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Horrific Tales of the Wickedly Macabre is an anthology series that celebrates the ridiculous excess of ’80s horror. Eight separate terrifying stories, each told by horror fans, specifically for horror fans.
Next up is:
Filthy Animal (28 pages) by Michael J. Kospiah (Wraparound Story Written by Sean Chipman)
A mysterious animal control officer teaches an abusive dog owner what it’s like to be treated like an animal.
HOME (12-page short horror screenplay) Written by SEAN O’DONAGHUE
A man and woman are drawn to an abandoned house minutes apart for unrelated reasons and engage in a game of broken telephone in a house with motives of its own.
It’s always a pleasure to find a good, old-fashioned, creepy horror short to contribute to my lack of sleep at night. And while the horror fan in me was really drawn in to this clever spine-tingler, the filmmaker in me was drawn towards it because it was a one-location, two-character piece. So, any filmmakers out there looking for something easy to film during social distancing, look no further.
The story opens as Raymond tapes “missing” posters onto telephone poles throughout a quiet neighborhood in search of his missing cat, Felix. But as he continues to put up these “missing” posters, he hears a meow coming from a creepy, abandoned house across the street. Almost a 100 percent sure it’s Felix, he makes the mistake of entering the home – never a good idea in the middle of the night, especially in a horror movie.
Meanwhile, a photographer named Natasha arrives at the abandoned home to recover a camera she had left there the previous day – she’s been taking photos of the place. But when she arrives, she realizes that she’s not alone.
Trying to draw out what she thinks may be a homeless person upstairs, she bangs on the ceiling with a broomstick, which makes Raymond realize that he’s not alone either. Though both parties are relatively harmless and are at the house with good intentions, they sort of engage in a game of Marco Polo.
But as this game of cat and mouse continues, they each notice strange children’s drawings and carvings on the walls – the creepy drawings tell the tragic story of the family that once lived there, a sinister story that ended violently. And as Raymond and Natasha eventually find each other, they both realize that they’re not the only ones there…
“Home” combines familiar horror tropes to create an original, cleverly-chilling story that constantly plays with the audience’s expectations throughout.
BUDGET: Low. One-location, two actors.
ABOUT THE WRITER: Sean O’Donoghue is a 22-year-old writer based out of Toronto, Canada. Though he studied Economics and Political Science at McGill University in Montreal, his passion was always in film. Sean gravitated towards other creatives, ending up writing for and working with friends on smaller projects. Now graduated and having left McGill’s film club, Sean made the choice to pursue a career in screenwriting with “HOME” being his first foray into the professional sphere. His influences range from classic adventure films such as the Indiana Jones Trilogy (Emphasis on trilogy), to noir/neo-noir thrillers including Memento and The Maltese Falcon, to stoner action flicks like Pineapple Express. Sean’s interest in multiple genres is something he wishes to emulate in his own work as he looks to tell wide-ranging stories that capture various perspectives of the human condition. Sean can be reached at: sean.od1701 (a) gmail.
Read: HOME (12-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.
A MATTER OF TASTE (9-page short horror screenplay) by James Austin McCormick
Two crime bosses pit their wine tasting skills against one another in a contest to become head of the underworld – only they’re vampires and the wine isn’t actually wine.
James Austin McCormick’s humorous crime-horror hybrid pits underworld mafiosos, DUKE VINCENZO SALIBRI and ARTUR DUBEK, against each other for full control of the criminal empire as head of all families. How, you ask? In a wine tasting competition!
This clever low-budget affair follows OWEN REEVES, a young tabloid journalist who attends the historic taste-off in attempt to expose the dark and secretive mafia crime world.
With several underworld criminals serving as the audience, crime boss Salibri shows off his impeccable palate as first-up in the very pretentious competition. You can practically picture him sipping with his pinkie out.
SALIBRI
East European.
He places his glass down on the table.
SALIBRI
Slavic.
He looks at his opponent.
SALIBRI
Definitely peasant stock. I would say
the west bank of the Vlatava.
But these aren’t your typical mafiosos. And this isn’t a “wine” tasting – they’re vampires and what they’re tasting and describing is blood!
