FINALIST Shriekfest Horror Fest Screenplay Competition
LOGLINE
On foot and out of ammo, four city slickers and an elderly woman suffering from dementia struggle to reach the safety of a mountaintop ranger station as a troupe of pack hunting, echo-locating faeries tracks them through the woods, picking them off one-by-one.
STATUS
This screenplay has been optioned in the past but is available now.
SYNOPSIS
Reese and Nick just bought a remote cabin in the woods with friends Graham and Courtney. They’ve all got their reasons for being on top of this mountain… Reese is recuperating from a traumatic car accident that cost her a pregnancy; Graham just wants to finish his novel; and Nick and Courtney, their respective spouses, are having sex in the woods. Plus, Nick’s got secret plans to develop the historic property, and that’s not going to go over well with the locals.
Like that’s not enough drama, they keep finding animal carcasses stripped of all the meat except the eyes, the roof is covered in bleached bones, and there’s a darkroom in the cellar with cryptic photos of strange creatures.
Their elderly neighbor Sara is a believer; but then, she also thinks it’s still 1947, and is convinced her daddy was taken by the faeries, who might give him back if she can satisfy them with the sacrifice of a purer spirit.
Then Reese’s dog is slaughtered in the kitchen in the middle of the night. Turns out what the locals call “faeries” are really voracious, echo-locating pack hunters with rows of razor teeth, led by a large one-eyed male nicknamed Scarface who’s just intelligent enough to be organized and unpredictable.
The two couples make a mad dash off the mountain but Nick rolls the car, and they have to hike back to the relative safety of the cabin. At night the creatures attack again; Nick is eaten alive, and the cabin burns to the ground while Reese, Courtney, and Graham cower in the cellar.
The next morning the three survivors trek to Sara’s place for help… but the faeries overrun her house. They get away in Sara’s daddy’s ancient truck, but it makes it less than a mile before it dies and they’re stranded again.
Now they have to trust Sarah’s spotty memory to get them through the woods, with the faeries tracking them mercilessly even in daylight. She leads them to a lumber mill, only to discover it’s been abandoned for decades. Now their only hope is to cross a raging river and get to the forestry outpost at the summit before nightfall.
When they finally reach the outpost, they find the Ranger dying in a pool of his own blood. The faeries return, trapping them all inside… when the Ranger dies, Reese offers the creatures his body, but they want fresh meat.
Sarah’s happy to accommodate their hunger… she’s obsessed with making sacrifices to the blood-thirsty creatures. If they’re going to get off the mountain, Reese and Graham will have to forgive Courtney for the affair, and they’ll all need to work together to get off the mountain.
As the faeries gather their forces and test the windows and doors, Reese manages to build a transmitter from the broken radio and a boom box, in the hopes of blinding the creatures by scrambling their sonar.
If they can only stay alive long enough to use it.
It won’t be easy. These faeries are not your daddy’s Tinker Bell.
PRAISE from readers
BlueCat quarterfinalist, Shriekfest finalist
“A lively, unusual slasher movie that delivers plenty of gore, and introduces a new set of monsters that could be worth a franchise … I could see this as a movie… so many are hard to see actually made. This could be a fun little romp. 9 out of 10! … Clear and atmospheric writing that flows easily down the page. I enjoyed it. Definitely above average writers.” Shriekfest Screenplay Competition
“…awesome, intense, unusual and original … sickly satisfying … the only way to do horror movies”
BlueCat Screenplay Competition
“Compelling, terrifying, disturbing, beautifully written.”
WildSound Screenplay Competition
“…the horror builds … an unusual creature … well written … above average … there is much to like here.”
SlamDance Screenplay Competition
“Thank you for having strong female characters that are actually friends and not having it become a big jealous cat-fight over a guy. That is so tired. Overall, it was awesome and fun. I’m impressed.”
Independent reader