I am writing my second horror screenplay this year and just wanted to know who else is with me?

I am going biological zombies on this one, a little tired but it's a passion of mine.

I am considering a Horror Script. I have about 4 projects I am considering doing for this one is a Zombie Movie but being the last two scripts I've completed and been produced (Well one in Post and one in Pre Production) have been Horror so I might stay away from the genre but I really want to write the Zombie movie.

I'm trying to focus more on the human interactions during a zombie apocalypse, rather than how it started or the search for a cure. Other than that I think I'll stick to the original Romero canon.

(I might write a second one later with a little more of the Shaun of the Dead/ Return of the Living Dead theme to it.)

I'm in for horror, but going with a suburban predator that seems more urban legend than real... and hijinx ensue. :P

I must admit, I'm doing the sort of biological zombie song and dance too, however, it is meant to be social commentary on our uncoordinated contingency plans in the event of a flu pandemic/outbreak in Ontario.

The "zombies" won't really be treated or addressed as "zombies", because what's happened in this strain of flu creates a fever that specifically destroys/boils the part of the brain that controls self control/impulse, etc.

I dunno...kinda lame, but I just love playing with the idea of society and how people deal when the shit hits the fans.

I am with the zombies too, except they are magical zombies (not zombies that do magic, but zombies created by a magical virus).

Plus it's going to be the first 18 rated script I've ever attempted (hell - my first 18 rated story I've ever attempted).

That whole biological zombie thing has been done already (the films of Andrew Parkinson, I, Zombie, 1998 and Dead Creatures, 2001) so if you want to sell these scripts later you might want to pick something else. I am a horror screenwriter so will be doing horror for sure.

So it looks like a lot of Zombie Horrors are being written for this. With that being said I'll leave my be for now. I'm going Revenge/Action/Drama.

Well, my Horror/SciFi movie idea isn't about zombies, but has an alien angle. Haven't decided yet whether it's an invasion or an encounter scenario, but it will definitely be an adult flick. ;->

I think there could be some horror elements in my script about a guy who is attacked by a werewolf but I'm gonna try to focus on how he comes to deal with his affliction.

I've been told mine is horror, though not much actual fear is involved. All ghost stuff, mostly- does that apply?

I like zombies, just not for this script. :)

Carolyn- busy typing with one hand, drawing with the other- and best case scenario, there's a microphone to be singing into...

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Wow, it seems like I am in real good company this year. Zombies seem to be prevalent, but I opened this discussion for all forms of horror, so all are welcome!
As far as making a marketable screenplay, I always write what comes to me, and if it is sellable, I would love to see it on the screen. If not, I get to enjoy writing what I love.
The public seems to continue their clamor for solid zombie flicks though, so I don’t think I have too much to worry about. However if someone wants to help me get this made into a movie….

I'm doing a slasher. But not full of useless teenagers and lame gags.

It all starts off innocently enough, and before I know what hit me, I'm writing horror. Doesn't matter if it's a love story, I just gotta make it horrifying.

I'm not doing horror. I'm doing corporations as vampires. You've seen this in the news, with all those banks and AIG. But I'm focusing on one particular Blackwater-type company that tries to take over America.

Bad Company sounds like a political thriller at first blush (or read), but then the political horror kicks in after the Republicans lose last year's election. It's Orwell meets Lovecraft.

Zombies? I'm sick of zombies. And vampires, and werewolves, and mad slashers, and...

EDIT: Well, there's always zombie banks. You know, the dead banks that are being propped up by the government so that they're undead? They're eating the whole economy, not to mention our taxes... It's all part of -- you guessed it -- Nightmare on Wall Street!

Was thinking about a horror script but decided against. It was going to be, not zombies, but laboratory created weaponized creatures. For all intents and purposes they were like zombies, but they were actually six foot tall one-celled organisms that swallowed people whole. They would be growing bigger and bigger as they ate people and livestock while they rampaged across the countryside, growing into 100 foot tall giant amoebas. You couldn't kill them because they were unicellular. If you chopped one into 1000 pieces you would just get 1000 monsters. The only way to really kill them was fire or acid.