Though Salibri carries himself as the more sophisticated one, his brutish, seemingly less sophisticated opponent, Dubek, has a pretty strong palate, himself. Though rather than sipping, he prefers to chug the “wine”. Unfortunately for Dubek, he’s simply outclassed by the bourgeois Salibri, ultimately losing the taste-off.
But Dubek refuses to lose quietly and the seemingly innocent competition turns into a Shakespeare-esque sequence of double-crosses that will inevitably cause a war between the old and new families. And in the midst of all the mayhem, our human journalist, Owen, is outed by MORTARUS, the meeting’s mediator.
MORTARUS
Mr Owen Reeves, a human who bribed our
official chronicler to trade places with
him here today. He works for one of the
lower order tabloids. No doubt he expected
it to be his big scoop, exposing our world
to the humans.
The fate of Owen’s career (and life) now lies in the hands of a room full of vampire crime bosses.
Smart and witty, McCormick’s script offers a new twist on both mafia films AND vampire films.
BUDGET: Low. One main location, two other very simple locations. Four actors, a few extras.
ABOUT THE WRITER: James Austin McCormick is a college lecturer and compulsive writer of speculative fiction with many short stories published in various anthologies along with novellas and novels published with Class Act Books. As a screenwriter, James has consistently placed high in international competitions and, along with a co-author, has had three feature-length horror scripts optioned by K5 films. With a long list of short-length scripts, James also collaborated with talented writer, Annabel Grace, on the produced short, In the Silence. You can find his works on the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. James can be reached at: jimbostories (a) hotmail.
Read A MATTER OF TASTE (9-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.
Horrific Tales of the Wickedly Macabre is an anthology series that celebrates the ridiculous excess of ’80s horror. Eight separate terrifying stories, each told by horror fans, specifically for horror fans.
First up is:
Lunar Shift (34 pages in pdf format) by Sean Elwood (Wraparound Story Written by Sean Chipman)
When the popular kids at school begin to die in vicious maulings, the average Joe’s set out to find the beast and kill it before they’re next.
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AND THEN HE COMETH (11-page short horror screenplay) by Warren Duncan
A Halloween party descends into chaos for a young girl and her partner when they take center place in an ancient ritual.
One lesson I’ve learned in life; never go to a party unless you’re personally invited or you know people there who were invited. Especially when it’s at some creepy farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately for Lily and her boyfriend Axel, they learn this lesson the hard way. And that’s putting it very gently.
While strolling around the city during Halloween festivities (Lily in a sexy devil costume, Axel dressed as a demon), they conveniently receive a flier for a “Demons & Devils” – themed shindig. Why not, right?
They hop in an Uber and, next thing you know, they’re at a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. It’s pretty much just as advertised – everyone’s dressed as devils and demons, just like them. But something about the vibe seems terribly off – all eyes seem to be strangely focused on Lily. Could it be the sexy costume? Who knows? But Lily and Axel aren’t feeling it. As they attempt to ditch the party, a demon-dressed party-goer practically pressures them into staying for at least one beer. “One drink and we go!” Axel tells her, yelling over the loud music.
Things don’t go quite as planned and Lily ends up waking up on the couch without Axel and without her cell phone. It seems like the party’s over, a demon-dressed man sweeping the floor around her. Even stranger, it’s not even midnight yet.
Lily wants to leave and it seems as if the demon-dressed man, the only other person who seems to still be there, is trying to help her by calling an Uber. But it turns out that he (along with everyone else at the party) knows much more about Lily than she knows about them.
DEMON
Did I mention what a pleasure it was
to meet you, Lilith?
LILY
What did you call me?
DEMON
Lilith. That’s your name, isn’t it?
LILY
No one calls me that…
DEMON
I guess the cats out the bag. We’ve
been waiting for you…
If you’re a fan of films like “House of the Devil”, you’re going to LOVE this, especially the awesome “gut punch” of an ending. Uniquely horrifying visuals really elevate this one over your average demonic cult film.
BUDGET: Low. One location, three main actors and extras in robes and demon costumes. Oh, and some practical effects (blood, mainly).
ABOUT THE WRITER: Warren Duncan writes screenplays and comics in his spare time and has been lucky enough to have several shorts produced and the first issue of his comic book series published. Warren can be reached at: Warren_duncan(a)hotmail
Read AND THEN HE COMETH (11-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.
