Horror Epics
When we think of the horror genre, the word epic rarely comes to mind. The term is usually associated with grand scale historical dramas like Gladiator or crime spectacles like The Godfather. I think it’s about time Hollywood gave the horror genre an epic masterpiece of its own.
Slasher films are one of the few subgenres I think would work well if given the epic treatment. Just imagine it. Two and half to three hours of fear, anxiety, madness, and mayhem. Lavish sets. Extended suspense and action sequences. Multiple plot twists and red herrings.
I would reimagine Scream by combining plot elements from the entire franchise and my own personal touches into one cohesive story. I would also tone down the self-awareness and play things a bit more straight.
The cast would stay mostly the same. It’s iconic and the chemistry between the actors is too good to change. There’s only two roles I’d recast, Roman Bridger and Angelina Tyler. I’d turn Roman into an arrogant director portrayed by Johnny Depp and Angelina into a strong-willed actress played by the one and only Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Act I
The movie would begin at night in a courthouse not far from the small town of Woodsboro. Cotton Weary is being held in the detention area. He’s currently on death row for the assault and murder of Maureen Prescott and is in the middle of a long hearing to see if he is eligible for another trial.
At some point, Cotton glances up and sees Ghostface hiding in the vent above his cell. He drops down and kills the police officer on guard duty. Then he picks up his keys and opens the cell. Moments later, another police officer enters and sees the guard lying in a pool of blood and Cotton missing. He puts out an APB for Cotton, alerting everyone he is armed and dangerous.
Then we go to Casey Becker’s house. She’s home alone and receives a phone call from Ghostface. He makes a few creepy statements and threatens to kill her. Casey tries to scare him off by telling him her boyfriend Steve is on the way, but Ghostface tells her he has him tied up outside.
He forces Casey to play a game of horror movie trivia in order for the two of them to stay alive. As soon as she answers a question wrong, Ghostface guts Steve and breaks into the house. Casey runs into the kitchen, grabs a knife, and slips outside. She sees her parents driving up the street. But Ghostface takes her out before she can grab their attention. When they pull in the driveway, they find her hanging from a tree in the backyard.
The next morning, we meet Sidney Prescott. Her boyfriend, Billy, picks her up and takes her to school. They talk about their relationship along the way. Billy isn’t happy with the direction they’re heading. They started off hot and heavy, but now their romance is pretty tame and borderline boring. Ever since her mom was murdered, she’s had intimacy issues. She asks Billy to be more patient and understanding with her.
When they arrive at school, they notice the media is all over campus. Sidney meets up with her two best friends, Tatum and Hallie. They tell her that Casey and Steve were murdered last night. The entire town is on edge. It’s the worst crime they’ve seen since Maureen’s death. Sidney is called into the principal’s office to answer questions about the victims. She doesn’t offer much help because she wasn’t close with Casey. Officer Dewey, Tatum’s brother, tells her Cotton escaped from police custody and is armed and dangerous.
After school, Sidney and her friends hang out in the courtyard. We meet Tatum’s boyfriend, Stu, and Randy Meeks. Stu and Randy make insensitive jokes about the murders. It makes Sidney uncomfortable so she leaves. She goes to the local cemetery and visits her mother’s grave. She sheds a few tears and tells her how much she misses her. Ghostface is watching her in the woods the entire time.
Night comes. Sidney’s father is out of town on a business trip, so she invites Olivia over to spend the night. Ghostface calls them and does his usual creepy routine, and even teases Sidney about her mother’s murder. He suddenly appears from a downstairs closet and attacks them. He slashes Olivia’s arm with his knife and corners her, but she manages to fight him off.
Sidney and her run upstairs to Sidney’s bedroom and lock the door. Ghostface tries to break through, but he can’t. Olivia hides under the bed while Sidney calls 911. The killer disappears and Billy shows up at the bedroom window immediately afterwards. Sidney and Olivia are relieved to see him.
Act II
The police arrive and Billy and the girls head to the station to provide accounts of the incident. Tatum shows up too. Dewey tells them they will trace the phone call and cross reference them with calls made to Casey.
