HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT BY ADAM SIMON AND TIM METCALFE [outline]

Outline and lessons on next page...

LESSONS:

- This was the least scary script I’ve read. It wasn’t scary at all. Going to think about why and then hopefully we can avoid those pitfalls when we write ours…
- Don’t overwrite description or be too cutesy with it. Just say what’s on screen and that’s gonna be scariest.
- Here’s part of the problem… The ‘setting up the scary’ section is not scary in this movie. Matt sees Victorian era people. That’s kind of it. The spirits don’t feel malevolent early enough. 
- Along those lines: the characters don’t act too scared in this movie. Like… Matt is scared but he writes it off and hides it. Sara and Peter are still going to work. They aren’t ACTING like the house is haunted so I never FELT like the house was haunted.
- THE PREFACE WASN’T SCARY. The preface to this movie was basically a hint that the house was a former funeral home. Would have been better if it was a scary death or something. It was missing dramatic irony and dramatic irony fuels a lot of these movies in the first act or 2. 
- ALSO THAT EARLY DEATH MISSING is a reason what Matt saw wasn’t that scary. It all kind of equalled “this place was a funeral home.” The mystery of the necromancy and stuff wasn’t scary enough.
- The RESEARCH phase was not scary. It was just like… go to a library. Find out everything about the history of the house. That’s it. 
- THE END was bald chaos. Just like… burning the house down. I never felt like anyone was in crazy danger. I didn’t feel like the spirits wanted anyone but Matt. And it was clear before the climactic sequence that Matt was a good guy and that he was going to save the day. 
- THE BACKSTORY is definitely creepy as fuck. But the details were not creative. That’s a VERY IMPORTANT difference from THE RING, for instance.
- ALSO: the mystery was not mysterious enough, it was not pursued aggressively enough, and it was too easy to get a hold of. 
- WRONG HERO? Matt is the only person who believes this shit is happening (and Wendy kind of). But Matt is kind of resigned to die and he seems fucked so the stakes of the movie weirdly never feel life or death. Seems like a stronger choice for the MOTHER to be the hero, fighting for her SON to get cured of cancer and stay away from the demons. If SHE had crazy drive, hope and determination that would have fueled this whole story. 
- There is not enough IMMEDIACY in this story. There are always a few days between scenes. That made the situation feel NOT desperate. 
- BIGGEST THING: the mom not being freaked out and driven meant there was no one to really hook into. ALSO no one really saw what Matt saw (or they did and didn’t react strongly enough). There was never that moment of “Oh fuck. OK. We’re haunted. Let’s get rid of these things NOW.” 
- LAST OF ALL: A lot of what happens here is "Matt witnesses scary shit that happened in 1927." That level of separation keeps things from being truly scary, no matter WHAT happened then. Because ALL THAT STUFF was creepier than what was happening in the present, it weirdly felt like the dangerous shit had already happened. Flashbacks need to be used ONLY to increase the scariness in the present moment or give a quick explanation that helps our characters move the story forward in the present. In this movie, we kind of just get a pretty clear picture of the answer to the mystery before it's even uncovered. So the flashbacks are overly expository in the moment and make later realizations feel like repeated exposition which is even worse slash more boring. So that's that. 

1. STILL IMAGES OF THE DEAD
2. INTERVIEW WITH SARAH. She glimpsed hell. It was in the tabloids.
3. JUNE 1987. Sara driving to CT with son MATT to get him cancer treatment.
4. HOME
- husband to work
- WENDY the niece helps take care of Sara’s kids while Matt’s in treatment
- Husband Peter and Sara argue about money. They are strained. Decide to get a rental near the CT hospital and live there during treatment. Make it work.
5. CT SEQUENCE
- Matt gets treatment
- Sarah looks at houses
- Matt gets scary treatment
- Sara finds house. Seems too good to be true.
- Drive home with Matt. Sad. Decides house was not right.
- Matt is so sick though…
- So she turns back to the creepy Victorian


6. HOUSE.
- Sara on phone with Peter. Justifying why she took the house.
- Matt sees possible ghost.
- Matt hears possible creepy voice.
- Wakes up and thinks it was a dream.
- Sarah realizes the place was a 1920s funeral home but throws the photo evidence away
- Matt chooses the creepy basement as his bedroom so no one has to hear him vomit
- Family gets there.
- Matt has a flash of morticians in his basement room. Draining blood from a person.
- Little Billy and Wendy go to bed


7. ESTABLISHING SHOT OF HOUSE TRANSITIONS TO NIGHT


NOTE: THIS TOOL IS USED A LOT IN THESE SCRIPTS AND USED WELL.


8. MATT’S ROOM. LATER. He sees creepy guys doing creepy mortician shit in latin.


Wakes up and tries to open locked door to other half of basement.


It burns his hand.


9. MORNING.
Dish breaks.
Matt insists it wasn’t him.
Sara says the chemo experiment is making him hallucinate.
If he’s hallucinating he’s off the trial.
So he ‘admits’ he broke the glass.


10. HOSPITAL.
Doc approves Matt for Stage 2 of treatment.
Matt meets a wise old creepy priest during chemo.
Priest says the visions are just part of dying…


11. HOUSE
- Matt in bed
- Creepy door opens


CUT TO:


- Matt leads brother Billy into room
- An embalming chamber
- Peter the Dad finds themn


12. UPSTAIRS. Peter upset with Sara for not telling him.


13. GRAVEYARD. Matt with Wendy. What’s the purpose of life if you die? Wendy is not sure. But when you’re alive you can love and be loved and that’s a gift.