SCAVENGE (5-page short horror screenplay) by Steve Miles
A backpacker stumbles upon an abandoned campsite only to discover he’s not alone when it comes to an appetite for scavenging.
All right, filmmakers, if you’re looking for something super-low budget to shoot while keeping social distancing in mind – and I know a lot of you are – look no further than “Scavenge” by writer, Steve Miles.
The story opens as a lonely backpacker (never a good thing to be in a horror movie) named Lars happens upon an abandoned beach – the perfect spot to post up for a few days. After setting up shop, he decides to explore the area a little bit while scavenging pretty much everything he can get his hands on – candy wrappers, bottle caps, beer cans, etc.
Lars hits the jackpot when he stumbles upon an abandoned campsite, camping gear and loads of trash (or treasure if you’re Lars) scattered around the remains of a campfire.
But where is everybody? And what happened to them? Not too concerned with any of those questions, Lars peruses the abandoned items like a kid in a candy shop, taking with him a cooking pot and nice camping chair. He even finds an unopened can of beer! Score!
However, Lars spots something else – fabric poking out from under the ground. As he pulls on the fabric, he discovers that it’s a tent buried under the sand. Oh, well, nothing Lars can take with him.
It isn’t until later that night when Lars realizes that something about this abandoned beach is very, very off…
I know this sounds like the set-up to a typical slasher film, but the way this story plays out may surprise you. I know I wasn’t expecting it. In fact, this may be the antithesis to the typical slasher film. For one, there’s no dialogue. Also, there’s no cheap jump scares. Everything is carried by raw tension, specifically a terrifying, visually arresting (yet simple) scene when Lars is in his tent and realizes that he’s not alone.
If you were afraid of camping before, this story definitely won’t help you get over any fears. Quiet, tense and visually horrifying, “Scavenge” is a perfect horror short to film during social distancing. But I wouldn’t recommend watching it alone.
BUDGET: Shoe-string. All takes place outdoors at an abandoned beach with two actors (one main actor).
ABOUT THE WRITER: Steve Miles enjoys writing in a variety of genres but leans toward raw, grittier characters and the worlds they inhabit – from the deadly serious to the darkly comic. Fortunate to have a number of shorts produced (some of which can be seen at Steve Miles’ Short Scripts alongside a range of scripts) with short films Forever Red and A Cool Green Place soon to be released, and The Cold Season which you can watch on Amazon Prime. Steve can be contacted via his website.
Read SCAVENGE (5-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.
DING DONG DITCH (5-page short horror screenplay) by Zack Akers
After thinking a group of mischievous kids are ringing his doorbell and running away in the middle of the night, Matt soon finds out that it’s someone else with much more sinister intentions.
Come on, you know the game. We ALL played it as kids. Remember? That “game” you played when you’d ring someone’s doorbell and run away? It’s more of a prank rather than a game. A hilarious prank if I remember my childhood correctly. Sometimes we’d ring doorbells and hide behind bushes so we could see the befuddlement on their faces when they’d answer the door… only to see nobody there! Oh, what fun!
No harm done, right? A little childhood mischief never hurt anybody. Though some kids liked to light a bag of dog crap on fire and leave it on their doorsteps – which is a bit next level for my taste. But even then, come on! Kids will be kids! It’s like egging houses or toilet papering people’s lawns. No harm, no foul. Just a bit of innocent fun.
At least that’s what you think when you’re a kid. After reading Zack Akers’ atmospheric slasher, “Ding Dong Ditch”, I couldn’t help but look back on those days and realize how creepy that must’ve been for the people answering their doors. Hell, if I hear my doorbell ringing any time after dark, I’m hiding in the closet in fetal position, hand shaking while clutching pepper spray, crying to a 911-operator. Come to think of it, me and my friends were pretty messed up. I can picture my neighbor having night terrors 30 years later all because me and my dorky buds had nothing better to do.
Just imagine if it wasn’t a kid with nothing better to do, but a full-grown adult… who’s idea of fun is much more sinister than ringing a doorbell and running away in laughter. That’s the idea behind “Ding Dong Ditch”, a classic horror slasher that takes familiar horror tropes and exploits the hell out of them in the creepiest and most sinister way possible. No, author Zack Akers isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel here – but he’s taking the wheels off completely and taking us on a homage-fueled hell-ride into the darkest depths of human nature.
