THE RING BY EHREN KRUGER [outline]

Very creeped out by this.

Here's lessons and the outline...

LESSONS: 
- use lots of creepy and inexplicable shit
- reverse expectations can be creepy. Like you expect the creepy call to come so when some people do not get called it is extra creepy
- strong imagery is used. water. hair over face. eclipse. burning tree. 
- this is a mystery. the mystery of what's up with this tape, what's the back story and how can we stop it? hero is very active in trying to get to the bottom of that. 
- emphasizing again the use of creepy shit all the time. kids drawings, whatever. anything that can be creepy is used well in this. 
- use of single parent back story grounds everything. this also is the story of two parents finding their way back to each other. all very small and simple but carries a lot of weight. ALSO two parents coming together to raise an odd kid (cool reflection of the story of creepy girl who was not parented well...) 
- information parsed out well. don't even realize noah is the dad for like 70 percent of the movie but that extra jolt of meaning and significance comes just in time to add momentum to the third act in an emotional way. 
- stakes are raised and continually amped up based on who has been 'infected' by the movie. aka who has watched it. and the fact that the phone call doesn't happen right away allows the stakes to be raised gradually along with some mystery. phone didn't ring. is this person fucked? ten pages later their face is blurred... creep continues. later on aidan is found watching it. stakes go up again etc. ​

RING BY ETHAN KRUGER [outline]


1. A black monolith. A red sun labelled “record.” Not much else. Creepy and dystopian vibe.


2. SMASH to a TV. Changing channels.


3. Inside Katie’s bedroom. Katie complains about brain cells dying from TV. With Becca.


4. Becca discusses video. You watch it. Phone rings. Says you’ll die in 7 days. Katie says she watched it one week ago exactly. Just kidding!


Note: There’s an immediate scare and it’s from a joke.


Reversed it AGAIN. Turns out she really watched the tape…


Phone rings.


ANOTHER fake scare. Becca pretends it’s scary but it’s just Katie’s mom…


5. Scary sequence after mom calls. Odd light. TV static. Quiet.


BIG SCARE: Takes a bold step closer and reaches for the knob… and thrusts open the door!


—as ANGLE immediately RACES AT HER from across the room, FLYING for her terrified eyes as she readies a scream--


—that never comes.


SMASH CUT TO:


BLACKNESS


NOTE: First death sequence lasts 10 pages.


6. CLASSROOM. Quiet little boy, AIDAN. Woman Journalist (Rachel) screaming on phone outside. Comes inside. It’s his mom.


7. Rachel and Teacher. Teacher concerned b/c Aidan’s cousin died 2 days ago. Aidan drew pictures of her dead last week.


8. Home. Getting ready for funeral.


9. Funeral at Suburban House. Rachel comforting sister and brother in law who lost their daughter.


10. Funeral Intercuts: Aidan creeping around. Rachel talking to her sister. Sister wants rRachel to find out what happened. Aidan in Katie’s room. [this is the girl who died in the opening] Rachel talks to teens about videotape. Finds out the guy Katie watched the tape with ALSO died that night.


11. Rachel at video store. Asking about the killing tape.


12. Bed time. Aidan reveals “Katie told me she knew when she was going to die.”


13. Work. Rachel confirms. Katie and the other kids all died at 10 PM.


14. KATIE’S ROOM. Rachel looking around. Asking Ruth about Katie and maybe drugs. Ruth gets upset.


SCARE: She then slides open the closet--


TO REVEAL KATIE’S CORPSE


huddled in the corner, hands raised and mouth open — frozen in rictus — and her face bizarrely disfigured as if BLURRED features SWERVED like from some paralytic attack!


ON FULL SCENE


Rachel watches Ruth starting to tremble — facing the empty closet. Whatever Ruth’s seeing isn’t really there.


15. PHOTO MART. Rachel develops Katie’s last photo roll. Pictures from that night. Normal. One shot though with all faces blurred. Photos from shelter mountain inn…


16. SHELTER MOUNTAIN INN. Checks out cabin. Rents the same one KT had. Finds the ring video tape on a communal shelf. Grabs it.


