Is Zach Cregger now better at writing Stephen King stories than Stephen King?
Genre: Horror
Premise: When every kid from a third-grade classroom runs away into the night at the exact same time, disappearing, the town centers their suspicion on the children’s teacher.
About: Zach Cregger barreled into the crowded horror market after his film, Barbarian, became a surprise box office hit, allowing him to set up numerous movies around town. This was the first big project he set up. It stars Julia Garner.
Writer: Zach Cregger
Details: 118 pages
I’m on a good script-reading run.
I read three genuinely good consultation scripts last week, which is rare.
That streak continues today because we’ve got a kick ass horror script. It’s so good, in fact, I’m thinking this is going to blow up when it hits theaters. Not only that, but I believe it’s going to change the horror game. Because it’s not your average horror film. These days, everybody makes the same horror movies again and again. The whole industry has gotten lazy. Cregger is about to change that.
Justine Gandy is a 3rd grade teacher who’s about to have her life turned upside-down. She shows up to class one morning and all but 1 of her 18 kids is gone. It turns out that, the previous night, every kid in her class (except that 1) got up at 2 in the morning and ran away, their arms stretched out wide, like an airplane, something captured by all the home Ring cameras.
Because the only constant in this mystery is Justine, everyone assumes she had something to do with it. Principal Andrew has no choice but to put her on temporary leave, which means Justine is hitting the bottle every night, trying to make sense of what happened.
The script changes POVs throughout. So, even though we start with Justine, we eventually move to Archer, one of the parents determined to get his kid back. He’s convinced Justine knows more than she’s letting on. We also follow Officer Paul, a married policeman who Justine is hooking up with. And, finally, a homeless drug addict named Anthony.
We’re going to get into some semi-spoilers here so you have been warned. Justine is very concerned about the lone surviving kid in her class, Alex, and goes to his home, only to find that, by peeking through the window, his parents are on the couch not moving at all. They’re alive but, for some reason, they’re frozen in this awkward position. Whatever’s going on seems to be tied to this house.
When Justine and Archer come back to the house later, they’re shocked to see a brain-dead bloodied Principal Andrew charging them. I think it’s best that I not continue summarizing the script because it is built on surprises and reveals. But what I will tell you is that, from that point on, things get craaaaaaaaazy.
The best way I would categorize Zach Cregger is to say he’s the mainstream version of Ari Aster. His movies are way more thoughtful than the average horror film, but he cares more about scaring people than shocking people. Which makes his movies more fun than Ari’s.
Just yesterday, I was talking about non-traditional narratives and how they’re hard to write. But you wouldn’t know that after reading Weapons. Even though the narrative weaves all over the place, taking on different points of view, occasionally jumping back in time, you’re never lost. And I know exactly why that is.
It’s because Cregger writes full scenes.
Let me repeat that. Cause it’s important. CREGGER WRITES FULL SCENES.
You see, when you do something complicated on one side of your script, you have to balance that out by doing something simple on the other side. This is a potentially confusing narrative with all the jumping around. Therefore, when we do get into these POV sections, Cregger writes long scenes with beginnings, middles, and ends. This allows us to settle into the new POV and get our bearings. Also, it improves the entertainment value, since we’re getting these mini-stories within the larger story.
For example, Anthony, the drug addict, comes to Alex’s house, hoping to steal something so he can buy some drugs. And we follow him as he stakes out the house (beginning), sneaks in and steals stuff (middle), then tries to get out when other people in the house come after him (end).
I don’t see that in enough scripts these days. Every writer has become a scene-fragment writer. So, it was refreshing to be able to sit in these scenes for a while and build up suspense and get pulled in and want to see what happens next. I just don’t see that anymore and Cregger shows you why writing out full scenes matters. Because they’re more engaging! I’m not engaged by a half-page mini-scene where one character tells another character some exposition.
The main reason this movie is going to work, though, is that it’s different. We’ve got a very unique mythology here that I’ve never come across before. More importantly, we’ve got horror images that I’ve never seen. Just these kids running outside in the middle of the night with their hands out is both creepy and original.
You have to understand that in every horror script I read, there’s someone at a mirror seeing a scary person behind them. If you’re writing that scene into your horror script, you’ve already lost. Not because nothing with a mirror jump scare works. But because it demonstrates laziness. You’re just doing what you’ve already seen before.
I don’t see that when I read a Zach Cregger script. I see someone striving to avoid cliché. And it pays off. Cause this script is the best of both worlds. It’s a storyline you haven’t seen before. But it’s still familiar enough that people are going to want to see it. It’s not like Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid, where you watch the trailer and you have no idea what’s going on.
Finally, this script possesses that rare x-factor *thing* that some writers just seem to have. And I’m envious of it. It’s this thing that you can’t quite put your finger on where they’re able to tell this slightly unique story in a slightly unique way and you mix in these shocks and these scares and this mythology and this imagery, and you still tell a good story with each scene, all of which creates this exceptional experience that can’t be replicated by many writers. We were just talking about AI last post. AI could NEVER write a script like this. Ever. Cause you need to be part fucked up, part messy, part good screenwriter, part oddball. You need to be flawed. And AI doesn’t have that tool in its toolbox.
The only mark against this script is the character writing. Justine was too one-dimensional for my taste. She just drank a lot and lashed out at people. And none of the other characters are that deep. For example, Archer just wants his son. There is nothing more to his character than that.
But, strangely enough, it doesn’t matter. We’re so pulled in by this bizarre mystery that we’re determined to keep turning the pages until we find out what happened. And what happened is crazy. Definitely recommend this one!
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[x] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Make the mystery at the center of your story more interesting. This is EASILY the biggest lesson I learned from this script. Every horror script I read is a scary monster with a mask, or some kid’s been kidnapped, or some slasher is on the loose. This setup is so much more compelling because it doesn’t make sense. And our minds are determined to make sense of things that don’t make sense. So people are going to show up to this movie just to find out what the hell happened with these kids.