Gale and several other media outlets arrive at the station, looking to get a good story. Billy, Sidney, and Olivia slip out the back entrance to avoid the chaos. But Gale somehow catches up with them and has a heated discussion with Sidney. Gale recently published a book about her mother’s murder and Cotton’s trial. Gale thinks he’s an innocent man that was framed and falsely identified by Sidney as the suspect. With the recent murders and phone calls, Sidney isn’t sure what to believe anymore.
Before things get physical, Tatum and Olivia pull Sidney away. The girls spend the rest of the night at Tatum’s house where Sidney gets another call from Ghostface. He tells her she will soon meet the same fate as her mother.
At school the next day, the girls chat in the hallway in between classes. After the bell rings, Olivia heads to the bathroom. While she’s standing over the sink, she hears someone whisper her name. She looks underneath the stalls and sees a pair of black boots. Before she can run, Ghostface emerges and murders her. A pair of cheerleaders come in and discover her body.
School is let out early and the gang is devastated by Olivia’s death. Randy and Stu head to the local video store to distract themselves with good movies. They see Billy browsing the horror section and tell him about Olivia’s death. He gives little to no reaction. This sets off Randy’s suspicions. He tells Stu he thinks Billy might be behind the murders because he conveniently showed up at Sid’s house after the attacks and also didn’t come to school today. Stu disagrees. He doesn’t think Billy has it in him to commit murder. Billy overhears their conversation and rages at Randy, accusing him of being the killer.
At the police station, the Lieutenant informs Dewey that the keys to Cotton’s cell were found along the interstate right outside of town. They were also unable to trace the phone calls. It’s as if the phone number doesn’t exist. The information stresses Dewey out. Things are getting worse by the minute. Law enforcement decides to place Woodsboro under curfew.
Gale shows up and tries to get information from Dewey. He resists at first, but she sweet talks him into sharing his lunch break with her and spilling the tea.
Then we go to Woodsboro Community Hospital, where a coroner is busy examining Olivia’s body. Ghostface sneaks up on him and stabs him in the chest. Then he steals Olivia’s and Casey’s bodies from the morgue.
Act III
That night, Stu organizes a horror movie marathon at his house while his parents are away. He invites close to thirty people over. Dewey patrols the area outside to make sure the kids are safe. Gale is with him. It’s pretty obvious feelings are growing between them. It’s always in the eyes.
Halfway through the first movie, Tatum heads to the garage to get more beer and is killed by Ghostface. Billy shows up afterwards and heads upstairs with Sidney. They talk about their relationship and share an intimate moment together. Downstairs Stu gets a phone call from a friend. They tell him Casey and Olivia’s bodies have been stolen from the morgue. This freaks out most of the party-goers. Everyone downstairs leaves except for Randy. Stu tells him Tatum probably won’t want to stay either, so he’s going to go find her and take her home.
Meanwhile, Dewey and Gale are walking down the long dirt back road leading to Stu’s house. They come across an orange prison jumpsuit in the ditch and an abandoned car they don’t recognize. Worried that Cotton is nearby, they race back to the house.
Back at the house Ghostface enters the bedroom where Sidney and Billy are hanging out. He stabs Billy and chases Sidney through all the upstairs rooms. Randy overhears this and decides to check out the noise. Ghostface stabs him in the stomach and continues chasing Sidney outside. She jumps in Dewey’s cop car and locks herself inside. But she can’t leave because Ghostface has the key. He taunts her through the window and disappears.
Dewey and Gale show up. Sidney rolls down the window, warns them about Ghostface and tells them to be careful. Dewey draws his gun and investigates the area. Gale gets inside the car with Sid. Dewey searches around the side of the house and finds Tatum’s body in the garage. Ghostface stabs him in the back and then goes after Sidney and Gale.
They both manage to avoid death and escape the car. They run back to the house and by the time they reach the porch, Ghostface has vanished again. Stu suddenly appears. He’s in panic mode. He tells them he found Tatum dead and he was so shocked he blacked out. They don’t know whether to believe him or not so they slam the door in his face.
Billy appears at the top of the stairs. He’s so wounded from the knife attacks, he can barely stand. Sidney helps him walk and gives him her gun. Like the flip of a switch, his demeanor changes and his facial expression grows more sinister. He pulls out a gun and shoots Gale. He laughs about it and tells Sidney the blood on his shirt is just corn syrup.