ATMOSPHERE: Creepy clerk does a magic trick during the scene. Nice action to propel scene.


17. VIDEO. Rachel watches. Creepy. Then phone call. Seven days.


18. HOME. Photographer comes to talk about blurred face photos. Turns out Rachel’s face is blurred in every pic taken since she saw the video.


NOTE: COUNTER APPEARS ON SCREEN IN THIS SECTION, “DAY ONE.”


19. NOAH PHOTOGRAPHER WATCHES VIDEO. But phone does not ring.


20. WORK. Rachel tries to copy the video. It’s creepy and the numbers spin weird.


21. NOAH’S. That problem with tghe tape means the images were not recorded. Then how did they get there? Then they find a beach horizon when slowing down. What’s up with that?


22. ASSISTANT ARRIVES. Romantic interest. Conflicts with Rachel’s mild interest in Noah. She leaves.


23. ARGUMENT WITH NOAH. Rachel is annoyed Noah acted like it wasn’t a big deal. Won’t leave a tape with him.


24. OUTSIDE. Rachel runs into a red ladder just like the one from the video. She’s creeped out.


25. MENTAL HOSPITAL. Day three. Rachel goes to see Katie’s friend Becca. Becca is deranged. She knows Rachel only has 4 days left.


26. VIDEO EDITING SUITE. Rachel widens image. finds a lighthouse and a horse. the fly from the image enters the real world. WTF…


27. NOAH IN WORLD. Face is blurred in electronics shop tv screens. WTF…


28. NEWSPAPER OFFICE. Rachel tries to find the lightouse from the video. It’s from Maine. She searches the lightouse in research database.


29. CLIPPING ROOM. Rachel learns about horse deaths near lighthouse and finds a photo of the woman from the mirror. ANNA MORGAN.


30. Rachel tries to take notes on this. But instead her hand is drawing over photos of Anna Morgan’s face.


31. Noah heads to shelter mountain.


32. SHELTER MOUNTAIN. Noah finds a dead body in the lake and the body’s features have been distorted.


33. HOME. Aidan asleep. He drew lots of creepy pictures of Anna Morgan.


34. BEDROOM. Rachel wakes up and hears whispering and whimpering girl. Rachel is grabbed by a scary wrist.


SCARE: She turns to go when she notices now…


The dark chair sits center, facing away from us, in a puddle of water. A dark haried figure in a whtie gown sits there. Rachels steps for the chair, trembling. The whispering continues and as Rachel reaches it…


HAND GRABS HER WRIST.


a female hand with bloody, missing fingernails, latching like a calw onto Rachel’s arm, as suddenly LIGHT FLOODS THE ROOM--


SMASH CUT TO:


Rachel wakes up with a start.


35. BEDROOM. Rachel has a mark on her wrist like it was all real. And she hears the whispering from the dream too…


36. LIVING ROOM. She finds Aidan watching the tape. Freaks out. Throws tape. Phone rings. It’s Noah.


Intercut


Noah calls he believes her. Rachel says “He watched the tape.”


“Who?”


“Our son.”




NOTE: Scary and confusing things happen. That is a big part of what increases the spook. Everything that happens is creepy. Not big scares but mounting dread, tension and stakes. All very practical effects nothing like walls moving or anything.


NOTE: Weaving in the personal love drama is awesome. Such simple drama but adds a lot of stakes and tension and grounds the whole thing.


37. DAY FIVE. Outside Katie’s house. Aidan and Noah in a car. Talking about how Noah is not around as a dad.


38. KATIE’S BEDROOM. a notebook with creepy ring sketches. Rach drops noah off to stay there.


39. MAINE. Rachel with Noah headed toward the lighthouse probably. Rachel boards a boat to the lightouse. Noah agrees to check out the local hospital where Anna Morgan was.


40. FERRY. Rachel. There’s an agitated horse on board. It’s got the creepy eye from the video. Horse freaks out and falls overboard and drowns. It’s the white red water from the video.


