If you’re anything like me, you’ve read enough advice or listened to enough interviews to know that one the best ways to improve as a screenwriter is to read screenplays. It seems to easy to be true.
That’s because it is.
It’s not enough to just read screenplays… you should be studying them. You should be asking yourself “Why that word?” or “What makes this character feel alive?” and, most important of all, you should be answering them. This doesn’t mean keeping a notebook and writing it all out (unless you want it to), what it means is that you should take an active part in reading rather than passively experiencing what is written. Each and every decision made was made for a reason and understanding those reasons will help to inform your own writing.
But that still leaves one question…
Where do you find horror screenplays?
Thankfully, you’ve already read the title of the post so why don’t jump right in?
1. HorrorLair.com
HorrorLair is the only site on our list that exclusively caters to the horror cinéaste. It was the late ’90s – early ’00s when I first stumbled upon HL and read my first horror movie screenplay: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987). Unfortunately, the site has not seen any updates since I Spit on Your Grave (2010) was added on October 28th, 2016; it’s unlikely that we’ll see a resurgence in activity here.
2. SimplyScripts.com
SimplyScripts is one of the best resources of screenplays across all the genres but they have been growing an impressive selection of horror scripts since their start in 1999. Impressively, Simply has an impressively active blog which updates weekly – sometimes, it updates almost daily. The activity on the site helps to prevent dead links and keep fresh material coming through the doors.
3. Reddit’s /R/Screenwriting
Reddit’s /R/Screenwriting community is a great place to stop by if you have a screenplay in particular in mind. Depending on the film, I have found great success in finding screenplays I wanted there – Oz Perkin’s 2015 The Blackcoat’s Daughter (which I talked about here), The Killing of a Scared Deer (2017) and many more. Make sure to use the search and limit your search to this particular Subreddit (a Subreddit is what they call their forum board topics). While you’re there, take a look at the newest posts and see if there’s anything of interest to you – it’s all learning!
4. The Internet Movie Script Database
The Internet Movie Script Database clearly takes its name from the larger IMDB but that’s where the difference end. What IMSDb focuses on is scripts and they have managed to gather one of the larger collections on the web. While their selection of horror titles may not be as extensive as earlier examples, the easy sorting by genre makes this one of the more functional sites to look up what you want. However as of this writing, the newest screenplays seem to be from 2016.
5. Script Slug
Script Slug might be the newest of the kids on the block but its stirring things up. The functionality of the website, links to Twitter/Facebook/Instagram/Pinterest/Google+ accounts, and some surprisingly great screenplay finds makes Script Slug a remarkable new site that, if it continues to grow, I could easily see becoming my favorite.
So there you have it, five resources for finding horror screenplays that I hope you find useful.
