Nothing to Fear: A Retelling about Writing a Horror Anthology
This was an idea that I was bummed that never got passed early stages of writing. I (Peter) approached Carlos (a college friend who I have collaborated with before) in early 2015 and wanted to write a movie with him. We have bounced ideas off each other in the past but never seem to get our schedules lined up. But with that being said it’s always been a blast when we get to brainstorm ideas together. From February 23 – March 2, 2015 we did just that. I remember talking about him prior to this with an idea he had about a TV series idea he wanted to implement with YouTube. At the time I was cautious of the idea but still wanted to be a part of the process and thought we needed more experience first before we could pull something like that off. I really wanted to make an anthology horror movie. I think I was psyched thinking about how much I love Creepshow and The Twilight Zone Movie at the time. And I thought it would give us the experience we needed to make more projects. Unfortunately both ideas never really took off. On the bright side I do have some cool things to share with everyone because it was a learning experience and I think we were on to something with our ideas.
To cut to the chase we wanted to tell three separate stories that are connected in some kind of audio cue or reference to the previous story. What I have posted below are drawings by Carlos about the ideas we cultivated together. It was true collaborative writing session. We wanted to storyboard it first then the idea was to transfer the beats over to a script. The idea was it was easier to do this because there wasn’t much dialogue and it was easier visualize when he drew it. Each story was centered around a certain fear and had different inspirations.
The first story would be in kid’s room and deal with him being afraid of the dark. We described it as “Goosebumps-esk.” The second would be a man trapped inside his home. We had a lot of fun with this one. At the time Carlos had never really seen a Twilight Zone Episode. So I introduced him to a couple of key episodes. A lot of crazy ideas were thrown into the mix for this story as it was a show that drove people to ask a lot of questions about the unknown. The plot inspiration came from two classic episodes, “Where is Everybody?” and “Five Characters in Search of an Exit.” It was hard one to explain to each other as ideas were rushing out but we both we’re on the same page somehow. It developed into a story about a man who is afraid to be alone and cannot escape the hell that he has stumbled into.
The third is actually a fear of mine I had as a child. I can’t remember if we ever made a storyboard for it because I think the story setting got switched around a few times. Luckily I have found notes still around my computer on the story. We gave it the subtitle, “Anguish” for some reason. It’s the only story to have one. But anyways it seems to be an overview of what we wanted to happen in the story. The idea was to have a couple eat dinner together. And the wife is afraid that she is killer but is actually just an average person. We wanted to have two attractive people and listed out beats for the short.
The list of beats
mundane conversation
husband prepares dinner
chopping veggies
egg timer
frying pan
oven
dinner w/knife fake out
Pressure
Drowning
Notes we took alongside the beats
the egg timer started when the couple started cooking together
when the first course is prepared the wife has her first intense murderous thought
the wife makes a nervous smile after her husband kisses her on the cheek
wife sets up silverware
husband puts something in oven (wife has second murderous thought and it’s more intense)
dinner is served
mundane conversation
timer is still going
couple cleans dishes
egg timer goes off (wife drowns her husband in sink)
Something that isn’t listed that I know Carlos and I agreed on is that we wanted to hear the murderous thoughts but not see them. The audience only saw the actual killing at the end.
So there you have it. That’s the best way I can explain the incomplete anthology horror story I was a part of. It’s title was Nothing to Fear. I would like to say one day we will go back to this and develop it further.