Sidney backpedals into the kitchen and bumps into Stu. He’s standing next to the kitchen table, where he has Casey, Olivia, and Cotton’s dead bodies propped up around the table. He puts the voice changer up to his mouth and says “Surprise Sidney.”
The horrible reality of the situation fully hits her. Billy and Stu corner her near the kitchen sink and confess to all the murders, including Sidney’s mom, and framing Cotton for it. She asks them why they are doing this. Billy’s motive is because Sidney’s mother broke up his family when his father had an affair with her. Stu is in it for the thrills.
Before they can kill Sidney, Billy and Stu wind up arguing with each other. Stu wants to get caught and become a media sensation, the focus of a big trial where he can blame movie violence for inspiring his crimes. “That’s sick right. Well, sick is the new sane.” Billy is more old school in his approach. He simply wants to get away with everything. The disagreement reaches a boiling point so Billy and Stu stab each other viciously.
When they cool off and come back to reality, Sidney has disappeared. They flip out and search the house for her. Billy finds her hiding in a downstairs closet. She jumps out and stabs him with an umbrella in one of his knife wounds.
Stu comes racing after her. They fight in the living room, until Sidney gets the upper hand and drops a TV on his head. Then Billy comes after her again and wrestles her to the floor. He pins her down and raises the knife to stab her, when Gale appears and shoots him in the chest. Billy is shocked. He thought she was dead. She hands the gun to Sidney, who finishes Billy off by shooting him in the head.
Randy stumbles downstairs, clutching his stomach. Sidney and Gale are relieved to see him alive. Dewey has survived his attack too. Near sunrise, Sidney accompanies both of them to the hospital. While Gale gives a first hand account of the previous night’s events on the morning news. The murder spree is finally over.
Act IV
Four years later.
We are now in Hollywood. Famous actress Cici Cooper is enjoying the night out with her boyfriend. They go to the movies to catch one of the latest horror flicks. Cici isn’t sure why, but she has the feeling someone is watching her. The couple gets seated upstairs in the balcony. It’s the best view in the house and a popular spot for celebrities when they want to avoid rabid fans and media attention.
After the movie starts, Cici goes to the recession area to grab some popcorn. On her way back, Ghostface comes after her. He chases her into a storage room where he stabs multiple times and throws her out a window.
Next, we head to Windsor College, about an hour or two away from Hollywood. Sidney is in her senior year, getting ready to take on the real world. She wakes up, turns on the TV, and catches a news report about CiCi’s murder. This sets off her alarm bells. Cici was set to star in Stab, an upcoming movie based on the Woodsboro Murders. Sidney fears a new murder spree is beginning.
Randy is also a student at Windsor, majoring in film. Sidney pulls him out of class and tells him about CiCi. Randy thinks she’s overreacting. He tells her crimes happen at movie theaters all the time and it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with their life story. Sidney suggests taking a trip to Hollywood to check on Dewey because he’s working as a technical advisor on Stab. Randy isn’t interested.
Gale is in the middle of a tour for her latest book The Woodsboro Murders, a sensationalized account of Billy and Stu’s murder spree. It’s the book Stab is being adapted from. After a public speaking event, Detective Mark Kincaid pulls her aside and asks for help with solving CiCi’s murder. Security footage at the theater revealed the killer was wearing a Ghostface costume and since she survived Woodsboro he thinks she might provide valuable insight on the case. He shows Gale a photograph of a young woman the killer left at the crime scene. She identifies the woman as Sidney’s mom.
On the set of Stab, we meet producer John Miltion and director Roman Bridger. They are discussing the movie with several other high level executives. Violence in cinema is a big national topic at the moment, so some of the higher ups are considering shutting down production. Roman doesn’t want this. Directing this movie is a big career move for him.
Stab’s cast, Tom, Tyson, Sarah, and Angelina are having a similar conversation. Sarah and Tyson think production should be called off or at least paused for a little bit. Angelina and Tom disagree. They don’t want to miss out on that big paycheck.