The night starts off innocently enough for 44-year old Matt, who’s viewing of the original House on Haunted Hill is unpleasantly interrupted by some punk kids ringing his door bell.
MATT
You damn kids! Come back on my
property and you’ll regret it!
It’s annoying how much Matt reminds me of myself – that old, crotchety middle-aged man shaking his fist at a bunch of up-to-no-good, punk kids.
Sure enough, later that night, the doorbell rings again. Ready to kick some adolescent ass, Matt answers his door again – but there’s nobody there. So, it seems. Unbeknownst to him, there’s someone watching him from the distance, breathing heavily – a classic trope you see in Giallo style thrillers like Dario Argento’s Deep Red – a style later used in slasher films such as Friday the 13th, Halloween and Black Christmas.
While taking a phone call from his ex-wife, Matt hears the door bell ringing yet again. “Oh, those pesky kids!” he’s probably thinking to himself. But he’s about to get a very rude awakening.
If it’s not the kids playing ding-dong-ditch… who is? And why?
Heavy on atmosphere and tense, edge-of-your-seat moments, “Ding Dong Ditch” carries a very depraved and bleak tone with an ending that will remind you of one of the scariest films of the past 20 years, The Strangers. If you’re a filmmaker looking to rack up Youtube views while scaring the begeezus out of anyone who dare watch, I highly recommend you jump on this one.
BUDGET: Shoe-string. Two actors and a house. Can’t get any easier than that.
ABOUT THE WRITER: Zack Akers has been writing screenplays since 2005, accumulating over 25 horror shorts with a handful of them having been produced. A true fan of the horror genre, Zack’s goal is simple – to scare the audience. Right now, Zack is collaborating with several talented filmmakers on some very exciting projects. So be on the lookout for some of his work! He can be reached at: zack.akers.89 (a) gmail
Read: DING DONG DITCH(5-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.
BEE-EL (8-page short horror screenplay) by CJ Vecchio
A young girl befriends something that’s inside her closet.
Monsters come in all shapes, sizes, forms. As children, we learn that these monsters or boogie men, as we like to call them, prefer to dwell in the darkness – usually under our beds or in our closets. Of course, once we’re old enough, we learn our imaginations were just running wild and there were never any monsters hiding in our closets. But we’ve seen the premise used in numerous horror films, television shows and books. The premise itself might as well be its own horror sub-genre.
What makes CJ Vecchio’s dark, twisted tale so different from the other tales we’ve seen or read about is that it makes us question who the monster really is.
The story begins innocently enough as Sabrina, a cute, innocent nine-year-old picks wild daisies for her mother. They seem to have a great relationship. But her mother notices her playing with a new doll – a doll that she didn’t buy her.
MOTHER
Is that new?
SABRINA
My friend Bee-El gave it to me.
Her mother thinks nothing of it. After all, most children have had an imaginary friend at one point or another. But what she DOESN’T know is that Bee-El is very real. And he lives inside the walls, once in a while keeping an eye on things from the closets.
Bee-El talks to Sabrina as if he were a child himself, though never revealing what he looks like. He brings Sabrina gifts – toys, chocolate and other trinkets. He’s very protective of her and seems to genuinely care about her, always willing to lend an ear and hear about her day.
Bee-El would do anything for Sabrina… ANYTHING. And that’s when we discover that Sabrina isn’t so innocent after all as she tells Bee-El about some bullies from school.
SABRINA
They won’t stop picking on me.
Billy always pulls on my ponytail
and Kelly is just a meanie! I
wish they would both drown in their
bathtub!
Things take a very, very dark turn. And as Bee-El continues to do Sabrina’s evil bidding, we find out who the real monster truly is.
Dark, clever and very simple to film, this would make for some great midnight viewing.
BUDGET: Low. One location (a house) and three actors.
