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.

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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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.

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Thanks to “John” for the heads up.

Summer of 84 – undated, unspecified, fyc draft script by Matt Leslie & Stephen J. Smith – hosted by: Daily Script – in pdf format

After suspecting that their police officer neighbor is a serial killer, a group of teenage friends spend their summer spying on him and gathering evidence, but as they get closer to discovering the truth, things get dangerous.

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Conan (filmed as Conan the Barbarian) – August 1, 1978 draft script by Oliver Stone (Based on the stories of Robert E. Howard) with later additions by L. Sprague De Camp and Lin Carter – hosted by: Apolitical – in pdf format

A young boy, Conan, becomes a slave after his parents are killed and tribe destroyed by a savage warlord and sorcerer, Thulsa Doom. When he grows up he becomes a fearless, invincible fighter. Set free, he plots revenge against Thulsa Doom.

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Thanks Jordan Tate for the heads up.

Don’t Stop Dancing – June 23, 2012 first draft script by Jordan Tate and Gary Revel – hosted by: Don’t Stop Dancing – in pdf format

The true story of the life music and career of Michael Jackson based on Gary Revel’s personal story beginning in the early 1990s.

More information at Gary Revel.com. Visit the screenwriters website at Jordantate.blogspot.com

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Thanks Jake for the heads up.

Charlie St. Cloud – undated, unspecified draft script by Craig Pearce and Lewis Colick (based on the novel by Ben Sherwood – hosted by: The Script Savant – in pdf format

Charlie’s brother, Sam, dies in a car crash that Charlie survives. Charlie is given the gift of seeing his dead brother and others who he has lost such as his friend who died in the military, but when the girl he falls in love with’s life is at risk, he must choose between his girlfriend and his brother.

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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.

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.

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)

Discuss this script on the discussion board

*This screenplay may not be used or reproduced for any purpose including educational purposes without the expressed written permission of the author.

Find more scripts available for production.

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.

Subscribe to Michael’s YouTube Channel.

Chariots of Fire – February 13, 1980 second draft script by Colin Welland – hosted by: UCLA Extension Writers’ Program – in pdf format

ritons Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell are both naturally gifted fast sprinters, but approach running and how it fits into their respective lives differently. The son of a Lithuanian Jew, Harold, who lives a somewhat privileged life as a student at Cambridge, uses being the fastest to overcome what he sees as the obstacles he faces in life as a Jew despite that privilege. In his words to paraphrase an old adage, he is often invited to the trough, but isn’t allowed to drink. His running prowess does earn him the respect of his classmates, especially his running teammates, and to some extent the school administration, if only he maintains what they consider proper gentlemanly decorum, which isn’t always the case in their minds. Born in China, the son of Christian missionaries, Eric, a Scot, is a devout member of the Church of Scotland who eventually wants to return to that missionary work. He sees running as a win-win in that the notoriety of being fast gives him an added outlet to spread the word of God, while he sees his speed as being a gift from God, and he wants to run to honor God and that gift. This view does not sit well with his sister, Jennie Liddell, who sees his running as only taking away time from his work to God. Harold and Eric’s lives do intersect in national races, but it is the one hundred meter track event at the 1924 Paris Olympics which the two men and their supporters most anticipate. Beyond the fact that Americans Charles Paddock and Jackson Scholz are favored in the event, the much anticipated head to head between Harold and Eric may be further shadowed by other issues, especially as it affects Eric’s Christian beliefs.

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The French Lieutant’s Woman – November 3, 1979 unspecified draft script by Harold Pinter (based on the novel by John Fowles) – hosted by: UCLA Extension Writers’ Program – in pdf format

A movie is being made of a story, set in nineteenth century England, about Charles, a biologist who’s engaged to be married, but who falls in love with outcast Sarah, whose melancholy makes her leave him after a short, but passionate affair. Anna and Mike, who play the characters of Sarah and Charles, go, during the shooting of the movie, through a relationship that runs parallel to that of their characters.

Information courtesy of IMDb