Gale sneaks on set to get some information and bumps into Dewey and Jennifer Jolie, the actress portraying Gale in Stab. It’s an awkward moment. Dewey and Gale had a falling out and separated a few years back and now Dewey and Jennifer are now a thing. Milton notices Gale on set and orders security to escort her off the property. He doesn’t want the press around.
After work hours, Sarah goes to the studio to voice a few complaints about her role in the script. She’s supposed to be meeting Roman. He’s not there when she arrives. The studio is completely empty. Ghostface calls the office and essentially brags about how he’s going to cut her up into a million pieces. She hangs up the phone and starts to leave, but hears footsteps and sees a shadow moving down the hallway. She hides in another room, unaware that Ghostface is there too. He pops out of his hiding spot and savagely destroys her.
At Windsor, Sidney is still trying to convince Randy to go to Hollywood. He keeps shooting her down, until they see a news report about Sarah’s murder and the photos of Sidney’s mom.
Act V
They arrive in Hollywood and check into a motel. They explore the city together and run into Angelina near the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They are both starstruck when they meet each other. Sidney has gained a reputation as a very tough girl after surviving Woodsboro. Angelina is one of the biggest stars in the world. She sings. She dances. She’s stylish. She’s all over commercials. She even has her own talk show.
Angelina invites Sidney to come on her show, claiming it would be one of her highest rated shows and people are dying to hear what she has to say about the Stab murders. Sidney politely shoots down the offer, leaving Angelina disappointed.
Gale and Dewey meet up for lunch and talk about the recent murders and Maureen’s photos. Gale thinks the photos look alot like publicity photos. Dewey thinks she may be on to something. He reveals that a month earlier, someone broke into the studio and stole a bunch of old files from their vault.
Dewey gets a phone call from Jennifer. She wants him to come over. Gale rolls her eyes. She gets annoyed every time she hears Jennifer’s name.
They go to Jennifer’s house. Jennifer is in the living room with her bodyguard Stone. She’s stressed out. Stab is falling apart. Production has been suspended after Sarah’s murder and Tyson and a few other actors have quit. She also fears she’s the next victim. Dewey asks her why she thinks that. She says it seems like the actors are dying in the same order their characters die in the script.
Roman is hanging out on his yacht with Angelina and Tom. The police show up and ask him if he was supposed to meet with Sarah before she was murdered. He says he was, but by the time he got there she was already dead. The police take him to the station for more questioning.
Dewey and Gale go to the police station to share the script theory with Kincaid. He thinks it’s logical. He suggests one of them give Sidney a call to make sure she isn’t in harm’s way or too stressed out by media reports.
Not long after, Sidney and Randy show up at the station. Dewey and Gale are happy to see them, but they don’t think it was wise of them to come to Hollywood with the murders going on.
Detective Kincaid and Sidney are attracted to each other, but they play it cool and keep things professional. He asks her and Randy to stick around so he can question her about her mother and if she has any idea why the killer is leaving photos of her at every crime scene.
Sidney doesn’t provide him with the answers he’s looking for. Her mom was a woman of many secrets so there’s a lot she doesn’t know about her youth. Across the hall, they see Roman arguing with police officers about his innocence. He gets so upset he storms out of the station.
That night, Dewey and the cast of Stab are gathered at Jennifer’s house. Stone catches Gale eavesdropping on Jennifer and Dewey’s conversation outside. He brings her inside and Dewey steps into another room to talk to her. This makes Jennifer jealous, so she winds up eavesdropping on their conversation.
But this proves to be pointless because rather than talking about their repressed feelings for each other, Dewey and Gale are just examining Maureen’s photos more closely. They realize they were taken near the same studio where Stab is currently in production.
Outside, Ghostface calls Stone and then attacks him in his trailer. He stumbles back to the front door before dying, causing everyone to freak out. The lights go out, so Tom heads into another room to grab a flashlight. Along the way, he is attacked by Ghostface. His death screams are loud and unnerving, causing everyone to run outside, tripping and falling over the place. Ghostface then goes after Gale, but Dewey shoots him before he can stab her. Ghostface rolls under a nearby vehicle and by the time Dewey and Gale check he’s gone. But he’s left behind another photo. This one has a message on the back that says: I Killed Her.
