Writing Movie Scripts - How to Write a Horror Script

A horror movie has certain rules. If you break too many, the audience will be disappointed.
This is a very short, no fluff, blueprint of how to write a horror script.

1. The Hook. Start with a bang. Step right into a suspense scene. ("Scream" opens with a terrifying sequence with Drew Barrymore on the phone with a killer)

2. The Flaw. Introduce your hero. Give him a flaw. Before you can put your hero in jeopardy we must care for him. We must want our hero to succeed. So make him human. (In "Signs" Mel Gibson plays a priest who has lost his faith after his wife died)

3. The Fear. A variant of The Flaw. The hero has a fear. Maybe a fear of heights, or claustrophobia. (In "Jaws" Roy Scheider has a fear of water. At the end he has to conquer his fear by going out onto the ocean to kill the shark)

4. No Escape. Have your hero at an isolated location where he can't escape the horror. (Like the hotel in "The Shining")

5. Foreplay. Tease the audience. Make them jump at scenes that appear scary -- but turn out to be completely normal. (Like the cat jumping out of the closet) Give them some more foreplay before bringing in the real monster.

6. Evil Attacks. A couple of times during the middle of the script show how evil the monster can be -- as it attacks its victims.

7. Investigation. The hero investigates, and finds out the truth behind the horror.

8. Showdown. The final confrontation. The hero has to face both his fear and the monster. The hero uses his brain, rather than use his muscles, to outsmart the monster. (At the end of "The Village" the blind girl tricks the monster to fall into the hole in the ground)

9. Aftermath. Everything's back to the way it was from the beginning -- but the hero has changed for the better or for the worse. (At the end of "Signs" you see Mel Gibson puts on his clerical collar again -- he got his faith back)

10. Evil Lurks. We see evidence that the monster may return somewhere..somehow..in the future..(Almost all of the "Friday The 13'th"-movies end with Jason showing signs of returning for yet another sequel)

Now you too can start writing your horror screenplay. Good luck!

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Horror Movie Heroes

If you love horror movies, you have got to have a few favorite characters or actors that are famous for their horror movie roles. At the top of the list, Bela Lugosi is a legend. Vincent Price is another horror movie classic hero, as is Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone. Jack Nicholson is a more recent horror movie hero. Also high up on the list are Lon Chaney Jr. and Sr. Elsa Lanchester did a great job in "Bride of Frankenstein".

Here is a list of some great horror movies you may remember, which include a few of the movies that Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price and others starred in:

• Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde starring John Barrymore
• Blue Beard starring John Carradine
• The Corpse Vanishes starring Bela Lugosi
• Night of the Living Dead starring Judith O'Dea
• Doomed to Die starring Boris Karloff
• The Phantom of the Opera starring Lon Chaney, Sr.
• The Indestructible Man starring Lon Chaney, Jr.
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame Lon Chaney, Sr.
• Nosferatu starring Max Schreck
• Swamp Women starring Mike Connors
• The World Gone Mad starring Pat O'Brien
• The Little Shop of Horrors starring Jack Nicholson
• Tormented starring Richard Carlson
• The Monster Walks starring Rex Lease
• Monster from a Prehistoric Planet starring Tamio Kawaji
• The Gorilla starring The Ritz Brothers
• A Shriek in the Night starring Ginger Rogers
• Bloodlust starring Robert Reed
• The Amazing Mr. X starring Turhan Bay
• Last Woman on Earth starring Robert Towne
• The Bat starring Vincent Price
• The House on Haunted Hill starring Vincent Price
• The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price

Some of the actors starring in the above movies do not seem to conform to the genre. Imagine Ginger Rogers not starring in a musical, but as the star in the movie "A Shriek in the Night"!

Horror movies are not everyone's 'cup of tea', but there are sure some great ones out there. Some are definitely corny, some are super scary and some have excellent story lines. A lot of the old horror movies may seem 'cheesy' now, but in their time they were seen as classics to be remembered. And it wasn't for nothing that certain people rose to the top as actors in the horror movie genre. Bela Lugosi, for instance, could chill anyone's bones. And Vincent Price certainly had a wicked laugh.

Female horror movies heroes could include: Sigoureny Weaver (from the Aliens movies), Mila Jovovich (from the Resident Evil series), Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween), Sissy Spasek (in Stephen King's Carrie)and Janet Leigh (in Psycho).

It is up to you to choose which horror movie hero is your favorite, male or female, old or new, but if you love horror movies, past or present, you are sure to have one.

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The Brain That Wouldn't Die - A Great Horror Movie!

