HDC BATTLE ROYALE III FINAL ROUND - THE VERDICTS
The first reply, came from Finalist
Michelle.
"Select a horror book of your choice which hasn't been adapted to film yet, as the basis of your untitled film project.
Outline a script for it.
Make casting choices, select appropriate locations and a director for your film.
Select soundtracks and a music composer.
Select an appropriate budget for your film, and give it a suitable name."
Book: The Unloved by John Saul
Casting Choices:
Margurite: Cate Blanchett
Helena: Susan Sarandon
Julie: Dakota Fanning
Jeff: Kodi Smit-McPhee
Kerry: Justin Bieber
The rest of the cast are all nobody’s
Location: Isle of Palms, South Carolina
Director: John Carpenter
Soundtrack: Black #1- Type O Negative, Summer Breeze – Type O Negative,
Music Composer: John Carpenter
Budget: 25 million
Name: the UNLOVED….
[Dream sequence]
Open into a dark bedroom, a man is jarred awake by someone walking into the room and turning on the light.
We see an angry elderly lady moving towards the bed hands hiding behind her back. The man on the bed begins to cower…
Elderly Lady:
(Screams at the man) “GET OUT OF HERE!! YOU DON’T BELONG HERE, GET OUT!!!!!”
Man:
(In a whispering voice) “Please, please love me……”
We see the elderly lady raise an axe high above her head, then the beginning of the axes descent aimed towards the mans head. The axe is shown embedding itself into the elderly lady’s skull. The man is now holding the axe and pulls it out and hacks into her again…..Then starts screaming….
Man:
Screams……………!!!
[Cut to present]
Open to a dark bedroom, we see a man screaming in his sleep, his wife flips on the bedside lamp to wake him.
Man:
Screaming in his sleep…
Wife:
(sleepily) “Wake up Kevin!” {Gently shakes Kevin.} “For God’s sake wake up, your having a nightmare.”
Kevin:
(Shaky voice) “Oh Anne, Anne…” {looks around the bedroom}
(Relief audible in his voice) “It was only a nightmare, she’s not here…she’s not trying to kill me….and I didn’t kill her..”
Anne:
(Confused) “What? Of course not Kev, you had a nightmare, Who, who are you so shaken over?”
Kevin:
(Dryly) “My Mother.”
[Fade to black]
Open panning the bedroom we see the Elderly Lady laying in bed and we come to see a homecare nurse dozing in a corner chair.
Elderly Lady:
(Angrily shouts at the nurse) “Wake up! You good for nothing, servant!”
Nurse:
(Calmly) “Now, Now Miss Helena, I wasn’t sleeping, and I’m NOT a servant. Now what is it you need?”
Helena:
(Grabs a glass of water from the nightstand and throws it in the nurses face) “How DARE you speak to me in that tone!! Don’t you ever speak to me like that again! Now where is he? Where is my son? Where is Kevin?”
Nurse:
(Shocked stammers) “I..I d-don’t kn-know.”
Another Lady rushes worriedly into the room..
Lady:
“Mother, MOTHER! What’s wrong?”
Helena:
(Screeches) “KEVIN!!! Where is he? I want him here now! I’m dying and I want my son!!” Helena falls back against her bed exhausted looking weak.
Nurse:
(looks at Helena then at the Lady) “Quick, a glass of water!”
The Lady rushes out of the room while the nurse gets Helena’s medication ready, we see the Lady rush back in and the nurse and Lady administer some pills to Helena. Helena falls back asleep, as the two women leave the bedroom into the hallway.
Lady:
(Worriedly) “Is it true? Is she dying?”
Nurse:
(Calmly) “She could have just now, she needs to stay calm.” (Thinks for a moment then) “I’m sorry but I think it would be best if I leave, Miss Helena needs to be kept calm and I’m really not helping that.”
Lady:
“Well I’m sorry to see you go, and don’t worry I’ll look after Mother, and of course Ruby is here to help as well.”
We see the women walk down the stairs and the Lady lets the Nurse out and begin thinking to herself. Camera pans behind the Lady to look down the main hallway we see an elderly housekeeper poke her head out of a doorway…
Housekeeper:
“What’s wrong Miss Marguerite? Is something the matter with Miss Helena?”
Margurite:
(Startled) “Oh Ruby, There is, mother is asking, well demanding is a better word for Kevin! She says she’s dying and that she wants to see Kevin before she dies.”
Ruby:
(Shocked) “Kevin??.... She hasn’t spoken his name in over 20 years…She wants him here?”
Margurite:
“Yes, Ruby I know. None of us have talked to him for years, I wonder if he’ll come? Perhaps I should call him now.”
Ruby:
“Now that’s nonsense Miss Margurite, of course he’ll come. Kevin is a Devereaux. And don’t worry about calling him, he already knows ‘bout Miss Helena, you just watch and see I bet he calls in the morning.
