*Spoilers*

Nice concept, strong writing.  Would like to have seen a little more confusion in this story - a few more details that really cast doubt on whether the murders are real, and if Mickey's going crazy.  Some of the best horror out there is psychological...so run with this script even farther, and it could get really interesting...

Cheers,

--WV

OK my friend, I looked this over again, with all my sillies out.

I've tried to find a nugget that will help you to rewrite this.

What I found was that the set up was really shaky. First of all you
relied on a cheap hook because it existed in a kind of void.

Secondly, we see Mickey struggling with pills and whatnot, but
it's unclear why. Not really a problem, but we need to know more.

What is it we need to know? His motivation. And I found it:

Here:

MICKEY
I’m protecting them. No demon of
Hell is gonna kill my family.

*Buried away toward the end of the story on page #7.

Now, even if you don't want the audience to know it, you need to know
it as the author.

If you write with this clear motive in mind-- that he doesn't want
the demon to kill them because he thinks it will damn them--

THEN, you've got something really solid to work with. You can bring
that feeling into any murder scene you write. Even the little girl, see?

I hope this helps.

Sandra

While the dialog tends to get a bit much long after I get the point, overall, this worked for me. It worked because it plays around with a theme we see sometimes in supernatural films and stories. Like Stephen King's Pet Semetary's character Pascow or American Werewolf In London (Jac's corpse) - ghosts giving the living warnings of fate.  I even have a few themes like this in some of my own stories too. The idea is to make it your own and you did.

A did have some issues with past tense and the slugs (as Baltis already pointed out) but my biggest gripe is the ending. It didn't fit the tone of the script.
===SPOILERS R US==
You might as well have put in a banana peel. Consider how more effective it might have been if, in order to stop "the voices" and the sight of SIDHE, and the realization of what he's done, takes his own life. At first he thinks he is unsuccessful, as he can still hear/see SIDHE. Then for a brief second he sees a bright light..where the demon horde emerges to drag him to the fires of hell. It was built up enough, angels and demons, Christ and Satan. Why not?

One of the best entries in the OWC that just missed the mark due to the beer bottle fall and overload of gab. Good job overall.

I like Sidhe driving him nuts, there's  another one with the same theme in the challenge - Sidhe wanted to kill his family and did it with his hands - I like the idea.

It's dialog heavy for me, a bit of exposition in dialog too - like the all good deeds Michael has done... The story is told though dialog.

Here where it gets funny "ELLEN Where’s Rose?
MICKEY You’ll see her soon. Don’t worry."
--and I don't think you want funny in your script.

Maybe as a film the contrast between the graphic scene in the apartment and the  dialogue would work but reading it, the dialogue seems endless.

This is an effective story that works well as a morality tale. For me you could probably tell this story with less pages and it would pack more punch that way.

These are notes I made as I read:

Pg 1 – It’s a nice friendly start!

Pg 2 – This is interesting, although it has become quite chatty.

Pg 5 – The body reveals are effective. The dialogue on this page is even heavier than it is on the other pages.

Pg 7 – Their debate, which is a little bizarre, seems to be going around in circles. Perhaps that’s the point, but for me I’d like the story to move along more.

Pg 8 – I like how this wraps up.


Philip

Gonna say I didn't quite like this one. I liked the opening scene then it went downhill for me there. As others have said, I failed to grasp Mickeys logic here. Kill everyone or one will die? Maybe it was his setp father? That wouldn't have been so bad.

Also, Being a big time executive, this felt like an efficiency aprtment to me. I would think he be in a luxurious high-rise. I think you could've described it a bit better.

I did like sidh's calmness as she watched him rage and kill. She seemed robotic, was a bit chilling.

Anyways, good job writing a script in a week.

James

SPOILERS

This was written very well and I liked some of the visuals like the guy in the oven.  Strangling a 10 year old...didn't like that too much.  Might have just shown her dead instead of the act itself.  

Some of the Sidhe's dialog was too long.  Maybe if you broke it up with some kind of action it wouldn't have dragged.

And he accidentally shot himself between the eyes?  Hmmm.  Not buying that.