Movie Poster

If you're looking for great science fiction horror movies from the past, then you have to see The Brain That Wouldn't Die!  Directed by Joseph Green in 1959 it is a real classic horror movies.  It involves a creepy tale of a brilliant surgeon (Jason Evers) whose girlfriend (played by Virginia Leith) dies (she is decapitated in a car accident).  He is unable to deal with her death so he comes up with an ingenious way to keep her head alive.  The head is kept in a surgical tray and is able to think and talk. The doctor is planning to put her back together, get a new body for her head. Believe me, this movie will really creep you out!  It is definitely an oldy horror movie, but a goodie!

Just as a note, the film was completed in 1959 with the title The Black Door, but wasn't released until 1962 with the new name of The Brain That Wouldn't Die.


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Modern Science Fiction - Article by Samir K. Dash

Science fiction is a narrative (usually in prose) or a short story, 'novella' or novel length. As to what it is about, is not easily classificable. Such stories are about an amazing variety of things, topics and ideas. But in general these ideas are related to the field of science.
 
The premodern science fiction were about journey to new lands, and some are also related to industrial revolution --- to the new developed machines --- which were to be more specific were not related to the electronics and quantum physics phase. This branch of science can be also called 'empirical science fiction', as imagination were based on the empirical science that was just able to develop some mechanical machines and complex bio-chemical drugs.
 
This phase of science fiction includes, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein (1818), Joules Verne's Journey to the centre of the Earth (1864) and 2000 Leagues Under the Sea (1869).
 
But after towards the end part Victorian phase the scientific imagination developed to a new height. More complex theories of scientific causes were beginning to be used in writing science fiction. This phase is the Modern Period of science fiction. This phase include more technical details of science and used concepts of time and outer space. This phase lasted till the end of Second world war(i.e. 1945).
 
This phase of science fictions include mostly H.G.Well's Time Machine(1895), Island of Dr. Moreu(1896), The War of the Worlds(1898) and First Men in Moon(1901).
 
Upto this phase , science was thought to be some kind of saviour of mankind --- more like a passage to a better future. But in 1945, with the explosion of Atomic Bomb in Hiroshima of Japan, this view was shattered. The creator of the bomb commented that the "world would never be the same". This gave way to the 'Dysotopian view' of modern man's life that was shaped by science, otherwise which in some case may result in destruction of human race and civilization. From this the Post Modern phase of science fiction began.
 
In 1949, George Orwell published Nineteen Hundred Eighty Four . Then it was followed by Issac Assimov's Foundation (1951), Foundation and empire (1952), The Second foundation (1953) and Ray Bradbury's Farenhit 451
 
But the dystopian vision was more painted dark with the use of hi-tech technological information of science by the "New Wave Science Fiction".
 
In this New Wave Science Fiction, the naturalism was used to present the scientific growth in the fiction as a very probable process to real development of science. Among such works are Arthur C. Clarke's I, Robot(1951), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1967), 2010: A Space Odyssey Two (1982). There came a flood of new generation science fiction writers like J.G.Ballard (Grey Beard), Michel Crichton (Jurassic Park, Congo) , Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughter house 5).
 
During the 1980s, due to revolution in Computer Science and Internet, the "cyber world" revolution paved the way for "Cyber-punk" --- a new genre of science fiction, that dealt with Hypertyext, multiple identity and identity murder in the virtual world. The first of this kind was written in 1982 by William Gibson under the title Necromancer.
 
Thus the science fiction has turned into a major genre.
 
© Samir K. Dash, 2004

About The Author
 
Samir K. Dash is a UGC-NET qualified, MA (English) from Ravenshaw (auto) College, Cuttack, Orissa (India).
 
You can contact the author at : samirk_dash@yahoo.com
Home page: http://www.samirshomepage.zzn.com/

If you would like to read a new science fiction story about alien invasion, try "The Dolls", available at:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ICN2F4

Children all over the world have been finding ugly rag dolls, and they won’t let go of them. The dolls are changing the children, even killing them. One lone astronomy professor tries to find out why the earth’s children are so obsessed with these dolls and what the future holds in this tale of alien invasion.

Alfred Hitchcock Horror Stories

There is no doubt that Alfred Hitchcock was a master of telling horror stories.  His type of horror stories didn't always contain the science fiction aspect that is often associated with horror, but his tales centred more of the human condition -- like the workings of the human mind.  Some might classify his stories as more murder mystery, but there was always more to that in them.  They truly should be in the horror genre, dealing with not only murder plots but thriller scenes and pyschopathic characters.  Many of his plots were considered 'off-the-wall' but were very strangley compelling.