Ruby turns and walks back the way she came and disappears back into the doorway…Margurite seems lost in thought for a moment then sighs and heads back up the stairs…
[Fade to black]
Open in a kitchen with the morning sun coming thought the window, camera pans the kitchen to rest on the dining table where we see Kevin sitting drinking a coffee. Camera pans to entrance of kitchen, we see a teenage girl come through…
Kevin:
(Surprised) “Mark the calendar, Julie’s out of bed before 7am!!”
Julie:
(groans) “Awh Dad… Look who’s talking!! (laughs) Why are you up so early? I had a nightmare and couldn’t get back to sleep.”
Kevin:
“Looks like we have the same problem, I’m up from a nightmare too.” However seeing as we are both up we could whip up a wicked breakfast for your mom and brother?”
Both go towards the cooking area and start getting food ready…..
Julie:
“So dad why didn’t you ever open up your own restaurant, your so good!! Your better than anyone else!”
Kevin:
“Simple, a restaurant is the fastest way to go broke!”
Julie:
(jokingly) “Well maybe grandma will die and leave you lots of money..”
Kevin:
(Shocked and Angry) “Julie!!! That is not a nice thing to say!”
Julie:
(apologetic) “Awh Dad, I was only joking…”
Kevin:
(Angrily) “Not Funny. Never Never joke about something like that.”
Julie:
(crying now) “I don’t know why your making such a big deal, you hate her. You’ve told us how many times how mean she is and how horrible she is to aunt Margurite.”
Julie runs out of the room crying, Kevin realizes he’s been to hard on her….
Kevin:
“Julie, Julie wait….”
We see Kevin shake his head sadly, he looks over to the clock then picks up the phone, we see him talk on the phone a few shanks and nods of the head later Kevin puts the phone down and heads upstairs to the bedroom.(camera follows) Kevin sits on the edge of the bed and gently wakes Anne.
Kevin:
“Anne…Anne honey wake up please.”
Anne:
“What is it Kevin?”
Kevin:
“We have to go, something’s happened and I have to go back home….”
[Fade out]
Open to the family in the car. Kevin is driving with Anne in the passenger seat, Julie and a young boy are in the back seat.
Young boy:
(Whiny voice) “Mom, Are we there yet??”
Julie:
(rolls eyes) “Gees, Jeff, Are you blind? Does it look like we’re there yet?”
Anne:
“Enough you two!! Julie there is no need to be rude to your brother. And Jeff, no we are not there yet. We still have about 10 minutes to go.”
Jeff:
“How come we’ve never come here before?”
Julie:
(dryly) “Because dad hates grandma..”
Anne:
(Quickly looks at Kevin then at the kids) “That’s not it. It’s just that it is a very far from Connecticut, and we haven’t had the time.”
We see a road sign pass that reads ‘Devereaux 10 miles’
Jeff:
(Amazed) “Holy Cow Dad!! The whole town is named after you!!”
Kevin:
(Chuckles) “It’s not named after me, but after my family, and it’s not much of a town. You’ll see that in a minute.”
We see the car pull over at the top of a hill and everyone gets out. As we look down the hill we see what looks to be almost a ghost town, old run down shops with nothing more than what looks like a bunch of shacks for housing.
Anne:
“Oh my god Kevin, what happened to this town? If it were not for the car’s I’d say the town was deserted.”
Jeff:
(disappointed) “That’s it??”
Julie:
‘Which one is your house dad?”
Kevin:
(sighs) “Well, from what I’ve been told it used to be a nice town, before my father’s time most likely, before the land for the cotton plantations wore out. And if you would all look out to that island over there, (points) that is Sea Oaks, that’s where I grew up.”
The camera pans to the left and focuses on a small island with a run down looking massive house in the center of it.
Julie:
(wide eyed) “It’s a mansion!!”
Kevin:
“ It’s not a mansion just a overly large house, that looks like it’s about to fall down any minute…”
Jeff:
“WOW!!! Grandma owns a WHOLE island?? All of it??
Kevin:
(Chuckles) “Yup! All of it and don’t you dare say you have nothing to do once we get there!!” (chuckles again and ruffles Jeff’s hair)
We see the family get back into the car and the car begins to move toward the town.
[Fade out]
Open in a ballroom, we see Marguerite and 5 teenage girls all in ballet gear wrapping up a lesson.
Marguerite:
“That will be all for today girls, and I must apologize to all of you for my behavior today you see my brother is coming and I haven’t seen him for a very long time, so I have been quite distracted today. I promise I will make it up to all of you next class.”
We hear a buzzer sound and Marguerite starts slowly towards the door. We see the girls walk with her down 3 flights of stairs to the main entrance.
(Contd.)