Little Girl glares at Rachel.


41. NOAH AT PSYCHIATRIC CLINIC. Finds record room. Fly from video is on the door.


42. IN RECORD ROOM. He searches.


43. MORGAN HORSE FARM. Rachel talks to Victor Morgan. He scares her off.


outside… Rachel sees Aidan drew this exact house with a girl that has hair covering her face.


44. KATIE’S HOUSE. Aidan is drawing a red ladder. Gets a call from Rachel. Aidan reveals he draws what the girl tells him to draw.


45. RACHEL WITH LOCALS. Learns the morgan’s had a creepy, crazy daughter. Somehow connected to Anna’s suicide.


46. HOSPITAL RECORD ROOM. Noah finds info about Anna and Samara. Blank birth records after a few mis-carriages. Refernce to a video record…


47. VIDEO ROOM. Noah pretneds to be Victor Morgan. Goes to get tape. Tape is gone. Victor Morgan is the last person who took it.


48. MORGAN HOUSE. Rachel sneaks up when Victor leaves.


49. HOSPITAL. Noah tries to call Rachel. We can tell she’s headed toward danger. Noah tries to warn her but can’t.


50. MORGAN HOUSE. Rachel creeping around. Finds the hospital tape in the VCR.


51. HOSPITAL TAPE. Morgan daughter, creepy girl with hair on face, interviewed by doctor. “Your parents say you are making them think crazy thoughts but i want to hear you and i think it’s a talent.”


CREAKS IN THE HOUSE. Rachel goes to find it…


52. HOUSE. Rachel vs. Victor. She wants to know what happened to the child. Victor says she was always getting stronger. Seems like he killed her. He kills himself.


Rachel thinks the girl wants them to know what happened…


Noah arrives. Asks what’s in barn?


53. BARN. All the kid’s stuff. This is where he kept the girl. Rachel wonders why the phone only rings for her. She also remembers that she’s seen the burning tree from the video….


DAY 7.


54. SHELTER MOUNTAIN INN. Theory that phone only rings ther.


55. CABIN 12. Noah freaks out. Knocks over tv. Marbles converge in that spot. They find a circular depression in the floor… it’s wet…


56. CABIN. Ax smashes through floorboards. Find an abandoned water well. Flies stream out.


57. WELL. Noah is lowered down into well. Fingernails. Scratches. Blood stains. Bucket sent down, then up. They are emptying the well.


Sun sets outside which means closer to Rachel’s death time…


58. CABIN. Rachel exhausted from hauling water up. They send her down to fill buckets instead.


59. WELL. Rachel searches the water. Finds the black matted hair. Black cover closes up the well above of its own power like an eclipse.


60. CUT TO PAST. The scene of Anna killing her daughter because her daughter’s evil thoughts hurt people because that’s what happens when you bring a baby into the world from doctors.


61. PRESENT DAY. Rachel with corpse of girl in her arms.


62. OUTSIDE THE INN. Cops are there. Rachel realizes the girl survived 7 days in that well…


63. MUSTANG ON WAY HOME. Noah and Rachel finally connect and say they miss each other.


64. AIDAN DRAWING. Shows Katie with a smile while dead, at peace.


65. AIDAN’S ROOM. Rachel says it’s ok. Aidan is scared. Says Samara doesn’t sleep. Gets a bloody nose.


66. NOAH’S HOUSE. Video comes on by itself. New footage. Cover to well sliding off. Samara climbs out in an inhuman way. Water seeps out of Noah’s TV.


Intercut with Rachel hurrying toward Noah and calling him but he won’t pick up.


Samara crawls out of the TV. Attacks Noah.


67. BACK TO RACHEL. Rachel discovers Noah’s dead body.


68. BACK HOME. Rachel bashes the tape. But there’s the copy. She wonders why this is still happening. Spots the copy of the tape. Realizes… She has to put it back out into the world.


69. VIDEOSTORE. Aidan leaves the tape as a ‘return.’ Voice over of teens everywhere talking about this video. “She wants you to watch it.”


CUT TO BLACK.