Then I took a step back and went, whoa, whoa. This is a 200 million budget movie here. Let's focus on something a little less cost intensive.

So now I'm doing a psychological thriller/drama that takes place on one interior set. The idea being that it is so low impact that I have the potential of actually shooting the movie myself if I scrape together a small budget.

But I might do something else with that other idea soon enough...

Zombies will never get old.

I'm definitely going the zom-comedy route, set in my rural college campus, starring my friends, because it is way more fun writing about people you know becoming zombies than anything else.

And I love the people talking about the marketability of zombie movies. In all complete honestly, how many people actually expect their screenplays to make it to a movie? I know mine is a piece of crap, entertaining crap, but still not movie worthy.

Well as I am a screenwriter as my career (just finished an MA in screenwriting) my aim is to get my movies made by a major studio which is why I was talking about the marketability of people's ideas. If you don't want my help because no one else here wants to sell I will take my knowledge elsewhere. Most people (me included) had to pay to learn what I am offering to tell you lot for free; you don't seem to appreciate that.
Why do I bother trying to help people...?

To Nazdaq: why so defensive? I don't think anyone in this thread made any negative comments directly related to what you said about the marketability of zombie flicks. Let them write what they want to write, it's all about practice and getting better as a screenwriter. Well for me anyways. Personally I'm interested in anything you have to say as you say you're a career screenwriter. Have you had anything produced yet?

Not yet Tim, but I am sending stuff off to people, it takes at least 3mos. for people to read what I send so it's a long time consuming process. I am trying to keep writing and not just stagnate and wait, you know? I have studied screenwriting structures for the past 4 years through a BA and now an MA so I know the unspoken rules on how to break the official rules and I was just trying to help but I have been repeatedly dismissed by people that don't seem to know what they are talking about so I think, why do I bother?

Oh well, less competition for me if people format and structure wrongly.

I'm going to drag this thread back to the original topic!

I'm kind of doing horror... I'm not sure how it's going to work yet, but it's dark fantasy, and it's turning out somewhat nastier than i anticipated. So now it's horror, i think... even tho there are fairies.

It does seem like there's a lot of Zombie around lately... I'm not sick of it yet, but I would like to see more supernatural horror. That's my favorite!
cdmaze mentioned ghosts... anybody else doing supernatural horror?

I'm another one doing a zombie script. It's a martial arts/zombie/comedy, kind of a kung fu Shaun of the Dead. I've been working on the outline for a while and decided to SF to write the first draft.

I'm so sorry if anyone thought I was being critical. I really wasn't. Unfortunately, my lightly joking tone of voice didn't quite get conveyed through my post. (Doesn't bode well for my writing then does it?) I only thought the marketability statements were funny, because my awful script is highly unmarketable whether there are zombies in it or not.

It was only meant as a humorous degragatory statement aimed at me and my script writing, not at anyone's professional advice. Nazdaq, please continue to give expert advice, and maybe one day I'll be a good enough writer to be able to use it.

Going the MAN VS NATURE route a la Blackwood. Natural zombies! Kidding. No zombies this go round, but I do love the sub-genre.

I started a little late and had differing ideas on what to do, all horror though. I'm writing about a succubus, or lamia, that seems to infect people (just one man so far) through the computer. It's a bit humorous, but I don't know if it's intentional or not.

All the ideas sound terrific everyone. I love the horror comedy route and would be doing it again but my first attempt was so horrible that I had to shelf it. The biggest consideration should be writing what you want, writing what you would like to see made. I sat down and worked on a script that I would like to see. This is my second time writing a zombie film, and I did that because I love the genre, not the marketability around zombies. Even still, if you notice there are roughly two dozen zombie films being produced each year it doesn't seem to be a dead genre. For those of us who love horror zombies are the ultimate. They are fun to watch, to read about, and to write about.
Scriptfrenzy is a place for those of us who are interested in writing screnplays can come together and work on something we always wanted to do. It pushes us to complete something we may have tried before or always wanted to try. It is supposed to encourage and help people along. Anyone with a degree who is so in tune with the business that they can bad mouth others ideas are fools. Especially someone who considers themselves a screenwriter "as their career" but has yet to sell a script. I take my advice from people who know what they are talking about, not someone who plays dress up and is just another unemployed kid living with his parents pretending to be something he is not.
Sorry for the outburst, but I see scriptfenzy as a family of like minded people, not a forum for someone to disregard others ideas.

