How to Write a Horror Movie Script

Video Transcript

"All right folks, in this clip, I'm going to teach you how to write your very own horror movie script. There's no getting around it. There is a big, big market for horror movies, these days, and quite frankly, there probably always will be, as long as people enjoy getting scared in the movie theater, so if you want to create your very own horror movie script, one of the first things you're going to want to do, is do research on a story, and the best types of stories for horror movies, are the ones that hit a little bit close to home, or that have some sort of basis in reality. The stories that feel like they could have happened in the house next to us, or even in our own home. The first thing you want to do, is get under people's skin, by coming to where they live, so to speak, so find a story that feels relevant, in those terms. Second, you're going to want to create an interesting list of characters, or just maybe one or two, that can be the audiences connection to the story. They are a vessel so to speak. You want to be able to feel all the moments of terror, through these people, and you're going to have to create a cast that's somewhat large, because you're going to have to kill a couple of people off, and they ought to be people that you really care about too, so you're going to want to develop all these characters, throughout the course of the story, and then obviously, start killing them off one at a time, or whatever you decide to do with them, and then, you're going to want to create your terror, the monster, the serial killer, the crazy neighbor, the destructive force of nature, the supernatural, psychological terror. Whatever it is, that is one of the most important things of all, because A, it cannot be cheesy. B, it cannot be too familiar. It has to be something that truly is terrifying, yet at the same time, believable, within the context of your story, of course. My suggestion is to find a way to terrorize your audience, in ways that they never, ever expected. Those are the best scares of all, and if you want to write a truly classic horror film, that's what you need to do. You need to lock in to a corner of a person's mind, and unleash a fear that they didn't even know that they had. That's how you make a classic, so A, get a good story, that is original, yet feels close to home, so it scares the people the most. Get an interesting cast of characters together, your hero, your heroine. Whoever it is that ultimately has to survive the entire experience. That's the one you're going to want the audience to connect with the most. The other cast of characters that are funny, unlikable, likable, whatever. You connect with them in some way. They can start terrorizing and killing off, and then lastly, your villain, your force of terror, in the story. It needs to be as frightening as possible, yet believable as possible, in the story. Once you have those three ingredients, you can map out the story, from A-Z, and there you go. You have yourself a truly terrifying, horror movie script."