NIGHT STEAK (3-page short horror script) by Yuvraj Rajwanshi

With food hard to come by, a homeless man is willing to sacrifice everything to make sure his little girl doesn’t starve.

During the earlier days of the recent COVID crisis, just when mandated quarantines, curfews and lock-downs came into effect throughout the world, there was a lot of panic and hysteria in regards to the possibility of food shortages – we all saw what happened when people were freaking out about running out of toilet paper. For a few weeks, every day at the grocery store was like Black Friday. It was like an End-of-the-World, Going-Out-of-Business sale. I personally couldn’t find any meat other than chicken at my local grocery. It was crazy!

This got many people thinking about what they would do if there was a food shortage. Controversial conspiracy theorist, radio personality, human sound-byte and all-around kook, Alex Jones, described in great detail what he would do to his neighbor if such a scenario were to take place if it meant not starving to death.

But what if you had other mouths to feed outside of your own? What if you had children? I don’t have kids myself, but I’d like to think that if I did, I would do anything possible to make sure they didn’t starve to death. At least that’s what I hope my parents would’ve done. But, if there were a food shortage, HOW would you keep them from starving?

That’s the scenario one man is left with in Yuvraj Rajwanshi’s bleak, atmospheric and effectively creepy horror short, “Night Steak”.

The story opens in the middle of the night on a dark street, the sound of wolves howling in the distance as an elderly gentleman walks with a 10-year-old girl. Neither of them looks like they’ve showered in years. Both are gaunt, most likely from malnutrition. And though we don’t know exactly what their relation is, we can guess that he’s probably her guardian when she cuts her foot on a pebble. He picks her up and carries her the rest of the way to a house just up the street. But as we get closer, this place looks more and more like a crack house.

After knocking on the door, the elderly man is greeted by an equally as disheveled man, but with blood smeared across his forehead and palms – a pretty jarring site, even at a crack house. But we soon find out that this isn’t a crack house at all. In fact, with its creepy occupants, we might even WISH it was a crack house.

The elderly man, flesh hanging loosely off his bones, is led into the house as the little girl is left waiting outside. Alone with her foot bleeding and the sounds of wolves howling getting closer and closer.

He’s taken to a room that looks the Sawyer Family’s basement in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It’s actually a makeshift, underground butcher shop where four men are hacking and chopping up large chunks of meat. But what kind of meat exactly? Regardless, desperate times call for desperate measures and there’s a hungry little girl waiting outside. Though we know the elderly gentleman is there for some sort of transaction to attain food to keep his little girl from starving, we’re not quite sure what he intends to trade for that food… though we find out. And when we do, it’s both terrifying and actually pretty heartbreaking.

Bleak and full of despair, this isn’t one that’s going to cheer you up after a bad day. But with strikingly frightening visuals and creepy, atmospheric tone, Night Steak is a great way to kill three minutes. Though you might not want to watch it before dinner.

BUDGET: Shoe-string. One location (a rickety house) and 3 main roles, 4 non-speaking roles.

ABOUT THE WRITER: While pursuing a career in engineering at the age of 19, Yuvraj Rajwanshi is also a talented, aspiring writer who loves to read novels and screenplays. He has read over 50 novels and numerous short stories and scripts. His love for reading stories inspired him to write down his own ideas and turn them into his own stories. Yuvraj loves to write in the suspense, thriller and horror genres, but continues to expand his repertoire while exploring writing in other genres. Yuvraj can be reached at: yuvrajwanshi2000(a) gmail.

Read: NIGHT STEAK (3-page short horror script)

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About the Reviewer: Michael J. Kospiah is the award-winning screenwriter of critically acclaimed indie-thriller, The Suicide Theory (79% Rotten Tomatoes – available on Amazon Prime, Itunes, Google Play, etc) and 2020’s upcoming Aussie thriller, Rage. His horror feature, They Never Left is currently in development.