Over on the Original Scripts page are eighteen original scripts for your reading pleasure.

And, 21 years ago today SimplyScripts came to life.

– Don

Over on the Original Scripts page are seventeen original scripts for your reading pleasure.

Also, check out the newly renovated Movie Scripts page.

– Don

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.

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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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Over on the Unproduced scripts page are fifteen original scripts for your reading pleasure.

And a few site updates!

We’ve updated the Treatments and Series Bibles page.

We’ve created a new page of Unproduced treatments and series bibles.

And there has been a massive overhaul of the Produced scripts page and full listing of produced movie scripts (Now with fewer broken links!)

WINDOW CREEP – by Rob Herzog
short, horror script

A nine-year old boy tries to outwit the visitor who scratches at his window screen in the middle of the night.

Are you afraid of the dark?

Since time immemorial most of us have felt that most primitive of fears – being afraid of things that we cannot see and of things that go bump in the night.

Remember being a kid? Most of us can recall waking in the middle of the night listening out for another creak of the floorboards, or startled by the groan of a wardrobe-door yawing open of its own accord. Covers pulled up and over our heads we would lie in wait, dreading the moment when something might pounce from the closet, or jump out from underneath the bed… Terrified that there was something evil lurking under the cover of darkness.

In Rob Herzog’s chilling horror, Window Creep, we meet Eddie, a plucky nine-year old kid who we sense is somewhat used to fending for himself. Amidst the backdrop of an ordinary pre-teen bedroom – posters of superheroes and monsters adorning the walls – Eddie’s enjoying his usual bedtime ritual. He’s up late, playing with his toy soldiers. The lights are out and the gleam of Eddie’s flashlight bounces off the walls, when all of a sudden –

At this point Eddie’s going to do what every petrified kid will do under the circumstances, and that is scream and call out for his Mom.

But it’s also at this point that writer, Rob Herzog cleverly ramps up the tension and suspense even more than before, because…

Mama’s not answering. In the bedroom down the hall it appears she’s out cold which means Eddie is now all alone and at the mercy of whatever this Creep is and whatever it wants.

So, what does Eddie do next? Well, there’s one trick in Eddie’s arsenal and it’s the same ploy he uses with his toy soldiers when they’re not behaving. He attempts to hypnotize it in the hope that –

But… toys are just toys and Eddie’s about to learn that whatever this Creep is, it’s very real, it’s very evil, and it won’t be fooled by childish games.

And then…

Well, I can’t spoil the fun and the scares can I?

Suffice to say you will not guess the sting in the tail of this cleverly written part monster, part parable tale following in the tradition of such horror gems as Lights Out, Bedfellows, The Babadook, and Don’t Breathe.

Rob Herzog’s Window Creep might well be the stuff of nightmares, but for you filmmakers out there it could be the perfect calling-card for your dreams.

But don’t go hiding under the bed. Better burst out and into the light. The only thing scarier than not getting your claws into this one would be missing out on it altogether. And you really don’t want that… lest the lost opportunity haunt you for the rest of your life.

BUDGET: Low. Self-contained one location, one plucky kid, one Mom, one Creep’s hand with some light SFX.

ABOUT THE WRITER: Rob Herzog is a Chicago screenwriter. He has sold two short scripts and won prize money in two small screenwriting contests. His short horror script Creak and Shriek was produced in 2019 by Mad Dreamer Entertainment and can be viewed on various platforms like Amazon Prime, YouTube and Vimeo. He has a master’s degree in English composition from Northeastern Illinois University. Rob can be reached at: robherzogr (a) hotmail.

About the Reviewer: L.Chambers has been writing all her life – especially in her head, and on scraps of paper. It’s only in the last few years she began to get serious about screen-writing. Prior to this she worked in the Features Department for ABC TV as a Program Assistant, and trained as a FAD. She currently works as a freelance web-content editor and lives with her husband (also a screenwriter) in Sydney, Australia. L. Chambers can be reached at: libbych (a) hotmail.

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Round 5 Writers have been revealed. Congratulations to Marnie and her winning script The Cost of War

Congratulations to Paul (PKCardnial) Knauer who was the overall winner of the Tournament.

Several scripts have already been option or sold as these are generally limited location/limited cast scripts and easy to film. So, now is the time to reach out to these folks to secure rights to film them.

Round 1: Money is the root of all evil
Round 2: Blood is Thicker than Water
Round 3: Nature vs Nurture
Round 4: Your Hero Is the Villain
Round 5: Winning At Any Cost

Several of the winning scripts have been reviewed by Michael Kospiah (with more to come)

• Snake My Drain
• Ice by Paul Knauer
• Finding The Brother by Bill Sarre
• First Generation by Mark Renshaw
• Lines by Paul Knauer
• Let ‘er Rip by John Staats
• From Vilna with Love by Warren Duncan

Unsatisfied with her marriage, a down-on-her-luck housewife begins fantasizing about a handsome plumber. But as fantasy blurs with reality more and more, her obsession with him becomes very dangerous.

