Freeze Frame - Screenplay by Lauren Down and Charley Murray

This script was written based on a proposal by Ben Cohen (linked below). The video below is the end result, and the script following it was written by Charley and I.

FREEZE FRAME

Scene 1

FADE IN.:

EXT. CAR, NEAR THE WOODS - AFTERNOON

Doors slam as students exit a car. Someone is recording this on their phone. As a few people go around to the trunk of the car, one student addresses the rest of them, holding a plastic bin.

ABBY

Alright everyone. No phones this weekend! Put them in the bin, and - god damn it Harper stop recording me.

Abby points at the camera, at the student recording her.

HARPER (From behind the camera, laughing)

Come on, what about him?!

Harper, the current cameraman, moves to record NICK. He has an old Super 8 camera in his hand, smiling brightly at Harper’s camera. Students can be seen unpacking tents behind him.

NICK

What do you mean? This thing is ancient; it doesn’t even record audio.

ISAAC (PARTIER)

(Walking past, puzzled) What did you even bring that thing for anyway?

NICK

I’m filming a documentary of our weekend on it for class.

Harper pans back toward Abby, as she addresses him again.

ABBY

That's for a grade, this is for Facebook. Shut up and give me your phone, Harper.

Resolving himself, Harper moves towards her. As soon as he gets near her, Abby snatches the phone from his hand and stops the recording.

From the point view of the camera, it falls into the bag. A zipper cuts through the cameras centre of vision and stops recording.

FADE OUT:

Scene 2

FADE IN:

EXT. CAMPSITE IN THE WOODS - EVENING

The Super 8 camera has been set up and is recording the students. It is on the ground taking in most of the setup the students have; a campfire is being built in the centre of the camp by the two Introverts, ASPEN and JULES, who are not really looking at each other.

Nick picks up the camera and moves it around, showing everyone setting up. Some students are setting up tents, some are looking through boxes of snacks. A group of PARTIERS are off to one side with a few cases of alcohol, beginning to crack it open. The camera stops.

The camera is rolling again, hidden out of sight of Abby and her boyfriend. They’re setting up their tent and being rather cuddly, gently shoving each other and laughing. They lean in to kiss each other, but Abby’s boyfriend notices the camera out of the corner of his eye and stops.

ABBY'S BOYFRIEND

Oh fuck off. Which one of your friends put this here?

He grabs the camera and takes it back to the centre of camp, setting it down again so the rest of the camp is visible again.

ABBY'S BOYFRIEND

How do I stop this thing?

He’s in front of the camera, fiddling with it. The camera shakes a bit while he tries to stop the recording, and eventually the film cuts.

The camera is rolling once again, aimed towards the PARTIERS, discarded bottles and cans littering the ground around them. One is running back from the camera after adjusting it to focus on them. They all quickly snatch up a can of beer each, cheers the camera, and shotgun them, racing to see who can drink it fastest. The first one to finish throws his can onto the ground, cheering. The rest follow suit when they finish, and one of them, Isaac, runs and grabs the camera.

He takes it in his hand and sneaks up on one of the people who was building the fire earlier. He’s looking for wood alone, with his back turned to the camera. Isaac, who is sneaking up on him jumps towards them and shoves them with one hand. JULES the Introvert is obviously startled, and gestures angrily, without making eye contact.

IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE WOODS, WE SEE THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE ENTITY. THE REFLECTION OF EYES IN THE LIMITED LIGHT ARE ALL WE SEE OF IT.

Isaac’s hand is seen waving Jules off, dismissing them. With some shaking, the film cuts.

FADE OUT:

Scene 3

FADE IN:

EXT. CAMPSITE - NIGHT

The camera is once again centre to all of camp. A roaring fire fits the centre of the frame, with students either sitting in pairs or groups now. Some are roasting marshmallows on the fire, others roasting spiderdogs.

Nick gets up and grabs the camera, bringing it around to show what everyone is doing.

The two Introverts who were barely making eye contact earlier are now sitting together talking, a bottle of beer next to each of them.

JULES (INTROVERT 1)

As nervous as I was to come, this has been pretty alright.

ASPEN (INTROVERT 2)

Yea, it’s not so bad.

The camera moves over to look at the Partiers. They are stumbling around laughing at every little action one of them does, still drinking despite the almost empty boxes of alcohol behind them. Nick pans the camera over to a smaller group of students who are rolling their eyes and shaking their heads at the Partiers, but with smirks on their face.

IN THE BACKGROUND IN THE WOODS WE GET ANOTHER GLIMPSE OF THE ENTITY. THIS TIME WE SEE MORE OF A SILHOUETTE. 

Two of the students in the smaller group of friends make their way over to the Introverts, the camera following their movement. They sit down with them and begin chatting a bit, smiling and laughing.

