Ah yes, the end of October. A time for tricks, a time for treats, and a time for the BloodList, which highlights the most-liked unproduced screenplays and pilots in the horror, thriller, sci-fi and dark comedy genres. Created in 2009 by manager-producerKailey Marsh, the BloodList celebrates its 11th edition this year – and just in time for Halloween!
Roughly a quarter of the scripts that have appeared on the BloodList have gone on to be produced, includingArrival,Birdbox,The Shallows,The VoicesandThe Blackcoat’s Daughter. Recent BloodList projectsThe Other LambandWe Summon the Darknessare currently making the rounds on the festival circuit. You can find a complete list of projects that have been made after appearing on the BloodList byclicking here.
This year, 53 industry executives at the Story Editor level or above voted for their favorite genre screenplays and pilots of the year, which in this case is considered October to October. This year’s list also included the fourth annual Fresh Blood Selects — a collection of genre scripts from unrepresented writers that are filtered through a free submission system viaBloodList.com. There were 513 submissions this year, and the selected screenplays and pilots are available to view on the BloodList website.
“I want to thank everyone who has supported BloodList for the past decade. It’s been a pleasure to bring exposure to talented writers and projects in the horror genre, and to be producing content in the genre as well,” said Marsh, who currently serves as an executive producer on Hulu’sLight as a Feather.
Check out the 2019 BloodList below, and brush up on last year’s listright here. Happy Halloween!
Writer:Melanie Toast
Genre:Thriller
Logline:A single mother must do everything she can to protect her children and survive when she is held captive by her violent ex, and her two young children are left at risk.
Status:Set up at New Line. Cinestate, Farah Films and Vertigo Entertainment are producing.
Writer:Stephen Vitale
Genre:Psychological Thriller/ Horror
Logline:A mysterious loner heads to Muscle Beach in 1985 to pursue a career as a competitive bodybuilder. Struggling to transform his physique, he unleashes a darker side of himself as he descends into madness.
Status:Stephen Vitale is attached to direct. Keep Your Head Productions, Free Will and Wild Bunch are producing.
DEEP WATER
Writer:Tracee Beebe
Genre:Horror/Thriller
Logline:Trapped on a sinking boat in shark infested waters, two young women must work together to survive a threat worse than the predators lurking beneath the waves…
Status:Vincent Newman Entertainment and Joe Russo are producing.
THE TRAVELER
Writer:Austin Everett
Genre:Sci-Fi
Logline:At the same time every morning, Scott Treder has started jumping forward in time. First a day, then two, four, eight, etc. He struggles to keep his family together and find a cure, all as his secret spreads throughout the world.
Status:Set up at MGM.
DON’T WORRY DARLING
Writers:Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke
Genre:Psychological Thriller
Logline:A psychological thriller about a 1950s housewife whose reality begins to crack, revealing a disturbing truth underneath.
Status:Set up at New Line. Olivia Wilde attached to direct and star. Vertigo Entertainment, Olivia Wilde & Katie Silberman are producing.
Writers:Based on a story by Laurie Ashbourne, Screen Story by Kathy Charles, Screenplay by Ian Shorr and Peter Gamble.
Genre:Horror
Logline:The story follows a young woman who takes her niece and nephew trick or treating and discovers a note inside a candy wrapper that says there’s a killer loose on her block.
Status:Set up at Orion. Arts District Entertainment and Bellevue Productions are producing.
FIRST HARVEST
Writer:Kevin McMullin
Genre:Supernatural Horror
Logline:A goat farmer discovers a newborn baby among the bodies of a cult’s mass suicide. In nurturing the baby, the farmer’s cancer-ridden wife starts getting better. But there’s something dark about the child’s power.
Status:Available. Kevin McMullin is attached to direct.
Writers:Kevin Armento & Jaki Bradley
Logline:When an overstressed young woman joins her best friend at a wellness retreat in the Arizona desert, she begins to suspect that the revitalizing spa treatments, serums, and macrobiotic meals are part of something closer to a dangerous cult, run by the retreat’s charismatic leader.
Status:Divide/Conquer and XYZ Films are producing.
NO GOOD DEED
Writer:Christina Pamies
Logline:A woman with a troubled past takes in her moody teenage niece to live in the family’s isolated farmhouse but the two are soon tempted and tormented by a sinister creature that can take their pain away for a price.
Status:Available.
Writer:Marco Mannone
Logline:Scarsis a contemporary horror story about an engineer who moves her family to Detroit for a dream job at a major auto plant only to find herself in the middle of a company-wide cover up, which has summoned a vicious demon to destroy the souls of those responsible.
Status:Matt Baer Films is producing.
The fourth annual Fresh Blood Selects are below. These 10 scripts were selected from the 513 projects that were sent in through the free submission system this year. The screenplays and pilots are available to read and watch onBloodList.com.
BARBARIC(Pilot)
Writer:Jason Cho
Logline:Radical environmentalists, cattle ranchers, and backwoods homesteaders come to violent clash over their differing ideologies on morality and humanity. An alternate history period piece taking place in a new, but old America.
FIND WHAT YOU LOVE AND LET IT KILL YOU(Short)
Writer:Alessandro Pulisci
Logline:Trying to distract herself from work, a young woman’s obsession with a video game turns deadly.
INCUBUS(Pilot)
Writer:Regina Kim
Genre:Psychological Horror
Logline:After causing a near-fatal aviation disaster, insomniac air traffic controller Camille Park seeks help from famed neuroscientist Kenji Kamitani to better understand her sleep paralysis. But when Kenji puts her on a Phase 0 clinical trial, this experimental manipulation of her amygdala brings about a terror she’s never known before: a bloodthirsty incubus.
MORGAN AND THE EVIL(Pilot)
Writer:Skye Tenorio
Genre:Dark Comedy
Logline:Morgan Ramos is just your typical teenage girl juggling school, friends, love, and parental problems. Oh yeah, and she just found out she’s destined to unleash hell on earth.
PREY(Short Film)
Writer/Director:Bill Whirity
Logline:While on a first date, a young couple finds themselves being pursued by more than just each other.
SECOND ACT LIBRARY(Feature)
Writer:Kimberley Elizabeth
Logline:Six different horror movies. Six unique survivors. All looking for answers… at the same time.
SYNDROME(Pilot)
Writer:Monica Lee
Logline:Helen (a 21st century Scully) is an expat American Neuroscientist pursuing research in Mexico City, who draws two men into her orbit of science and self-experimentation at their peril.
THE APOLOGY(Feature)
Writer:Alison Star Locke
Logline:A retired schoolteacher spent 30 years searching for her missing daughter, only to learn a horrible truth that may cost her everything one dark Christmas Eve with the return of an old friend.
THE NIGHT FREQUENCY: “A CHARMING LITTLE HOLE IN THE WALL”(Pilot)
Writer:Wes Black
Logline:Small town losers Harold Perkle and Chester Robbins stumble upon a hole in the basement of their failing diner. One that grants all those who gaze inside the rarest of gifts: joy. But when the hole unleashes a new brand of gift—a virulent disease of the mind— the town is soon looking to Harold and Chester for a cure.
THIS BEDROOM IS DEAD(Short)
Writer:Karl Gan
Logline:A good wife in a troubled marriage fights against both her dead bedroom and the start of the apocalypse.