WEEK FOUR of Simply Scripts’ annual Writer’s Tournament resulted in a three-way tie. One of those top entries was a dark fantasy short written by the supremely-talented Marnie Mitchell called, SNAKE MY DRAIN, its title drenched in sexual innuendo. And for good reason…

The theme for Week Four was, YOUR HERO IS THE VILLAIN – a theme that was sure to conjure up some pretty dark entries. Marnie’s three criteria items were; a PLUNGER, a PLUMBER and a HOME IMPROVEMENT STORE.

Our story’s hero/anti-hero is Lorraine, a down-on-her-luck housewife who’s very unsatisfied with her marriage. We open on her desperately trying to unclog the garbage disposal in her sink. Along with the faucets not working and an overflowed toilet, this was the last thing she needed. And it’s all thanks to her poor excuse of a husband.

After breaking the plunger handle while trying to unclog the garbage disposal, she takes a trip to the local home improvement shop to pick up a replacement. And that’s when she meets Rick – fit, tone and handsome as can be, Lorraine swoons over him. This guy is a dreamboat.

Desperate to get Rick’s attention, Lorraine asks for some assistance, soon learning that he’s a plumber. Jumping on the opportunity to get him alone, she asks him to come over and tend to some of her “plumbing” *wink-wink*. What ensues next while at the store felt like a musical number out of a David Lynch film like Blue Velvet or Wild at Heart – Rick breaks out into song, serenading Lorraine seductively as the lights dim and a spotlight shines on him. Soon, in what felt like the “Just Dropped in To See What Condition My Condition Was In” scene from Big Lebowski (song performed by Kenny Rogers, RIP), a chorus line of back-up singers (Rick doppelgangers) break out into a choreographed dance routine.

Of course, we find out that all of this is taking place inside of Lorraine’s head, though it seems very, very real to her at first… almost DISTURBINGLY real.

When Rick arrives the next day to fix her plumbing, Lorraine continues to have odd sexual fantasies running through her mind. But as the fantasies continue, we notice that they’re beginning to blur into Lorraine’s reality, making her behavior seem a bit odd and off-putting, ultimately leading to Lorraine embarrassing herself in front of the younger stud.

And it’s at that point when the proverbial excrement hits the fan in a pretty shocking reveal that I won’t spoil for you in this review. But I will say that Lorraine’s husband is, indeed, responsible for the clogged garbage disposal in the sink (hint-hint).

Dark and twisted, yet gleefully entertaining, especially the fantasy sequences, SNAKE MY DRAIN is guaranteed to be a hit at film festivals with the right filmmaker at the helm. It reminded me of BLUE VELVET, BUFFALO 66, PSYCHO and BIG LEBOWSKI all rolled into one. Highly recommended to any filmmaker with a panache for the surreal.

BUDGET: Pretty sensible actually – Outside of the fantasy sequence at the hardware store (which would require some pretty simple visual effects), it’s only two simple locations and two actors.

ABOUT THE WRITER: Marnie Mitchell is an award-winning screenwriter and 5-page contest junkie. Due to her addiction, she’s written over 80 shorts, 15 having been produced. Currently she’s working on her 8th feature, an adaptation of a horror short she wrote 10 years ago. Some of her work can be found on her site, BrainFluffs.com. Some of her photography can be seen here: marnzart.wordpress.com. Marnie can be contacted via her website.

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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.

FROM VILNA WITH LOVE (5-page short historical screenplay) by Warren Duncan

Twenty-four years after the death of their parents in war-torn Germany, a brother and sister seek revenge on the man responsible.

The second-place entry of Week Three’s Writers’ Tournament was the emotionally gut-wrenching and thought-provoking revenge tale, From Vilna With Love, its title somewhat of a play on the James Bond film/novel From Russia With Love. Though the tone of each story couldn’t be any more different. This is a revenge tale.

Before I get into the actual review, let’s go over the three items the writer was assigned to include in this tale; a DIE-CAST TOY CAR, a PAINTER and a PLACE OF WORSHIP. All of which are so naturally weaved into the story, I almost forgot that there were three items that needed to be included. Though one of the items has great symbolic importance to the story’s theme.

We’re taken back in time to 1963, post-World War II Germany, where brother and sister, Tomasz and Lena drive through snow-covered landscapes in the middle of the night, eventually arriving at an isolated cottage deep into the forest. Why they’re here, we don’t know yet.

That’s when we flashback to 1939 – Tomasz and Lena, small children, play while their parents, Piotr and Nadia (both painters) sell their work at a local market in Vilna, Poland. A loving family, Tomasz in particular seems to be obsessed with his favorite toy, a miniature, red toy car. So much so that he even plays with it during dinner, to his father’s chagrin.

But, during what seems like a peaceful dinner with family, the impact of bombs in the distance throttle the small home.

In a later flashback, we’re taken to a church where the family, along with several other frightened Vilna residents, hide from Russian soldiers, who eventually make their way in. It’s there where Tomasz and Lena witness the execution of their father at the hands of soldier, Viktor Ivanov, a memory forever etched into the siblings’ memories, especially Tomasz, who tries to come to his father’s aid, dropping something on the ground.