I'm doing a horror script too, a lot of psychological elements. There are ghosts, at least one murder, people's pasts (usually violent) coming back to haunt them, etc. Oh, and a haunted hotel, which is actually Hell. This is my first time trying to write any kind of horror, and though there have been a few boring scenes for me to write, I mostly love it.

Well don't disregard my ideas then, also I am not a "he", not living with my parents, not unemployed, and certainly NOT a kid.
You know what, all of you can GO TO HELL, I won't be sharing my HARD EARNED EDUCATION with any of you.
I wasn't "badmouthing" anyone until people started giving me shit and telling me to get lost because they did not care for my advice. Fine, if you don't want to sell a screenplay then you can just continue to play in your little sandpit.
I will write no matter what, I don't NEED scriptfrenzy or any of you in order to do that. Just thought you might appreciate the help. Sounds like you don't.
Also, Horrordaddy, just because you got 101 pages, doesn't mean it's any good, and doesn't mean anyone will buy it. Heh, good luck with that.

"Sorry for the outburst"...yeah, right. If you were sorry you wouldn't have said it. Waaay mature for a "daddy".

Oh and P.S: Just because you haven't sold anything doesn't mean you're not a screenwriter. I have just as much right to that title as anyone and I am NOT playing "DRESS-UP"; I'm an artist and a writer, and if you don't like it, you can GET STUFFED.

Wow Naz you're a very angry person. The only bit of advice you actually gave in this entire thread was that zombie movies have been done already. You went to screenwriting school and that's the only knowledge you can share? Everything has been done to death in hollywood, but it's still possible to take an old idea and make it new again.

Actually Tim if you read my post properly I said that "biological" zombies had been done already and I didn't say they could not be done again but perhaps these people should be aware of what has been done already if they were going to attempt it. They should know what's been done in order to make it different?

Yes I am an angry person because all I ever get is people bullying me, calling me names and giving me shit. I've a right to be a little defensive, don't you think?!

Also I WOULD have shared more (and I have in other threads before this one got totally personal and attacked me) if people had been nice to me. I'm not giving away what I paid for to you FOR FREE when you have attacked me.

Whatever, I don't expect you to understand, you'll probably just slag me off some more...

Naz, your advice on biological zombie films was horrendously incomplete. If you want to try and prove your point I would suggest a few more years studying, as this seems to be the only area in which you have any experience. Your anger is misplaced; no one here disregarded your ideas or shot you down. You simply threw advice into an arena of free thought because you think you have knowledge no one else here does. That is not the case. I have spoken with and met with several writers who participate in scriptfrenzy who have sold scripts, and these are the people I take advice from. You wanted to throw around a few degrees and pretend you know more then anyone else here. This thread was created so people could discuss their horror scripts and speak freely about their ideas, not look for advice. There are other threads on this forum for that. If I wanted bad advice on formatting or about what sells in hollywood I could have asked any of the other junior college graduates on this site. When I want advice from someone who knows what they are talking about I seek them out.
Let's be realistic; you are sending stuff out, but in the real world it takes a lot more then 3 months to get a reply from a major studio. You may get confirmation that they recieved your screenplay 3 months after it was submitted, but when you submit a spec script it can be over a year before it is actually looked at, if ever. And at your frenzied pace of 2 pages a day I doubt you have much to submit. I guess working double shifts as a waitress is keeping you busy, but what the hell, your a screenwriter, right?
and your right; the fact that I wrote my screenplay in 3 days doesn't mean it's good, but the fact that it is under negotiations to be optioned does. I didn't write this one on spec, it was requested by a production studio. But I wouldn't know what I am talking about...