The Other White Meat (9 page horror) by John Hunter

When their food supply fails to arrive, space researchers Sarah and Jack face the ultimate fear…

            SARAH
You wanna shuffle?

            JACK
     (snaps)
Give me the cards.

We’ve all experienced it. A task that no-one wants to do must be done.

So a contest to randomly select the unlucky loser is reluctantly agreed upon.

In John Hunter’s The Other White Meat, Jack and Sarah are two researchers who’ve spent 18 months searching for extra-terrestrial life on a remote ice-planet… with absolutely no success.

When the story starts, they’re already in a jam. The food’s run out, and supply line issues ensure there’s no more arriving for several weeks. So there’s only one course of action left.

But neither of them wants to decide.

A method of arbitration is therefore required; for the two starving scientists, it’s a one card draw. The stakes are higher than any card game ever played on Earth, and the rules are staggeringly simple: highest card wins, or so it seems. Though with hindsight, it appears the loser may end up being the “winner”. That is, when all is said and done…

White Meat is a script that never backs itself into one genre – sci-fi, horror, and even some dark comedy are mixed to create a concoction that invokes every emotion there is. One page you’re laughing. The next, paralyzed with fear. And it all comes across seamlessly, resulting in a roller coaster ride that handcuffs the reader – never letting them go until the very end.

With more twists than the current race for the White House, dialogue in this script shines: ranging from bitterly ironic to traumatically blunt. In fact, there’s just one box left to tick off to make this a festival winner: a director who can leverage all of White Meat’s twists – and let this infinitely rewarding script hit new heights!

Budget: A bit of FX.  But low-moderate.  The station can be a basement. And most of White Meat’s shocks can be implied!

About the writer, John Hunter: With the completion of (4) features, a litter of riveting shorts, a one hour take-your-breath-away sci-fi TV pilot and first 30 minute episode for that series, I am now officially THAT guy — The one who really needs an Agent or Executive Producer. Contact me at x32792 (AT) yahoo.com.

Read The Other White Meat

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: Hamish Porter is a writer who, if he was granted one wish, would ask for the skill of being able to write dialogue like Tarantino. Or maybe the ability to teleport. Nah, that’s nothing compared to the former. A lover of philosophy, he’s working on several shorts and a sporting comedy that can only be described as “quintessentially British”. If you want to contact him, he can be emailed: hamishdonaldp (a) gmail. If you’d like to contact him and be subjected to incoherent ramblings, follow him on Twitter @HamishP95.