3 Hail Marys by Anonymous21 - A young naval aviator deals with the personal aftermath of an attack on his task force. - Short, Horror

Ingenious use of the hand sanitizer.
Loved the story. Very well written.
No complaints here!

This was a good attempt.

It's probably be better without the swarm, but I understand you did it for the horror criteria.

As I understood it, the pressure of the water was crushing the plane. That little bottle wouldn't escape the pressure either, would it? I'm not sure.

Anyway, you've done well.

Somehow I didn't enjoy it. The creatures came out of nowhere and the emotions were forced. The initial conversation could have been better where they could have talked about death or ghosts or something like that (as a foreshadowing).

Good attempt though.

The writing is pitch perfect and an enjoyable read. Wasn’t necessarily overly horrific — bugs come from nowhere and overtake a ship? I’m going to give it a pass as a horror but it felt more like an action drama.

But I liked what you did with the hand sanitizer. Probably is going to be the most imaginative use of the required object in this week’s challenge.

I’m wondering why he didn’t go for the ejector button sooner.  Could he have not made it out once the jet turned upright, or was he too far down at that point?

Still, a minor quibble on my part. Great effort on this.

Best of luck,
Gary

3 Hail Marys

Well, this had quite a good drama backbone for an only five pages script. Very good. The SF angle was also strong although I would have liked to have a better description of the black tiny creatures (I imagined them as mini blobs for now,,, but how do they attack etc.). While the idea of sinking with no chance to escape is scary on its own, the script as a whole didn't feel like a horror-centered plot.

The presentation was very clean and the story was well-structured. Merely not strong in the genre. I need to think here. However, cool stuff you brought to the table. Good job

For a situational story it’s good.  This doesn’t really stand out as a horror genre to me.  You did fine capturing one of the scariest ways to die . Drowning ... Like someone else said, I would have liked to know more detail about the creatures.  

I’m sure if  his superiors catch him sprinkling sanitizer on the controls of a 30’mill jet fighter, he will be flying rubber dog sh** on a cargo plane out of Hong Kong . Lol  I’m just kidding, I’d say the controls can handle a little hand san.  I just wanted to quote Top Gun . Lol

Pulling of the ejection handle underwater creates a neat visual . I just wonder if the canopy would actually clear underwater or turn the crew into diced kabobs.  

Him using the sanitizer as a message in a bottle was sad.  If I had to put a label on it. I would call this a sci fi action .

I didn’t really find a payoff so to speak. What I mean is ,what did they accomplish?
They sat on the runway. The creatures attacked. Then they took off and crashed . Lt is toast and Petey sends out a message in a bottle .  (Don’t take that as me saying your story is simplistic. I just put what I saw in short terms.) Your writing is FAR from simple.

Your writing kept me engaged... You def know your way around a script . I think you just rushed a little on story.

All the best!

Hm, it's a good effort but all the pieces didn't quite gel for me. I think it's the horror stuff seeming shoehorned in. You have these creatures show up and I was gearing up for some kind of survival horror battle between pilots and evil things.

But they don't really play into the story beyond an excuse to have the plane crash. Feels more like a straight drama with this guy struggling in his last moments to connect with his daughter.

Good writing though.

Not entirely sure about the horror credentials here, or rather the way they're introduced but I'll let that slide - for some reason they reminded me of the creatures from Attack the Block.

Anyway, apart from that quibble I liked it, characters drawn well, situation (for them) scary and most original use of sanitiser I've read yet.

Good job

Hi writer,

Quoted Text full moon. The deck is full and active

Minor quibble, get rid of one of the "full".

The deck is brimming with activity... Maybe.

Quoted Text that of:

This reads a bit awkwardly to me, it may be fine, but it did pull me out of the read.

Quoted Text LT. AMES A distinction without a difference.

That’s a good line.

Quoted Text It’s swarmed with a million tiny black creatures,

Top of page three and you give us this. I'm hoping you can give it enough meat to make it work. Also be nice to have a slightly more detailed description of these guys.

