BSA 204 W10 : Once Upon a Wish

I was wondering how I could roll a bunch of different horror movies into one and I came up with a new horror comedy idea:

A group of students go on a road trip and camping one night they see a shooting star, everyone makes a wish and they come true the next day. They decide to cut the trip short to get home and make full use of their gifts, problem is one of them made a sarcastic wish that they are all in a horror movie. The students have to get back home while traversing the now horrific countryside. 

Opening scene - they are all camping, one is trying to scare everyone else with his horror shenanigans; a joker and hooligan. The characters are established and we get to know who they are, what they want and where they are going. They see the star and all make wishes.

Next day it becomes clear each of their wishes come true with phone calls/texts whatever - one wishes for a loved one to get well, another for a fortune which he inherits, their excitement get shattered when the crazy one's wish is remembered (not everyone says theirs out loud, he says his and even makes it more extreme based on other people's reactions). His wish is something along the lines of them being in a horror movie, like texas chainsaw or some shit. Someone says another girl is more afraid of vampires, he says fuck it - wishes that they are in every kind of horror movie (laughing and jokingly of course).

This leads to a terrifying road trip where they get picked off one by one before being able to get home to their fulfilled wishes.

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Possible inclusions:

1. Texas Chainsaw / Hills Have Eyes - they get stranded next to road in middle of nowhere, hunted by crazy family
2. Hole up in a haunted house, where one of the characters goes crazy
3. Someone gets possessed
4. Saved by a vampire, who then turns on them
5. Werewolf/ Witches/ Demons?
6. Body Horror / Torture Porn
7. Giant Spider or Body Snatchers / 50's type Cold War horror

The wishes (need to teach a moral lesson as well and each dies related to their sin):

1. Greed (out loud) - The most common probably, he wishes for wealth and is informed the next day that a great aunt he was unaware of left him a huge sum of money, he just needs to go in and sign the documents. He is a character who is very concerned with his future and wishes this so that he can make what he wants artistically without having to worry about being financially stable. / A good reason to return home.

2. Vanity (secretly) - An overweight and not all that beautiful girl wishes to be beautiful and skinny, something she's struggled with for her whole life and been bullied about a lot. Gives her self-confidence to be the person she's meant to and have people take her seriously. Not a great wish, but a genuinely kind person. Victim of body horror.

3. Lust (out loud/ while drunk) - A guy who has recently experienced a break-up where his girlfriend cheated on him wishes to become irresistible to women, the next day she calls him and apologizes asking if he'll have her back. Would be easy to trick this character into an early grave, but he can also use his newfound power to help the group. Gets seduced by siren or vampire or something.

4. Not Content (out loud) - A girl wishes to be happy and content as she feels like she never is and have struggled with this her whole life, she becomes very happy the next day and is played comedically seeming not to care about anything anymore, she's content no matter the situation. Torture porn, always content no matter her physical condition.

5. Sarcastic piece of shit (out loud) - This is the guy who scares the girls on the night, a joker who makes the joke about being in a horror movie. Most likely to die first.

6. The Good One (secretly) - Wishes for a loved one to heal, has to get back to see her. Didn't get to say something before grandma or whoever went into a coma. Also the final girl / A good reason to return home.


It's weird thinking about how to kill these characters and who should go first etc. it actually proves to be quite hard because I genuinely like them XD I see comedic potential with each and have tried to create relatable and likable motivations/ characterizations of each. Maybe this is a good thing.

The very beginning of the film is them driving up to camping grounds and booking a place to camp, this gives us to time to see all of them interact, get a sense of where they are going and why - also a big reason is that we can see them interact with strangers (like the fat girl can get bullied, lust guy and act out, greed guy can show jealousy over something etc).

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 Characters:

1. Greg (Greed) : He is with his girlfriend on the trip, studies some kind of art course, and expresses how he finds it difficult to make stuff and work at the same time, this is the first time he has off in months. He appreciates the break, but keeps to himself in his head because of what he really wants to achieve in life (writing or music or whatever)  which his Girlfriend doesn't like, this is a source of conflict because he doesn't feel fulfilled in his life yet and wants to achieve more - at the same time he is struggling just supporting himself and his GF (who quit her job which she was unhappy with when they got together) - he made this concession because he loves her, but at the same time it's a sensitive topic for him because he wants to do more with his life. He is ambitious, but feels stuck in his situations, if he had no financial responsibilities he'd be able to pour all his energy into his craft (and if he had more money he'd be able to finance his expeditions as well).

Arc: He sacrifices his girlfriend, metaphorically letting her go for his own ambitions. This regret gnaws away at him and before dying he realizes that she was the only thing he needed to keep happy.

2. Connie (Not Content) : She is Greg's girlfriend, she feels that her life keeps improving over time and yet somehow she always finds herself unhappy. She expresses that she fears this might be a problem with her personally and that she doubts ever being happy. She hated her job and quit it after a while when Greg started supporting her as well, again a recent improvement in her life and she gets to go on a holiday now which she was clamoring for, still she remains unhappy. She doesn't know what to do to get back to how blissfully content she was as a child and this is the wish she makes - somewhat in contradiction to Greg (who wishes first) she says she just wants to be happy.