Nick gets pushed by one of the partiers, Isaac.

ISAAC (PARTIER)

Put the camera back, Nick! We’re gonna tell a scary story!

He slurs his words, stumbling a bit. Nick sits down, pointing the camera at RIVER, who is with the other partiers and is psyching himself up.

River begins telling the story, crouching a bit and spreading his arms out, eyes wide. While he does so, Nick moves the camera from him to the others and back to get their reactions to the story; there's some shaking heads from the other students.

AS RIVER IS TELLING HIS STORY, THE ENTITY APPEARS AGAIN IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE WOODS. IT'S MOVING THROUGH THE TREES, THE BRANCHES OCCASIONALLY SHAKING, ITS SILHOUETTE BEING THE MOST WE SEE OF IT.

RIVER (PARTIER)

(Gesturing wildly around, emphasis on movements) Not too long ago, in a forest like the one we’re in right now, there lived a creature. This creature was never seen by the human eye but was told to be exceptionally cruel. Some say it was covered in fur and was eight feet tall, others say it was nothing but flesh with a jaw that unhinged to swallow deer whole.

Camera turns to one of the onlookers, who shakes their head and roles their eyes at the camera before it turns back to River, who is now swaying back and forth and giggling in a drunken high. One of the others shoves him, urging him on.

RIVER

Oh yeah right. So, one night, a group of college freshmen just like us decided to camp out in the creature’s woods. Everything was fine, until they all fell asleep. In the night, the monster crept up on them…

Dramatic pause for effect, looking manicially around at the group before him.

RIVER

AND KILLED THEM ALL IN THEIR SLEEP! CARVED SHAPES IN THEIR BODIES LIKE IT WAS SENDING A MESSAGE! NO SURVIVORS WHEN YOU ENTER THE CREATURES WOODS!

He rises, raising his arms and contorting his face into a deranged snarl. The rest of the group shakes their heads or waves him off, and River starts laughing and shaking his head too.

Camera shakes only slightly as Nick turns the camera off.

FADE OUT:

Scene 4 

FADE IN.:

EXT. CAMPSITE - NIGHT

The Super 8 camera is rolling again, being held in someone's shaking hand. Breath puffs out in front of the camera lens rhythmically. The fire has gone out, embers still glowing, but barely visible are the faint silhouettes of some of the students.

The cameraman moves closer toward the centre of camp, to where their friends were. The camera sways with the motion as they approach a group of students.

The Partiers are still all grouped together. The camera moves around, looking at each of them; slashes adorn their bodies, broken glass scattered around and on them. River has a beer bottle embedded in his head, surrounded by blood.

Abby and her boyfriend are laid out together on their backs, almost uncomfortably close. They’re holding hands and their heads are turned to face each other. Both have blood on their chests where their hearts are, each have one-half of a heart smeared on their cheek, eyes opened wide. With a start, the cameraman backs up and starts to move away from the bodies of their friends.

The cameraman turns to circle his way back to the centre of camp when something deeper in the woods catches his eye. Approaching it, he finds one of the Jules the introvert, buried up to the middle of his neck in snow, a large slash in his throat and blood adorning the snow in front of him.

The cameraman startles, camera shaking as he moves to try and catch the movement of something he saw, too quick to catch. He begins to back away, slowly at first then starting to move faster, until he comes to a sudden stop. The camera turns to look with the holder as he looks to the side, and suddenly the camera drops onto the ground on its side.

A beat.

Blood begins to come into the camera’s still-recording view from the right side, melting into the snow as it does so. After a few seconds, the camera fizzles out and the recording stops.

FADE OUT:

Scene 5

FADE IN.:

INT. POLICE STATION, EVIDENCE VIEWING - NIGHT

The camera slowly pulls back to reveal that the footage was actually an evidence reel being shown to the parents of the students who went on the trip. It continues to zoom out in between the shoulders of the parents showing the backs of their heads.

The technology is now a lot more modern in contrast to the Super 8 camera that had been used for the footage.

Two police officers stand on either side of the television that was playing the video. One of them pushes a button to turn off the TV. Both have stoic, emotionless expressions on their faces. The one who didn’t turn off the TV bows their head in respect for the grieving families.

In separate quick and choppy shots, the parents’ faces are individually shown. Their expressions are haunting, each with horror and distress written all over their faces as they begin to digest the gruesome scene they had just witnessed. Hands are shaking, lips are trembling, eyes are wide with shock and fear.

The room is silent for a mere moment. An unsettling silence, the air is tense and thick with emotion. They have just experienced a parent’s worst nightmare: losing their child.

One of the mothers takes a sharp inhale and begins to let out a blood-curdling scream.

Cut to black.

END

Charley Murray can be found on LinkedIn and Instagram @ceruleanchar.arts.

Ben Cohen can be found on LinkedIn.