Quoted Text PETEY Daddy loves you.

A little cringe worthy, I think the same thing could have been achieved through action and not dialogue. A tear in the eye, a stroke of the photo, something other than what you have.

Yeah I would definitely get rid of the “I love you” dialogue if it’s on the note at the end.

This doesn’t feel like horror, Sci-Fi maybe.

The creature comes out of nowhere and isn’t developed at all. I'm just never going to be a fan of that.

The writing is almost flawless, not a whole lot else I can say about it.

I might come back and read this one again before I vote on it.

All the best.

Torn on this one as the whole ‘payoff’ at the end is telegraphed in the opening scene.

Its competently written - when I opened it I thought ‘Why didn’t I use an aircraft carrier lol - and wrings the emotion out of the 5 pages   Technically it’s a drama with some mystery swarm lol but I won’t ping you on that (can’t after letting nearly all the Rd 2 ones pass as ‘Comedy’ LOL)

Anyway nice one and I dug it

Hello writer

Fuck sake, you almost made me cry - I have only ever cried twice in my adult life, once when my dog died and again when Dobby died - Since having my son, anything to do with father/child relationships really gets my emotions going - I seriously almost cried during the animation "Sing" when the Dad gorilla was super proud of son gorilla - what's wrong with me?

Ahem, anyway... beautifully written, you brought me into the characters and into the world nicely. I could see everything and I liked what I saw.

Hmmm, technically you used the hand gel bottle, not the hand gel itself, soooo.... I'm pulling your chain, nice use of the hand gel  ;)

I haven't got a lot to add really - I enjoyed it

P.S Congrats on winning the "Most expensive short" award for round 3 :-D

Exciting. Great tension all the way through.

Not bad.  I like it.  Creative use of the HS.  This one meets the criteria.

Nice. A real flow... well, I only read three pages and to be honest I got high enough from the fumes I don't need to finish. You're talented.

However, in this 5-page challenge your flow drops on page 5... in particular, I found this to be quite bad:

Suddenly, the cockpit glass explodes upward, followed quickly
by Petey, still harnessed to his seat.

You had to finish within 5 pages, so it's excusable for what is otherwise - for 72-hours work - a masterclass in screenwriting. if you had time to edit you could have played with your action lines a little more, like the first here:

An aircraft carrier, surrounded by a full task force, sails
along under the bright light of a full moon.


Surrounded by a full task force, an aircraft carrier sails
beneath/under the bright light of a full moon.

I like it though. Should score high. Not much of a story, but you're never going to get War and Peace in five pages.

well...that was unexpected. Bravo, writer. Nicely done.

Great characters, dialog, set up, and prose. Horror [the black creature(s)] was sidelined to the horrific situation of sinking to your death or ejecting to the creature(s) demise. Well done.

Outstanding work overall. I thought maybe it was Stevie's because of the setting, but from his review I guess not.

Best use of the hand sanitizer.

Was initially unsure if Petey made it to the surface, but I guess only his bottle did.

Good job with attempting to give the characters some depth. Not a homerun in that department, but a very solid attempt.

I think the other warcraft script had a crewman who used sanitizer and prayers. Weird how writers think alike.

Some issues to quibble with, but I'm not an editor. Overall, the writing flowed.

I don't mind the bugs attacking. The problem is it happens so fast. Assume there are some kind of artificial bugs able to chew steel. Plausible for sci fi. But it would take time to chew. I realize the 5 page limitation didn't allow that, but even if you had unlimited pages, would it work that way? The attack is so sudden and they are able to eat through the ships so quick that the pilots don't have time to communicate with the tower. It just doesn't make sense.

But good scores for the characterization attempts, general prose, the use of the sanitizer, and for making us care about the character, very hard to do in 5.

Nice job here. Good story well told and the hand sanitizer bottle use was clever.

The horror angle seemed to be crammed in rather than the essence of the story - but surely enough to let it slide by.

Nice work. A contender for sure