We’re in a new golden age of horror films. With a market that only consistently rewards superheroes and scares, the horror movie has become the only cheap and reliable way for a studio to make money. Fortunately writers have risen to the occasion, creating some classic pieces of genre storytelling.
Below we have five great, scary, modern horror films to help inspire your own take on the long lived genre. And of course, these scripts plus 16,000 more are available as part of the free Script Hive membership. All scripts made available for educational purposes. So get reading!
The Babadook
Hailing from Australia, The Babadook follows a widow and single mom dealing with a son who can’t behave himself. Of course the arrival of a creepy kid’s book about a shadowy figure named the Babadook doesn’t help. Nor when the Babadook actually begins to torment the poor woman.
Amongst the many things The Babadook knocks out of the park, the sound design deserves special mention. Writer-director Jennifer Kent brings an unrelenting sense of tension to the film and it starts on the page. As you can see in the example above, you can feel how the unsettling sounds contribute to the mood of unease and dread.
Through word choice alone we feel that something’s wrong. Scratching. Rustling. Scuttling. With these evocative descriptors and verbs Kent summons the presence of something inhuman. But the sound also conveys the approaching danger. The scene starts in silence. The anticipation of something to come. And finally it does, but only in the form of some animal sound. We cannot see whatever the thing is, but it is getting closer.
The script again and again makes great use of sound to increase tension, mystery and horror. A great reference for thinking beyond just the visual to conjure terror.
The Conjuring
The massive Conjuring franchise is fast approaching double digits, but nothing has topped the original for sheer chills. It focuses on the efforts of Ed & Lorraine Warren, a pair of occult investigators, to rescue the Perrons from their evil-infested new home.
From the start they lay out the template for these movies’ success. A battle between good and evil, an emphasis on family, and constant horror set pieces that have a clear game of the scene. These movies are all about set-up, escalation, and then pay-off.
The above is just an excerpt from a larger sequence involving cross-cutting and scares happening in multiple parts of the house. But with this alone you can get a sense for how the movie builds and evolves the tension in its set pieces. First the door opens while Andrea sleeps – will she wake up in time to face the threat?
Then we get the noise. Something thumping in the night. What is it? Finally Andrea is awake. But she’s reaching for the lamp, she’s groggy – we need her to get up!
Finally the reveal that it’s her sister, and not an otherworldly threat, who’s come into the room. But why is she here? Why does she keep hitting her head against the armoire? What’s making her do this?
With each escalation and new piece of information we’re also given a new set of questions to worry about. The script repeats this process throughout, escalating our tension to the bursting point.
Get Out
Jordan Peele won the Oscar for best screenplay for Get Out, his update on the social thriller. It has all the thrills and chills you could hope for, along with some biting commentary. But what helps set it apart is how it smartly sets up and foreshadows its every reveal. The script and movie are worth experiencing twice, just to see how Peele lays out everything in advance.
Spoilers, obviously. This scene is just one of many that drip with double meaning. On the surface it’s a tour of the house, giving us a sense of geography which will be useful for the chases and fights to come. It also introduces a key character, Georgina, and fleshes out more of Dean’s personality.
But at the same time a completely separate piece of information is being relayed. It’s only after we learn the truth of the scenario that we get that Dean’s talking literally about keeping a piece of his mother in the kitchen – in the form of Georgina, who has inherited her brain.
Again and again you’ll find these kinds of double meanings, with careless phrases revealed as statements of truth. It demonstrates a meticulous attention to detail and construction – some of the reasons it’s an Oscar winner.
Hereditary
Ari Aster’s unnerving dive into family trauma, Hereditary keeps you guessing at what kind of horror you’re actually watching. Easily switching between ghost, occult, home invasion and more, it’s a thrill from start to finish. But that’s only half the selling point. Aster also brings a unique vision to the story. Even on the page it’s clear precisely what the finished product will look like.
I’m sure there will be those who complain that this is a writer-director so the rules are different for him. But ultimately the only rule is that things are clear on the page, and that’s what this language achieves. So acclimate yourself to all the different ways of writing an action line, try them out, and see what makes for a best fit for you.
It Follows
A clever update on the slasher, It Follows recreates the supernatural killer as a shape-changing and unrelenting presence. From this one unnerving idea it wrings out every iota of tension and horror. The script speaks to the power of keeping it simple and exploiting one key idea.
Starting with its first appearance, the It that’s doing the following terrifies via the uncanny. We’re already in an off situation – our protagonist, drugged, bound, but not being hurt by the man she just slept with. Then comes this naked woman. Walking slowly. Behaving an inhuman fashion. We have come up against something truly alien to our understanding of the world, and it unnerves us.
From here the script just keeps finding new and worse situations for Jay to be in while running from this specter. Classrooms, friend’s houses, beach homes – there’s no escape. And each time the way the creature manifests escalates its threat, keeping things fresh.
Bonus Horror Pilot: Haunting of Hill House
One of the great horror tv shows, The Haunting of Hill House revolves around the Crain family and the various traumas they experience, past and present, at the Hill House. Mike Flanagan takes advantage of the time and space of a limited series to dive deep into each family member. Combining the best of horror and drama, Hill House makes for engrossing watching.
We’re only in the teaser of the pilot, and already the show combines together those two strands. The scene focuses on the characters and relationships – how these siblings care for each other. But it also ends on a button of the horror to come. The bent-neck lady is somewhere in this house, along with many other ghosts. Just its mention is enough to send a shiver up your spine.
The Take-away
This is just a small sampling of the variety of modern horror classics. By joining the Script Hive you’ll be drowning in scripts to read and improve your own skill with.
What are some of your favorite modern horror scripts? Which ones did we miss? Recommend them in the comments below!
Fred Pelzer is the Managing Editor of On Spec, the official screenwriting blog of the Script Hive