Dewey, and Gale stop by Sidney and Randy’s motel room to discuss the latest photo. They ask her if Billy and Stu mentioned anything about a third killer. She says no.
Sidney and Randy turn into amateur detectives and go through old studio files locked away in storage. They discover Sidney’s mom worked as an actress under the stage name Rina Reynolds and all of her film credits were in movies produced by John Milton.
Dewey and Gale confront Milton and ask him why he hasn’t told anyone Maureen used to work for him. He’s kept it secret because admitting that would bring unnecessary attention to himself. He tells them Maureen fled Hollywood in the 70s after being taken advantage of by a group of men at one of his wild parties. He also reveals a lot of other sleazy stuff about his background and relationship with Maureen that make Dewey and Gale think there’s a lot more he’s not telling them.
Meanwhile, Sidney decides to take a stroll down memory lane and checks out the Stab set. She encounters Ghostface along the way, who chases her through the replica of her old house. Detective Kincaid saves the day and scares him off. He tells Sidney her and Randy should leave the city and go back to school. She refuses. She wants to help solve the murders.
That evening, Ghostface sets his sights on his next targets: Jennifer and Angelina. Jennifer is on her way to Angelina’s house to pick her up. It’s the weekend. So they’re planning to hop around the nightclub scene together.
Jennifer gets stuck in the worst kind of traffic. While she’s waiting, Ghostface calls her and tells her Angelina’s in the shower and he’s lurking outside her bathroom door. He gives Jennifer a time limit. If she doesn’t show up in ten minutes Angelina is dead meat.
Jennifer rushes through traffic, ignoring lights and stop signs, almost causing a few car accidents. She calls Angelina over and over again, but her phone goes straight to voicemail each time. Ghostface has it and he’s muted the volume.
When Angelina’s getting dressed, the radio suddenly comes on downstairs. She goes inside to investigate and comes face to face with Ghostface. He chases her back to her bedroom. She locks the door, but Ghostface breaks it down. By the time Jennifer arrives it’s too late. Angelina is gone. A few minutes later, she meets the same fate.
Act VI
The next morning, Dewey finds out Jennifer has been killed and has a break down. Gale cheers him up. Later, Kincaid invites them and Sidney and Randy to the police station. This time the killer left a VHS tape instead of a photo at the crime scene. They watch it. It’s a stalker recording of stolen moments from Maureen’s private affairs. It’s too much for Sidney to watch so she leaves the room.
The gang learns from Roman that Milton allegedly has a secret video archives room in his mansion that houses a lot of private tapes. Dewey, Gale, and Randy decide to break into his house when he’s away and see if he’s hiding anything similar to the Maureen video. Sidney chooses to stay at the station with Kincaid. Randy heads back to the motel room to grab some things first, and is kidnapped by Ghostface.
Dewey and Gale break into Milton’s house and find his archives room. They skim through his videos and come across a snuff tape that features all the murders of the Stab cast. Ghostface enters the room and chases them through the mansion. They hide in the basement until the coast appears to be clear. Dewey exits first and is instantly greeted by a knife in the back. He dies in Gale’s arms and then the killer knocks her out.
He calls Sidney and says he has Gale and Randy. He gives her the address to an abandoned theater and tells that if she doesn’t come here alone he’ll kill them both. Sidney does as she’s told.
When she arrives at the theater, she finds Gale and Randy tied up. She tries to free Randy first, but Ghostface stops her by throwing a knife at his chest, killing him instantly. Ghostface finally reveals himself to be Roman. It turns out he’s Sidney’s half brother. Their mom disowned him when he tried to reconnect with her, so he recorded her affairs, showed them to Billy, and provided him with the blueprint to commit the Woodsboro murders. He plans to kill Sidney and frame Milton for killing the Stab cast.
Roman and Sidney have an intense fight. At first, Roman has the upper hand, but then Sidney bounces back and stabs him in the heart with his own knife. With all the Ghostface horror over, Sidney and Gale can now move on with their lives and live a peaceful and happy existence. Gale writes another successful book about the Stab murders and Sidney enters a loving and happy relationship with Detective Mark Kincaid.