 out of nearly 8,200 screenplays. Also, some people who have read it have made favorable comparisons to “The Menu,” which I know you’ve listed among your favorite scripts.
Why I picked it: I was on the fence with this one but I read the first page and really liked the writing. Also, when he mentioned “The Menu,” one of my favorite scripts last year, that definitely caught my interest.
Title: Bloodmouth
Genre: Horror – Creature Feature
Logline: An agoraphobic woman struggles to survive as grotesque winged creatures wreak havoc on the world outside, forcing her to decide between staying in the comfort of her home or facing the unknown and reuniting with family who may or may not be alive.
Why you should read: I hate to talk about it anymore, but COVID really messed with our heads. Not knowing what’s out there, how other people are doing, the feeling of being trapped, isolated, and not being comfortable going for groceries. It was odd and scary (it was fucked quite honestly). During this time, I thought of writing a script where the protagonist has agoraphobia, and not set in a COVID universe, but in a normal universe. In this case, the person may possibly experience those feelings daily, which is terrifying to me. So then the reddit horror screenplay challenge started, and I was assigned ‘creature feature’. Perfect. A woman is confined to her home while something is out there. I wanted to make a modern creature feature, featuring the terror of The Birds and the darkness of The Descent. And voila, out of the darkness on bloody wings flew Bloodmouth. I was also inspired by an engraving titled ‘Knight, Death, and the Devil’. I hope you like it. It was a lot of fun to write!
Why I picked it: I like the timeliness of the concept. And, again, I’m drawn to stories about anxiety right now. Since they’re kind of similar, I’m hoping that one of these two (Bloodmouth or Alone) stands out and delivers on the promise of this subject matter.
Title: Gravesite Crows
Genre: Slasher
Logline: A murder of crows and a haunted shaman’s mask reanimate a disgraced Native American so he can get revenge against five high schoolers that killed him in drunk driving accident.
Why you should read: This script has lots of chase and thrill scenes that I think the faithful at Scriptshadow will have a fun time dissecting. — For those on the fence when it comes to slashers, I’ve brought in some unique ideas and effects that have never been done before. Gravesite Crows is not a knock-off Halloween (1978) or any other horror movie. There is humor to be found in the filmables and the unfilables in this script. — Finally, you should read Gravesite Crows because it looks unlike any other script you’ve ever read. I used colors and fonts to break-up the static, black-and-white page to emphasize the unique elements of the script and draw attention to the visuals in the story.
Why I picked it: What can you say!? I’ve seen E.C. grafting like a boss these last two weeks and I just can’t ignore the determination this man has. He’s so easy to root for and I had to give him a shot!
