Logline: A female college sophomore finds herself trapped on a deserted campus as four mask-wearing strangers try to kill her.
OPENING – We’re on a small college campus. A security guard walks through the aftermath of bedlam: buildings broken into, a car is on fire, a light pole has fallen and…a dead body. We immediately CUT TO: 14 HOURS AGO
SET UP – JUSTINE WILLS (LEAD) 19-year old sophomore is in her dorm room with AARON, her 20-year old boyfriend. It’s Thanksgiving weekend. The campus is deserted. Aaron leaves to spend the holidays with his family. Justine doesn’t want to go. There’s tension in this decision – some turmoil just underneath the surface.
Justine plans to stay on campus and catch up on her homework.
A news reports states there’s a missing woman named Kristy Matthews – last seen three nights ago.
Justine decides to drive to town to pick up some supplies and snacks. She passes WAYNE, dorm security. They’re friends – she promises to bring him back some Snowballs.
While driving on the two-land road, a car approaches with its highbeams on. Annoyed, Justine flicks her own highbeams at the car. Justine drives past but is scared to see in her rearview that the offending car has stopped…as if contemplating whether it should attack her.
Justine drives on and arrives at the 7-11, picking up supplies. We then understand the source of the tension in her relationship with Aaron when she picks up a pregnancy kit.
There’s a girl at the counter buying aluminum foil, latex gloves and beer. She’s lanky with black fingernail polish. A hood hides the girl’s face. Automatically, we know something’s not right with this girl. Justine waits patiently in line until she notices out the window….THE HIGHBEAM CAR PARKED IN THE LOT.
Justine gets back in her car – finds her student ID card, which she left on her dashboard, is missing.
Justine goes back to her dorm – has to have the Security Guard buzz her in because she doesn’t have her ID. She goes to her room and takes the pregnancy test – positive.
She falls asleep.
END ACT I – Justine wakes up. Her CELLPHONE’s ringing. When she answers a male voice asks for “Kristy.” Justine says he has the wrong number. Hangs up. Another call. Justine answers. This time it’s a female caller asking for “Kristy.” Weirded out, Justine states she has the wrong number and hangs up.
That’s when she sees someone walk past her dorm door. She opens the door and looks out. There’s a guy at the end of the hallway up on the ladder……TAKING ALL THE LIGHTBULBS OUT OF THEIR SOCKETS. The rest of the hallway is pitch black. The guy waves at her and walks away.
Justine goes after him, confused. Finds all the vending machines unplugged. The guy’s gone.
Justine goes back to her dorm room. Finds her CD Player blasting a song. She turns it down. Realizes her laptop is missing. Looks out her window and sees her laptop smashed on the ground below. She then realizes her cellphone is missing.
Grabbing her baseball bat, Justine heads down the security booth….which is empty. A CAR ALARM then goes off. She looks out the window and sees it’s her car.
Out in the parking lot, Justine sees her car’s been broken into and all the electrical wiring has been pulled out. That’s when a set of highbeams flash on. Justine turns and faces her attackers.
Justine quickly goes back inside the dorm building and tries to call for help only to find the phonelines are dead. She watches in dread as the figures cut the powerlines, plunging the dorm into darkness.
What’s horrifying is, the figures are wearing masks made out of aluminum foil and latex gloves. What makes it even more horrifying is, one of the figures is wearing the security guard’s uniform.
The figures shatter the glass doors to the dorm and enter.
Justine hides in a bathroom. Finds the security guard’s dead body on the floor. Justine escapes out the bathroom window.
Justine manages to get out of the building. There’s another mask-wearing figure (there’s four figures in total) in a car outside – he chases her down.
Justine manages to run to the GROUNDSKEEPER’S HOUSE. The Groundskeeper gives her shelter as she explains what’s going on. The Groundskeeper tells her not to worry. He has a gun.
The Figures begin smashing all the security lights outside. The Groundskeeper chases them, FIRING SHOTS. Justine listens in horror as the Groundskeeper is killed.
Justine finds a knife, a cellphone, keys and a flashlight. She makes a mad dash to the library.
Inside the safety of the library, the cellphone rings. Justine answers. It’s 911 calling, asking if someone on this line called. Relief and hope sweep through Justine as she quickly recounts what’s happening. The 911 operator tells her everything will be okay and then calls her….Kristy.
The masked figures descend upon the library. Justine runs up to the roof. Gets out a call to 911. Tells them she needs help. Stops when she realizes one of the masked figures is behind her. With no other choice, Justine jumps off the roof.
Limping badly, Justine makes it to a sewage canal. She has to crawl through a mass of rats.
Then swims across a brook to reach the road on the other side.
A car comes driving up. Frantic, Justine flags its down and realizes it’s…Aaron. Yes! He came back to campus to be with her.
END ACT II – But no! The figures shoot Aaron in the head with the Groundskeeper’s gun.
Justine gets in Aaron’s jeep and floors it, RAMMING FIGURE#2, crashing into a lightpole, killing him.
Justine looks back. Sees the three remaining figures walking towards her.
Justine runs to the nearest building – it’s the gym complete with Olympic-sized pool. She sees a news report on the tv stating that the police have recovered the body of 20-year old Kristy Matthews in the woods.
Justine manages to drown a 2nd figure in the pool. Two down. Two to go. It’s here that Justine makes a promise to her unborn baby that she will not let anything happen to her/him.
Justine then dispatches of the 3rd figure in the weight room. She sees that the 3rd figure is getting text messages on his phone. The texts reveal that this is all a game to the figures and that they’ll call their next victim “Justine.”
RESOLUTION – The last figure is the female at the 7-11.
Wearing Figure#3′s clothes, Justine manages to sneak up on the female. After a furious fight, Justine stabs her in the neck.
The female just won’t die though. Justine gets in a car and runs her down.
We’re then back to our opening. The Guard then finds Justine on the ground, softly reciting a poem to herself over and over. The Guard touches her shoulder to see if she’s okay. Justine looks up and screams as we:
FADE OUT
The Opening is good. Very visual. Demands our attention. What the hell happened here? The writer has effectively hooked us right from the jump.
While the first act starts off slow, once Justine hits the 7-11, the pages crackle with tension. And make no mistake about it, this is REAL HORROR. Nothing supernatural here. This is the kind of horror that is waiting right around the corner. The kind that can happen to anyone at anytime.
As the story moves forth, Justine wants to know why they’re doing this. The frightening aspect of the script comes from the realization that they’re doing all this for no reason at all. It’s just a game to them. They are twisted, black-souls with a hard-on for terror.
The Second Act ends with a bang literally as Aaron is shot in the head. Right when you think Justine is going to escape this nightmare, her salvation is instantly killed right before her eyes.
It’s here where Justine realizes there’s no one that’s going to save her. That’s what really causes the horror to amp up. She’s all alone and there’s four figures out there looking to kill her.
The writing is extremely effective. You can feel your skin crawl as you read. The terror builds without any let up.
Yeah, maybe the reality dims a little by having Justine able to kill them all off but it’s a release that the audience needs at this point. We are living through her now. She has to survive because it makes us feel a little safer.
This film can be made on the cheap with a no-name cast. You then release it during winter break and watch all the students come out in droves to see it. CHA-CHING!
Anthony Kaswinski is clearly a writer to keep an eye on. Knows how to handle a story, knows how to build tension and knows how to make you feel the page instead of simply reading them.
My rating?
[ ] PASS
[ ] CONSIDER
[X] RECOMMEND