Treatment

Inspiration:

I had this idea after watching horror movies such as Scream, Ready or Not, the Blair Witch Project and the Menu. After watching these films, I became interested in the idea of the 'final girl' and how that stereotype could be manipulated in a different way. Seeing as there is a time limit on the length of film, I decided not only would my main character be the final girl, but she would also be the only person being attacked by the killer. Typically, the final girl fights back against the villain in horror movies and I wanted to keep to that tradition. However, I also thought it would be interesting to explore the idea of the horror situation almost turning the final girl character into a villain. This idea was inspired by films that twist typical tropes and deal with the ambiguity of evil, like Jennifer's Body. Megan Fox plays Jennifer Check, a teenage girl who has been possessed by a demon. Fox's performance is layered, as she manages to portray a terrifying succubus while also demonstrating the internal struggles her character is going through as she kills off more and more people, leading us to feel sorry for her. This inspired me to involve a similar sort of conflict, where a character grapples with the emotional weight of killing a person, even if the person they killed was bad. 

Three act structure:

In the first act, we are introduced to Girl 1, who is hanging out with her friends at one of their houses. One of her friends brings up the topic of a masked serial killer, rumoured to be roaming the streets of their small town. Nobody really takes it seriously, especially Girl 1 who claims the whole thing is a myth. Her phone buzzes and she checks it to find a few messages from her boyfriend, who is demanding that she comes home immediately. She attempts to ignore these messages but he then calls her and she steps out of the room to pick up. A voice can be heard yelling down the phone and Girl 1 eventually gives in and tells the voice she'll be home soon. Here, the audience is meant to realise that Girl 1's relationship with her boyfriend is not exactly healthy, as is reflected by the reactions of her friends when she tells them that she has to leave. Her friends encourage her to leave him but she tells them it's not so bad and says goodbye. Equilibrium has been established as we know who the girl is and what her relationships with the people around her are.

Girl 1 rushes home, desperate to minimise the yelling at she will inevitably receive when she gets home. Because of this, she decides to take a shortcut through an empty field. Obviously, this is where the serial killer decides to show up. Initially, she hears a soft squeak from the gate she came through as she's walking through the field. There is a shot reverse shot of the gate and her reaction to her noise, which is a brief moment of worry, followed by a chuckle. As she walks on, she approaches a patch of trees and hears some further rustling. Here, a silhouette suddenly appears. Girl 1 darts into the trees, attempting to escape the killer, but he chases after her. He catches up at one point and reaches his arms out to grab her in a low angle shot. We then cut to a high angle close up of Girl 1 screaming for her life. She briefly escapes him and finds a rusty metal pipe lying on the ground, grabbing it and hiding behind a tree. This is followed by a deep focus shot where we can see Girl 1 quietly waiting and the killer coming closer toward the tree. 

                                        

When he approaches, Girl 1 jumps out and starts attacking him with the pipe, soon knocking him out. However, instead of running away, she continues to beat at him, sobbing at the same time. When she finally stops, she sits back in shock. Here there is a close up of the serial killer's neck that can be seen behind his mask, covered in blood. This is meant to signal to the viewer that Girl 1 has just realised she has taken a human life, and despite it being for the greater good, she is struggling to comprehend what she has just done. She quickly runs to a tree and we see a wide shot of her vomiting and the killer's body lying on the ground, in silhouette. She curls up into a ball and stares at the body. The next shot is of Girl 1 emerging from the trees as the sun is rising, she checks her phone to see a bunch of angry messages and missed calls, which she ignores. The character of the serial killer is meant to be a representation of her boyfriend, which is why I will be using the same actor for both characters. By killing the serial killer, Girl 1 has awakened something inside her, leading the audience to believe that she will no longer stand for the way she is being treated, creating an open ending as we do not know if she will commit any more violent acts. The final shot will be of Girl 1 standing in the field, expressionless and covered in dirt and blood. As the camera pulls back, the sound of sirens will be heard coming closer as the audience is left to think about what the girl will do next.