UNDERPASSERS (8-page short horror screenplay) Written by Robin Johnston
A young woman who becomes lost in a maze of underpass tunnels during her commute home soon realizes she is not alone…
All right, folks, enough of all this warmth and joy. The holiday season is over, so it’s time to get back to getting the crap scared out of us again. And what better way to start than with writer, Robin Johnston’s terrifying, maddeningly claustrophobic, one-location spine-tingler? But all adjectives aside…
It’s late at night and our story’s unfortunate protagonist, Natalie, is in the big city, on her way to meet with someone named “Mo”. And, for some reason, the only way to get to this person is through the tunnel of an underpass – probably not the safest of routes this time of night, especially in the city. In fact, one might consider it to be outright sketchy, to say the least.
Natalie hesitates while speaking to Mo on her cell phone, asking for another, less creepy route. When she finds out there isn’t, she logically thinks about putting off this little rendezvous until tomorrow. But, for reasons we don’t know, the meeting has to happen tonight. And it’s just a measly, little underpass, right? It’s not exactly the catacombs of Paris. So, off she goes…
But, before she enters, she gets a warning from an elderly homeless man…
OLD MAN
I wouldn’t go in there, love.
Natalie stops and turns to look at him. She is about to answer, then turns away and keeps walking.
OLD MAN
I really wouldn’t!
NATALIE
(to herself)
Whatever.
Unfortunately for Natalie, what was supposed to be a brief stroll through an underpass becomes a journey into terrifying darkness. Using the light from her phone as she speaks with Mo on the other line, she begins to hear sounds… inhuman sounds…
And, when she reaches what’s supposed to be the opposite end of the tunnel, it ends up being a junction leading to other tunnels. With the frightening, inhuman sounds getting closer, Natalie desperately tries to find her back… only to reach another junction! And things only get worse when she loses her signal on her phone…
“Underpassers” effectively enhances familiar horror tropes to their maximum potential, using darkness and sound to put us right there in that tunnel with Natalie. With a small cast and essentially one location, I highly recommend this to any horror-centric director looking to terrify audiences.
BUDGET: Low – especially if you can find a nice (and safe) tunnel/underpass to shoot in.
ABOUT THE WRITER: Robin Johnston is an award-winning street photographer, writer and videographer based in Glasgow, Scotland UK. His work has been shown at world-class exhibitions in Rome, Berlin, New York and London. Robin’s work captures the beauty in tiny details, the patterns in the built environment and the way humans interact with architecture. His influences are Brassaï, Cartier-Bresson and the writing of J.G. Ballard. He can be reached at RobinJohnston75 (a) gmail.
Read: UNDERPASSERS (8-page short horror screenplay)
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*This screenplay may not be used or reproduced for any purpose including educational purposes without the expressed written permission of the author.
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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.
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