Horror Script
 

Hey, I'm currently working on a script for a low budget horror movie for college and I need some ideas for then next scene.

I've introduced the characters, the ghost and the location (which is at the college they go to) and the characters have just ran into the ghost for the first time and they ran away but I dunno what to do next, make them speak at the front of the building about their encounter or wait until the next day.

Any ideas?

Re: Horror Script
 

This sounds like a plot from a scooby doo film! :rolleyes:
:D

If it was me i would be straight down the bar getting pissed, and college students need precious little excuse to do that. They can chat there.

lol well its nothing like Scooby Doo and besides if you just saw a ghost wouldn't you run from it speicaly when it screams "GET OUT!"

Oh and the film has to be like ten minutes long, I got this idea for the next day but I don't really know what to make them say when they just saw it and after there conversation about it.

Got any more ideas?

Re: Horror Script
 

...then they try to find out the history of the ghost....like on the internet or in some old books...and then the ghost come and kill them all...the last scene is that the ghost still haunting the school

Re: Re: Horror Script
 

Thats a good place to go, maybe there could be a creaky old janitor who points them in the right direction

Re: Re: Re: Horror Script
 

..Yeah...its cool when then use an old guy/lady who knows alot about the paranormale....its called the learning stage in movie terms..i think...but if it gonna only last 10 min. then it would be hard to have an decent presentation of the actor....

Re: Horror Script
 

They all ran into a ghost???? Then they should be discussing the current situation right now, not the next day.

You should make them go to the local pub after they run off to discuss the situation and they mention it in front of one of the locals. The whole bar goes quiet and some old crotchity man in the corner smoking a pipe tells the story about the ghost of some janitor that was murdered with a mop bucket or something and still roams the halls of the local college.

The reason he told them to "Get Out" was because he just finished mopping the floor and they are tracking dirt in on his nice clean floor.

Guaranteed an A for that one. Horror should have an element of humor in it.

Re: Re: Horror Script
 

nope

Re: Re: Horror Script
 

Great idea except the humor !

Re: Re: Re: Horror Script
 

It shouldnt??? Why not??

I always find a film to be more enjoyable with a hint of dark humor.

Re: Re: Horror Script
 

In a ten minute film i think it should all take place within a relativly small space of time. Straight down the bar, are overheard by some old timer who knows the background story and straight back to the ghost for the final showdown. For a bit of originality i would be tempted to have the ghost come out on top of any confrontation.

Personally, I would send them in different directions after the encounter. They get outside, "What the Hell was that?" The alcoholic in the group needs a drink and goes to the nearest bar where an old drunk explains the mystery. The group intellectual searches the library database and the remaining students return to the dorms for the only things college students do more of than drinking. Those people die and it's left to the smart guy and the drunk to save the school. A lot for ten minutes, but it could make a cool montage if you intercut to what they are all doing while the old drunk tells his story.

Well I mostly do have the story done, I have one character telling the tale at the beginning, they all think it's BS. Then a new guy moves to the college and startd hanging round with a girl that one of the characters like so they decided to all go to the college to see the ghost thinking it's not really, but it turns out it is and then they slowly die off one by one and for final originality I was planning on killing all of the group members. :D

Youre going to jam all this in 10mins of film?? Thats going to be tough.

And who says horror doesnt have to be funny. Target practice in "Dawn of the Dead" remake wasnt funny??

Some of the lines in "Dracula" by ANthony Hopkins wasnt funny???

Come on guys sick humor is the best humor.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Horror Script
 

i guess it is a matter of taste...i just dont think humor is the best way to scare people...and it is very difficult to be funny...atleast if I gonna laught....;)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Horror Script
 

Agreed, but I think that is why people want to be scared. Its fun.

Being scared and being amused are 2 basic human emotions.

If there's no element of relating to characters on screen, audiences don't identify with them - meaning it's less likely to scare an audience if they're not rooting for someone to get away from whatever menace. 'Nightmare on Elm St' is a perfect example. The first film was scary as hell. All the subsequents weren't. Why ? Too much focus on Freddy cracking lame one liners while cardboard cut-out teenagers fill up the body count quota. Sure it's easier to have some masked maniac chasing people around with a machete and hope that's considered scary enough, but I'd definitely prefer more character to the intended victims if I know I want people to be scared for them. Add some dialogue. Make some jokes. Make a viewer relate. Then scare the hell out of them :D
CK

I didnt like what Freddy become...his one liners wasnt funny...thats correct...

..its a real danger for a movie to become "Independence Day" (1996) or "Armageddon" (1998) if you try to put all the genres in one movie( a lovestory, action sekvense, little comedy, some tragedy and a happy ending)........
its more interesting to focus on characteres that not are funny ....and not have a lovestory going on ....maybe he/her have some mental problems or something...and its nearly almost TO MUCH dialogue in movies (in genral)...people dont talk all the time...but on screen they do......why dont directors dare to have less dialogue and more style ?

