Story
Story Structure
Slaughter Summer often plays with the “film-within-a-film” vehicle dipping in and out of the movies our characters encounter.
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For example our fabricated, retro-camp, VHS classic Slaughter Summer is set deep in the woods where camp is in session and horrors lurk around every pine. From the main characters’ hokey, wooden dialogue to the “Why would they hide behind the chainsaws?!” moments, the aesthetic look and feel of these scenes embody cult B-Movie horror classics.
We cut between key scenes in the VHS
world with those of our modern day world, they play together, mirror, and foreshadow events throughout the film. They also add to the kill count. The arc of one of our main characters, Dorothy/Brenda, even spills over into the modern day world leading to our twist ending.
Act 1
Harry Rush, one of the most notorious Horror VHS collectors to ever live, has gotten his hands on the last known copy of, Slaughter Summer. That very night he is murdered at the hands of the film's token killer, The Red Reaper with a pair of garden sheers.
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Harry’s (now ex) Girlfriend Emma, and their two best friends, James and Ron, must now deal with the aftermath. They discover from the lead Detective on the case (Darius Warne) that the killer is potentially a jealous collector after Harry’s, now missing, copy of Slaughter Summer.
Emma then gets a mysterious call from...the killer. They demand that Emma and her friends deliver the last copy of Slaughter Summeror face being picked off one by one.
Through their back-end channels, the friends are quickly able to find out that the tape was recently acquired by Horror Hound, a black market peddler of rare horror tapes and merch. The problem is, when they go to question him, he’s already sold it to an unnamed buyer, but he has made some illegal dupes of it.
Emma, James and Ron become suspicious of the authorities and decide to take their fate into their own hands and locate Slaughter Summer alone.
Want to see the storyboard animatic for the opening scene? Click --->
WARNING this animatic is the opening scene to a horror movie and depicts violence.
Act 2
The Red Reaper, ends Horror Hound's life by “tape strangulation.”
During a covert mission back to Horror Hound’s Emma discovers a cryptic letter to Hound from the hot-tempered, oftentimes violent Director of Slaughter Summer, Jasper Thorne, making him a potential suspect in his murder.
The friends track the tape to Peter Rothman “The Mothman,” who will be presenting it at Horrorpalooza which they see as an opportunity to intercept the cursed VHS.
Ron tails Jasper Thorne, who still lives in town, while James and Emma canvas Horrorpalooza for the tape. Breaking the first horror commandment, they split up.
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Ron’s search leads him into Jasper's garage where he is confronted by The Red Reaper and murdered with a trowel a la Night of the Living Dead!
When Peter refuses to sell James and Emma the tape they decide to steal it. The heist is
successful, only to realize...it’s the wrong tape. Peter had hid the real tape in an alternate box, the old switch -a- roo!
The real Red Reaper makes an appearance at Horrorpalooza and lures Peter off the swap meet floor and murders him with a hatchet to the face!
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Emma and James finally get their hands on the real Slaughter Summer tape and escape with their lives...now it’s time to lure in the murderer.
Act 3
James and Emma arrange for a hand-off with the killer. When a car arrives, and retrieves the tape, James and Emma decide to tail them.
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Turns out it isn’t the killer at all, but rather a hired “Task Tortoise”. The Red Reaper,
who has been hiding in the back seat, murders James AND the Task Rabbit leaving Emma to fight off the killer. This attack is interrupted by Detective Warne.
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Emma is lured to Jasper Thorne’s house and into the basement. Once she arrives, she discovers Ron’s dead body and confronts Thorne with the tape. Just as she’s convinced Thorne is the killer The Red Reaper emerges from the darkness and goes for Emma.
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Emma fights off the REAL Red Reaper and discovers that under their mask...is Dorothy Monroe!
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It is revealed that Jasper and Dorothy have both been carrying out the murders in order to get the tape. Dorothy, wants to destroy every last copy of a film that ruined her career
so she can start anew and get a second chance at Hollywood stardom. Jasper, infatuated with his leading lady has been coerced into destroying his greatest achievement.
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Emma, in a fight for her life, kills Jasper with an axe, and she and Dorthy have a
tete -a-tete. Dorthy offers to show Emma the ropes of Hollywood. Emma declines and in a surprise move kills Dorthy, shooting her with Jasper’s gun.
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Emma decides she is going to use the ordeal to become a hero and put herself in the spotlight with the media; the first step in becoming the actress that she has longed to be and escape her small town misery.