14. FAMILY MEETING.
Discuss funeral home realization.
Say they will be a family and stick it out until Matt’s treatment ends later.
Matt gets a vision…


15. MATT’S VISION
1927 seance.
Creepy.
Rattling table.


16. BACK TO SCENE.
Matt will not say what he saw
Doesn’t want anyone to know the medicine might be causing hallucinations


17. MATT’S ROOM
Matt kind of tells Wendy he saw dead people etc.
Tells her via old timey poems he remembers from being a kid


18. PARENTS TALK
He heads off to work


19. ON THE ROAD
Peter sees a beer sign.
Almost goes to drink.
Does not.


20.     HOUSE AT NIGHT.
Sara finds Matt in an odd stupor.
Leads him back to bed.


21. A FEW WEEKS LATER.
Matt’s skin is scaly and black from teh treatment.


22. HIDE AND SEEK.
Matt sees old timey kid and dad.
Follows them.
Ends up in the ‘active embalming chamber’ from the past
Bodies covered in incantations and used like human candles…
Matt screams LEAVE ME ALONE
The other kids find him and basically back away


23. CHURCH
- Matt talks to priest
- What do I do?
- Find out what he wants from you…


24. HOME.
- Matt stumbles out bed not aware of himself
- Sara clocks out of convenience store shift
- Sarah comes home
- Matt has lit a ton of fireplace and candles
- She puts it out
- he was unaware
- Sara calls husband has small tiff
- Matt thinks he finds maggots in the house but then his hand is empty


25.  A FEW DAYS LATER
Sara comes home
Matt has piled furniture in kitchen
Tried to claw out like buried alive
Speaks in creepy voice not his own
Cut to…


26. DOCTOR
Assesses Matt’s behavior
Trial is over
Suggests anti depressants or having Matt committed


27. HOME.
Matt playing with younger brother.
Freaks out b/c he thinks he sees creepy old kid.


29. HOSPITAL
Sarah prays and does positive affirmations
Peter at other house
Gets drunk and bashes an old guitar


30. HOME
Kids play hide n seek
Matt looks like he’s becoming creepy old timey kid… JONAH.
Says he’ll play then trudges down to his lair.


31. BASEMENT
Little sister has foot through the floor
Matt finds old book and box under there
Shoos young kids away


32. LATER
Matt and Wendy investigate box
Embalming photos
Little eyelids from the corpses
Photos of the dead
Then
Photos of living contacting the dead in seances
Find JONAH photos
Matt tells Wendy Matt has seen Jonah
Wendy says…
We have to find out who lived here and what they were


33. LIBRARY
INTERCUT with back home discussion
Wendy researches and shares what she learned
People who owned the funeral home held seances there to contact the dead
BOY JONAH was the medium
WEIRD
EVEN WEIRDER???
Town found lots of coffins many years later with sandbags inside, not bodies!
Matt knows who to contact about this…


34. HOUSE
Priest there
Creepy body up with little girl
Priest confirms skin is eyelids
Says it was necromancy
black magic
They pray
And it propels Matt to 1927


35. 1927 SEANCE
Jonah spits up ectoplasm


36. BACK TO SCENE
- Matt faints
- Sara comes home
- Kicks priest out


37. MARY’S ROOM
Little girl mary screams
She says she saw a scary tattooed man
Mom says it was a dream


38. NIGHT
Sara sees creepy man he says
“Do you know what they did to us?”


39. NIGHT
Jonah visits Wendy


40. NIGHT
Peter comes home drunk
Everyone sleeping with lights on
Freaks out and throws all bulbs away
Sara kicks him out for being drunk
Sara calls priest


41. ANOTHER EVENING
Priest arrives.
Finds Jonah’s remains
Says it’s better now


42. NIGHT
Matt screams
covered in latin inscriptions
Goes in ambulance
Medics say the writing looks like it’s from the inside out
Sara and Peter make up and follow the ambulance


43. HOUSE
Mary, Wendy and Billy are still there for some reason
Creepy shit is happening
Everything rotten
Mary’s doll is missing
Billy’s magic 8 ball only has CREEPY LATIN PHRASES


43. CAR
Jonah rises from the pile of bones in the priests car
He crashes


44. 1927
Jonah killed people
Then he burned alive


45. BACK IN CAR
Priest sets ashes into wind


46. HOUSE
Wendy gets strangled by a shower curtain
Priest leaves message…
JONAH wasn’t the evil he was keeping the evil back
All the other bodies are there and THEY were amplifying evil
Now that Jonah is free there is nothing to hold them back


47. HOPSITAL    
Doc says treatment did not work
Time for hospice
LATER
Matt has escaped
Seems to us Jonah could be living in his body…


48. HOUSE
Matt shows up with axe
Chops up house
Dead bodies covered in necromantic language spill out
Pushes the bodies out the door
“What about you, Matt?”
“They can’t hurt me. I’m already dead.”


49. HOUSE
Matt pulls all the bodies out
lights them on fire


50. OUTISDE HOUSE
Sara and Peter pull up.
It’s on fire
She rushes in
Matt is dead
Place burns down
Priest pulls up and is like this is what has to happen
Suddenly Matt emerges
Healthy and no more apparent cancer


51. SARA INTERVIEW
Back to docu style.
Lord works in mysterious ways, says Sara.
...like she’s warning us.


52. ROLL TEXT
Matt got better.
Recorded as ‘spontaneous remission.’
House was rebuilt and resold and has not had any further issues.




STAGE 1
Creepy stuff.
Dismissing it.


STAGE 2
Accepting the haunt.


STAGE 3
Fighting the haunt.