That's the Hollywood mentality- try to cover all the bases and hope it makes millions. I try to make my characters interesting enough to be human and not fodder for the body count. The smaller the cast, the more details are helpful. It can explain their actions and reactions as well to an audience. For example, a short I'm doing in the next few weeks (no title included due to my anti-spamming belief) has our heroine-in-peril at the front door to escape. She knows that someone or something is in the apartment and it just killed her best friend in the next room, yet she stops and goes back in after it. Why ? Most viewers would start yelling at the screen to get out at that point. I think they won't since I've made it clear she would go after whatever did this to her friend. People can relate to her. If something that horrible happened to a loved one and the culprit was still in the place at that moment, that need is there. I think people will be reminded when seeing it.
CK

Maybe you should consider keeping your characters inside the college with the ghost. Maybe your ghost doesn't want them to leave at all. Maybe it needs them for something. Maybe it wants to take over their bodies. Maybe it wants to maim. Whatever the reason, it would be better to keep them there than have your audience wonder why in the hell your characters would want to go back in there. You would, however, have to think about how the ghost is keeping them from getting away. I guess you could say that the ghost takes over their bodies and lures other people to the college. Oh, you would probably have to kill off a character. Obviously it wouldn't be able to be in two or more bodies at once. The ghost wouldn't be able to leave the college, though. Other people would be looking for the missing characters. With each death that the ghost brings upon them it gets stronger. Finally it gets strong enough to leave the college and wreaks havoc on the rest of the town.

How was that?

Have them try to ward the ghost off...with group sex

Re: Re: Horror Script
 

lol@murdered with a mop bucket. Sounds like classic Troma material. :D
lol Sick humor is where it's at. :D What would this world be like without sick humor? :)

Is anyone else sick of ghost stories?

I mean if I went into a building that was creepy (and it better be a damn good reason) and a F**king ghost tells me to "Get Out!" I get the F out and that's the end of the story. Ghost is happy, and I'm freaked out but alive.

The only logical way to do it is to somehow make these people trapped with the ghost otherwise people just think the characters are stupid and deserve to die for going back.

Well the ghost haunts their college so they'll need to go back lol.

I have an idea of them going back one last time, most die this night, the ghost has sealed off the college and they're basicly trapped until dawn.

Ghost defeated thing is simlair to the "Darkness Falls" ending where the toothfairy thing can die because of sun light, thats what I was thinking how my ghost can die. But at the very end, when the main hero is at home and thinks its all over it comes back and kills him.

Sound any good to you guys?

Also I just got to scene 12 and I was thinking that the ghost kinda chases them and then they split up and then start dying but I dunno if I should of them just running or make the ghost show up and then chase after them. Any ideas?

The thought that scares me about any ghost story is that once a person is so misfortunate to encounter some form of ghost, they can't shake it (like in The Entity). You got ten minutes of college kids seeing a ghost. Let it stick to one while the others run, except of course for one devoted friend/girlfriend who will investigate to find out who it was, why it's there, why it's sticking to you, and how to get rid of it (and that's the part that should be interesting). My resolution to this would be to stick it to the devoted friend/girlfriend. Hardy har har.

Well I do plan to have a twist where it was there minds that actually killed them, it wasn't the ghost that killed them but it was the ghost that made them crazy.

Month and a half and you haven't finished a ten minute film?

I've had other work to do for college, including another script.

And besides I don't start shooting until the 9th of December.

So the ghost is out all day and night? Because if it's just there at night then they have no reason to go back.

Well it appears about midnight and they decided to go back to try and kill it because it killed their friends.

I finished the script, last week, and I should begin shooting this week.

If you guys want to have a look at it and give me feedback or CC on it than go ahead, its about 12 pages long in total though. I do believe this version does have some spelling/grammer mistakes but not to worry splling and what not in proper script are already taken care of.

""And before you ask for some reason she can't leave the walls of the college at least until he returns""

You should have a reason WHY she can't leave the walls. "For some reason" sounds like you haven't put that much thought into the history of the ghost. It also doesn't work for your ending since Jack and Lisa are in a house when they are visited. Perhaps you should consider tying it in to something at beginning for the legend to unfold rather than Rob seemingly blurting it out of the blue because somebody thought they heard something.
Just a suggestion. Good luck with it. Nice to see it was actually written out in screenplay form.
CK

Rob "blurting" it out is meant to be kinda of a joke, you know as in it's just some story not real, this is the reason why they decided to see if it is real or not.

And now that you mention it does sound rather weird that he says
I think, I'll change that during shooting.

Just my thoughts on it. Don't take it as gospel :D
When do you start shooting ?
CK

lol, We start this wednesday, I'm trying to get most of the important stuff done first before the holidays and then we will start shooting once again after the holidays.

Is there any bread in your film?

I want a ghost film with a piece of bread in it.

Wait, that's a toast film...

Carry on.

:o