One of Hitchcock's works that could be classified in the science fiction horror stories genre would be "The Birds", a tale that told of birds that were attacking people.  One scene of a woman with her eyes pecked out could certainly be put in with other famous horror scenes. 

What one must know about Alfred Hitchcock's works is that his movies were often based on books that he did not write.  He simply introduced them in his unique way to the screen to present as horror stories on film.

Here are a couple of Alfred Hitchcock films you may appreciate in the horror stories genre:

Psycho (1960) - based on a novel by Robert Bloch

The Birds (1963) - based on a novel by Daphne Du Maurier

Spellbound (1945) - based on a Francis Beeding novel

Hitchcock also had his own T.V. show for many years, called "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", where he himself appeared to introduce each story.  The original series aired from 1955 to 1962 (7 seasons).  From 1962 to 1965 it was knows as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and then in 1985 a the "New Alfred Hitchcock Presents" series began with a pilot movie and went on for 4 seasons.

Anyone that is into horror stories and thrillers will get a lot of pleasure from watching any of Alfred Hitchcock's stories.  They may not all be science fiction horror, but they are all worth watching.

If you are interested in reading other 'off-the-wall' stories, you may like my new series of stories about what can occur in "The Forgotten Shelter", stories centred on the bomb shelters that have been forgotten and left to rot after the initial scare of war bombs creating an apocolypse in the '50's and 60's.  Here is the first story in the series, "Shut In", available at:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006U1WGZA

List of Old Sci Fi Horror Movies You Might Like

I just wanted to give you a list of a couple science fiction horror movies you might be interested in.  Most of these are based on books (and not just made for the big screen or T.V.) so even if you deplore black and white movies, you can still read the books to get the story.

The Puppet Masters (1994) - based on Robert Heinlein's 1951 novel

They (They Watch) (1993) - based on a short story by Rudyard Kipling

They Came From Beyond Space (1967) - based on the book by Joseph Millard called T"he Gods Hate Kansas"

Village of the Damned - (1960 & 1995) - based on the book "The Midwich Cuckoos" by John Wyndham

Children of the Damned (1963) - sequel to Village of the Damned

Frankenstein (1958) - based on Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" (this movie plot has been redone many times, so it may be worth reading the book before you see any of the movies to decide which one you like best and which one best follows the original story.)

The Blob (1958) - not based on any book that I know of, but worth watching.  Also re-done in 1988.

The Quartermass Experiment (1956) & The Quartermass Conclusion (1979) - The Quartermass Experiment may be found under the U.S. title: The Creeping Unknown

In my mind science fiction and horror stories go hand-in-hand and make a great combination.  Of course, you can find many science fiction movies that are just that - based on space stories and science experiments gone wrong, but are not necessarily classed in the horror genre.  Then you can also find horror stories on the other hand that are just that - horror, but they do not have a science fiction 'bend' to them. (Consider the "Silence of the Lambs" as one such.)  Stephen King (who is a writing genius) can write both kinds. (Tommyknockers and The Dome, just to mention two that include both science fiction and horror stories together, while other of his books like Carrie or Cujo are just horror stories.)

If you like obscure stories, out of the oridinary, you might like to try "Brother Mine", a story of what might happen in Those Forgotten Shelters (the bomb shelters of the '50's and '60's).  This is the second story in a series.  Available at:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0077SH74K

Do Monster Movies Belong in the Horror Film Genre?

In the minds of some people, monsters and horror movies go hand in hand.  If the movie (or book) has some kind of monster in it, then it should be classed as horror.  This isn't necessarily true.  Although there are many horror movies that contain monsters (consider 'Alien') there are other monster movies that are simply comedies, such as Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstien (1948).  Horror books and movies (at least in my mind) need to be sit-on-the-edge-of-your-chair scary...and they don't necessarily contain monsters.  Consider Alfred Hitchcock's horror movies where the horror comes in through a murder victim or some psychologically thrilling plot.  Or consider even Stephen King's books, which often don't have any monsters in them, other than the human kind.

Monsters can come from outer space and can be given space in the science fiction genre.  Monsters can be scary, such as Frankenstein or Dracula, but they are not always.  Monsters can be portrayed in an endearing manner, and sometimes even 'cute' (take a look at E.T., who Steven Spielburg transformed into an almost fairy-tale like alien.)

In my mind, it depends on the type of monster and the plot to say if a particular monster movie should be placed in the horror genre.  If its scary, then it should be placed in the horror genre, but it its cute or funny, then monsters should not be included in this film class.

What do you think?

If you like reading science fiction stories, consider my own works:

"The Dolls" a story of alien invasion.

Available at:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ICN2F4