Back to present time at the isolated cottage, we find out that this is Viktor’s home. And it’s made abundantly clear why Tomasz and Lena are there when Tomasz knocks on the front door with a gun.

You’ll have to read for yourself to find out how this tale of revenge ends. But I will say that the ending might surprise you. I personally pictured this being filmed in black and white with the toy car being the only color we see in the story. Much like Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece, Schindler’s List, the red car’s purpose in this story (more specifically the color red) is so vital to the theme. But, in this story in particular, it’s especially vital to the theme of nature vs nurture – a child’s innocence taken away from them at the hands of a cruel, war-torn environment.

One of the more engaging shorts I’ve read in quite a while, this is a story meant to be seen on screen.

BUDGET: Medium. Historical/time period pieces have the reputation of carrying bigger budgets, but with clever planning and fairly simple locations, this can be filmed on a sensible budget. Regardless, the story is worth every penny.

ABOUT THE WRITER: Warren Duncan writes screenplays and comics in his spare time and has been lucky enough to have several shorts produced and the first issue of his comic book series published. Warren can be reached at: warren_duncan (a) hotmail.com

FROM VILNA WITH LOVE (5-page short historical 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.

LINES (5-page short thriller screenplay) by PAUL KNAUER

A mother and daughter, struggling to get by, find themselves eluding gangsters when their deadbeat, drug addicted husband/father can’t pay the gangsters the money they’re owed.

BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER was the theme for Week Two of our annual writer’s tournament here at Simply Scripts, which saw many impressive entries – each writer was given a different genre and three items to include in each of their scripts. I assumed the theme was about loyalty to family in some form and, after reading several of the entries, my assumptions were correct.

One entry that caught my eye while also notching the top overall voting score was a cool little thriller called Lines, written by the very talented Paul Knauer. A Simply Scripts vet who’s had several scripts optioned and produced, Paul is no stranger to these challenges and tournaments, continuously placing high in many of them. I’ve already reviewed two of his entries – Potato Radio, an entry from the COVID themed May One Week Challenge, and Passwords, from the horror/sci-fi themed June One Week Challenge.

Paul, of course, was assigned to write something in the thriller genre while also being given the following three items to include in his script – ketchup packets, homemaker and an auto body shop. And not only did Paul seamlessly weave these items into his story, but each item actually played a major role in the plot.

Through the story’s opening visual, we immediately understand the title of Paul’s tale as we see some drug paraphernalia neatly lined up on a desk at an auto repair shop (criteria item #1). We’re introduced to Steve who, along with being a mechanic, is also a deadbeat father, awful husband and meddling drug dealer who owes his boss some money – rather than selling his product, he’s been partaking a little too much.

Back at their apartment, we’re then introduced to Steve’s wife, Leslie, the homemaker (criteria item #2) who desperately searches the empty cupboards and refrigerator, trying to find dinner for their eight-year-old daughter, Stella. Met with cobwebs, Leslie decides to gather some change and take Stella to a local fast food spot to order a burger off the dollar menu. But as they’re gone, two goons break into their apartment, searching for the stay-at-home mom and the little girl, most likely related to Steve’s money situation.

Meanwhile, Leslie and Stella are at the fast food spot, getting dinner. While the fast food clerk has their back turned, Stella snatches up a bunch of ketchup packets (criteria item #3) and stuffs them into her mother’s purse – this seems to be a routine for them while also being a strange way of mother and daughter bonding.

After leaving, Leslie sees the auto repair shop in the near distance and decides to take Stella there to pay Steve a visit. Unfortunately, Steve’s no-nonsense drug boss, Victor, has already beat them to the punch. Unbeknownst to Steve or Victor, Leslie eavesdrops from the other side of Steve’s office door.

Ouch, that’s gotta hurt. But Leslie’s got something else up her sleeve, finding a way to get back at her husband while ALSO eluding Victor and his goons. I won’t spoil it for you, but let’s just say those ketchup packets come very handy and play a major role in her plans.

Insanely clever, especially given the assigned criteria with one week to write, Lines is one that filmmakers and producers should be scrambling for. With a sensible budget and great characters, this could EASILY be filmed with social distancing in rules in effect.

BUDGET: Low to shoe string. Writing on a budget can be tricky when it comes to these writer’s tournaments where each writer is given a certain criteria to meet. But this one has a minimal cast and simple locations.

ABOUT THE WRITER: Paul is an optioned and produced screenwriter working out of the Kansas City area. His main focus is thrillers and slightly absurdist comedy with heart, most of them about life in the Midwest U.S. His first script, a sitcom pilot titled OH, BROTHER!, placed second in the 2012 Fresh Voices Screenplay Competition and was subsequently optioned. Paul’s diverse portfolio includes several feature thrillers, a couple of comedy features and multiple sitcom pilots, as well as dozens of shorts across genres. He believes that becoming a better writer requires the ability to push personal boundaries. Paul can be reached at: pkcardinal (a) gmail.

Read: LINES (5-page short thriller screenplay)

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

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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.