V/H/S/2 and the New Horror Aesthetic
Five new masters of horror tell Creative Screenwriting what terrifies them and how to best scare a modern audience
by KJ Doughton During my late-’70s youth, Jaws chewed me up, spit me out, and left formative tooth-marks on my brain. The film’s terrifying set-pieces, rising from ominous build-ups to visceral shocks, continue to haunt my memory. The dark, murky Universal Studios logo, ushering in the opening credits amidst spooky whale calls and John William’s […]
Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber on The Spectacular Now
Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber explain how they got to Now
by Adam Stovall There are people for whom Star Wars will always be their pinnacle of filmmaking. There are people for whom Pulp Fiction will forever be the film that made them love cinema. Lawrence of Arabia, Annie Hall, Videodrome—very different films that all have come to define the life goals and decision-making of ourselves, […]
Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color
Defying dream logic with a carefully crafted puzzle box screenplay
by Bill Gibron At first, the images appear random. Bags of garbage being taken to a dumpster. Two boys on bicycles wandering by. A man drives his car to a local nursery and looks over the available inventory. He comes across a leaf which gives off a particular blue powder. Digging into the dirt, the […]
Travis Beacham and Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim
Are the characters as interesting as the monsters?
by Michael Welles Schock It is a simple equation. The more fantastic or unusual the world of a story, the clearer and simpler that story’s narrative premise must be. Star Wars: A New Hope presented a fantasy universe filled with Jedi, droids and intergalactic combat. Yet its plot is very simple. It is about a […]
Matt Manfredi & Phil Hay on R.I.P.D.
Screenwriters Matt Manfredi & Phil Hay describe how they keep comedy in the action
After languishing in development for nearly a decade, Universal’s R.I.P.D. finally took flight when screenwriting duo Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay successfully adapted the same-named Dark Horse Entertainment graphic novel, by Peter Lenkov. The tale centers on a pair of deceased cops who still clock in the hours at the otherworldly Rest In Peace Department. […]