I did like this though.  Quick and easy read, some cool visuals and interesting story idea.

Final Fade? You guys need to get out of SS sometimes.

I actually liked this. Tighten the dialog up make everything more frantic and it could be a good chiller.

Pros

Interesting concept. The logline alone sells it to me. Makes you want to see what's inside.

There's a lot going on undernaeth the surface that I don't think you quite managed to get a grip on in the time you had. It's potentially got that double edged blade thing going on where there is the fear for the body, but also the fight going on for eternity.

Cons

Far too talky.

I think Sandra has pinned something that will help to develop the script further...really push the motivation and the sense that he's being pushed to the limit by this creature.

This was a good attempt.

Hello all,

Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed this.  Two things I wanted to address:

1) The ending.  What I was going for is that Mickey was the one who was supposed to die all along and in turn was the person that Sidhe warned would die if he didn't change his ways.  She said it a little deceivingly, but she's a banshee so, ya know.  Likewise, "it's always the selfish ones" implies the irony that this guy only thinks of himself and is given this warning but doesn't for a second think he'll be the one to die - so in his haze of popping pills to get rid of Sidhe, in his twisted logic, he kills his family thinking that if she can't kill them then the cycle will break and she'll be gone (of course, he's drugged up so he doesn't know reality from illusion).

2) A couple people found dark humor in this which was pretty surprising as that wasn't even on my mind while writing.  I guess it just inadvertently seeps in.  I dunno.

Thanks again everyone.

Greg

Hey Greg, sorry for not getting around to this earlier, before the reveal, but here you go...

You probably know that I like talky scripts.  I also like ultra violent scripts, and I have no trouble offing children.

BUT...

This didn't work for me, and the above 3 items were all issues.  It was way too talky and the dialogue didn't come off as real, or make sense to me.  The violence didn't seem to fit the overall tone, and thus came off uneffective.  Your opening is quite shocking, but again, I don't think it fits here at all, and for many, this will be a script killer right from the get go.

Balt made some god points about your Slugs...they need attention.

James also brought up an issue I saw as well about teh actual apartment this guy's living in.

Also, what's up with the girl who's a waitress?  Doesn't seem to fit.

Biggest deal breaker here is the slip and shoot yourself between the eyes routine. Just really, really bad.

I did get a sense of comedy throughout and since you said it wasn't intended, I take that to mean that there were issues here about the reality of the situation and the writing itself.  It just didn't quite work as written.

I thin there is potential here in the actual concept, but then again, it's something we've all seen again and again.

Hope this helps.  Take care, man!

Hey Greg,

Overall, as a concept, I liked this. I did a quick once over on the comments and every single gripe I had was already covered. The amount of talk, the pratfall death, in fact, the whole ending.

It actually had a strong resemblance to a script I wrote on here back in the day. Guy goes through his house/apartment and kills his family but we don't know if it's real. I'm not insinuating, though, I'm just saying that it's similar and that's a good thing, I like those kinds of stories.

Basically, I'd be beating you over the head if I droned on and on about the flaws. The irony is that, even though I liked the script, there are very few things I can comment on that I actually liked about it.

We'll just say I liked it and leave it at that. =)

Jeff and Blonde,

Thanks for the reads.  This script honestly doesn't interest me over the long run, so it'll probably fade into obscurity.  Still, for the challenge it was fun to do.

Thanks again.

Greg

I liked this one.  Actually read it awhile back but apparently I forgot to leave a comment.  It was a bit talky and expositional, which was fine because there was a nice contrast as they passed all the horrific visuals of all the dead bodies.  But some of the lines were a bit repetitive.  Some even worded almost identically.  I think a tightening of the dialogue would greatly improve this short.

While I like the visual of the old man in the oven, I'm not sure it makes sense story-wise.  Regardless of whether or not he thinks these people are real or  just psychosis induced hallucinations, I can't seem him killing a relative in a such an odd way.  It's not the brutality of the kill, it's the absurdity.  What is his motive for shoving the man in the oven?  Stabbing, strangling, shooting, those were all viable, but the oven made zero sense other than just being a chilling visual.