CONCEPT TEASER:
ABOUT THE WRITER: CJ Vecchio braves the cold, windy winters in Chicago, along with his sidekick, a lovable pit bull named Izzy. Recently, due to COVID, CJ’s business (along with many others) was shut down. With a lot of time on his hands, he started to pursue his lifelong passion of writing Horror and Sci-Fi shorts. He plans on entering his latest short “Bee-EL” into The Killer Shorts contest and others. CJ is also working on featured full-length versions of his stories. CJ can be reached at his website is www.CjVecchio.com.
Read BEE-EL (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.
WINDOW CREEP – by Rob Herzog
short, horror script
A nine-year old boy tries to outwit the visitor who scratches at his window screen in the middle of the night.
Are you afraid of the dark?
Since time immemorial most of us have felt that most primitive of fears – being afraid of things that we cannot see and of things that go bump in the night.
Remember being a kid? Most of us can recall waking in the middle of the night listening out for another creak of the floorboards, or startled by the groan of a wardrobe-door yawing open of its own accord. Covers pulled up and over our heads we would lie in wait, dreading the moment when something might pounce from the closet, or jump out from underneath the bed… Terrified that there was something evil lurking under the cover of darkness.
In Rob Herzog’s chilling horror, Window Creep, we meet Eddie, a plucky nine-year old kid who we sense is somewhat used to fending for himself. Amidst the backdrop of an ordinary pre-teen bedroom – posters of superheroes and monsters adorning the walls – Eddie’s enjoying his usual bedtime ritual. He’s up late, playing with his toy soldiers. The lights are out and the gleam of Eddie’s flashlight bounces off the walls, when all of a sudden –
– A breeze blows in from an open window…
The curtains sway slightly
There’s a tiny shift and — from out of nowhere —
Someone or something claws Eddie’s window screen.
Fingernails drag slowly across metal: Zip. Ping. Scrape.
Something’s trying to get through…
At this point Eddie’s going to do what every petrified kid will do under the circumstances, and that is scream and call out for his Mom.
But it’s also at this point that writer, Rob Herzog cleverly ramps up the tension and suspense even more than before, because…
EDDIE
Mama…?
Mama’s not answering. In the bedroom down the hall it appears she’s out cold which means Eddie is now all alone and at the mercy of whatever this Creep is and whatever it wants.
So, what does Eddie do next? Well, there’s one trick in Eddie’s arsenal and it’s the same ploy he uses with his toy soldiers when they’re not behaving. He attempts to hypnotize it in the hope that –
EDDIE
… On the count of three, I will
control your mind and you’ll go
away.
But… toys are just toys and Eddie’s about to learn that whatever this Creep is, it’s very real, it’s very evil, and it won’t be fooled by childish games.
The Creep’s hand tears through the screen.
He hooks Eddie’s shirt with one grubby, long finger –
And then…
Well, I can’t spoil the fun and the scares can I?
Suffice to say you will not guess the sting in the tail of this cleverly written part monster, part parable tale following in the tradition of such horror gems as Lights Out, Bedfellows, The Babadook, and Don’t Breathe.
Rob Herzog’s Window Creep might well be the stuff of nightmares, but for you filmmakers out there it could be the perfect calling-card for your dreams.
But don’t go hiding under the bed. Better burst out and into the light. The only thing scarier than not getting your claws into this one would be missing out on it altogether. And you really don’t want that… lest the lost opportunity haunt you for the rest of your life.
BUDGET: Low. Self-contained one location, one plucky kid, one Mom, one Creep’s hand with some light SFX.
ABOUT THE WRITER: Rob Herzog is a Chicago screenwriter. He has sold two short scripts and won prize money in two small screenwriting contests. His short horror script Creak and Shriek was produced in 2019 by Mad Dreamer Entertainment and can be viewed on various platforms like Amazon Prime, YouTube and Vimeo. He has a master’s degree in English composition from Northeastern Illinois University. Rob can be reached at: robherzogr (a) hotmail.
About the Reviewer: L.Chambers has been writing all her life – especially in her head, and on scraps of paper. It’s only in the last few years she began to get serious about screen-writing. Prior to this she worked in the Features Department for ABC TV as a Program Assistant, and trained as a FAD. She currently works as a freelance web-content editor and lives with her husband (also a screenwriter) in Sydney, Australia. L. Chambers can be reached at: libbych (a) hotmail.
Read WINDOW CREEP (short, horror script)
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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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