Arc: Becomes happy about everything and sees that life is beautiful even in the darkest of situations, of course she gets betrayed by the love of her life and dies a gruesome and horrible death but at least its with a smile on her face.

3. Luke (Lust) : He just went through a breakup where he found out his girlfriend had been cheating on him, he goes on the trip to get away from things, his self-confidence is very low but at the same time he is somewhat consumed by anger so he tends to act out (something he does at the beginning of the film when they go to the camping site and some assholes pick on the fat girl). He gets drunk during the campfire and wishes to become irresistible to women in an attempt to take revenge on his girlfriend in some petty form. When his wish is fulfilled he gets a call from his ex asking to get back together, he wants to live up to his word and return to her - showing she is the one most important to him - but faces a lot of temptation on the way home.

Arc: Learns there are many other fish in the sea, and that he needs to find someone who appreciates him as much as he appreciates them, of course one of these kills him but still.

4. Valerie (Vanity) : An overweight girl with self-confidence problems,  she has suffered bullying her whole life and is finding herself in college, she finds comfort among her friends and has a crush on the crazy guy who doesn't reciprocate and she's too shy to actually approach him. Shy and wishes in secret.

Arc: Learns that the world treats you as you allow it to, and that being beautiful isn't nearly as important as the attitude you approach the world with. She also dies of some kind of body horror, so supported metaphorically.

5. Christoff (The Crazy One) : Joker of the group, weird in social situations but very comfortable in his friends group, he insists on being different and kicks against the pricks when it comes to social etiquette. He has an obsession with horror and lies scaring his friends, he tells ghost stories at the camp and likes freaking out the girls with his jump scares and running around with bugs. He is childish, possibly annoying and somewhat charming. A bit nerdy, very apathetic and makes a fake wish for the shooting star, essentially teasing everyone else's hopefulness.

Arc: Learns that there is magic in the world, although this is horrifying and results on his death but means his actions have consequences.

6. Lisa (The Good One) : Her grandma has recently gone into the hospital and hasn't got out of the coma for a couple of weeks, family is discussing whether or not to pull the plug. She has regrets of not seeing her enough and not being able to say something important to her the last time she was awake. The trip was devised as a way to get everyone out during the term break, but also as a way to specifically help her get away from it all by her best friend Connie and her boyfriend.Her wish is obvious, and she has the strongest motivation to get back.

Arc: Learns not to focus too much on one persons death, and that there are a lot of people still alive that she appreciates and love, of course she learns this by outliving all of them but still a good lesson.
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 Scenes:

Opening scene - Them arriving at camping grounds, all booked out, they go camping off site and illegally when denied placement. They interact with strangers and we see how the world perceives them as well as how they interact to others. They all make a plan to camp illegally anyway, an obvious mistake.

Camping - They set up camp, make fire, shenanigans with the cast of characters, we learn of each one. We see vignettes of characters interacting, establishing the different relationship dynamics.

Camp Fire - All gather around fire and have some heart to hearts, maybe playing a drinking game, here we learn a lot about each and see the areas that are sensitive, they are also all around each other so each ones personality is present. They make their wishes and go to sleep.

Next Morn - Revealed that wishes came true, have motivations to go home, all realize that the crazy one's came true too dum dum dum

Stranded - The van breaks down in middle of nowhere, they are stranded and go looking for help, like Chainsaw Massacre or Hills Have Eyes.

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Christoff dies first, paying for his apathy.
Luke is next, being tempted to his death.
Connie dies third after a long period of torture.
Valerie dies fourth from her body horror experience.
Gregg is number five, he dies after much regret and accepting his fate.
Lisa is the final girl, getting home to her grandma, only to break down when her grandma asks describe all her friends.
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I think Connie gets tortured, escapes, gets attacked by something else, eventually turns into a zombie, which catches up to Gregg and with a smiling face eats him alive.
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-  Camping and wishes
-  Stranded, hilarity ensues
-  First death, they try to escape house 
-  Escape! Second and third deaths. 
-  Four and Five
-  Finale
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We see a van drive up, a girl jumps out and throws up, immediately starting to yell and hit the driver who gets out and innocently objects he did nothing wrong. She says he knows she can't do roads like that, but he says they would have missed getting a camping spot if he didn't take the short cut. A chubby girl comforts her, the crazy guy makes an insensitive comment and gets yelled at by the girls.

They all start making their way to the camping grounds, one guy hangs back and doesn't want to join Lisa convinces him. They all go, Connie is going on about how this was supposed to be a good retreat for everyone, Christoff tells her to get over it, it's a sympathy trip for Lisa whose grandma is in a coma and Luke who just went through a break-up.

They get there and are denied a spot - they've all been sold out. Gregg apologizes to Connie, who is even angrier now. He needs to do something nice in the next segment to show how much he loves her, but it's cool if he has a tendency to do something bad with one line of logic and then later learn to regret it. There should also be a bit here where he jealously looks on at some other campers, who have nicer gear than him and he complains.