Our beloved 3way had some time on his hands, and wanted to weigh in on the Blood List’s 2018 Fresh Blood script When Horror Met Sally:
It’s billed as a horror/dark comedy.
Logline: After surviving her second psycho killer massacre, a plucky Final Girl discovers she’s supposed to be in a romantic comedy, and races against time to get back to her rightful genre as the killer closes in.
So, turns out the heroine is surviving her third massacre when we meet her. I kept going back and forth between the logline and the script trying to figure out what the deal was. Turns out the logline, one of the easiest things to at least get factually correct in regards to the script, was off base. This did not instill me with confidence as a reader. Especially since, being a Fresh Blood script, I would imagine the writers themselves had to come up with the loglines, as opposed to agents/managers sometimes writing them for the author.
I didn’t find the script funny. I understand comedy is tricky, with so much dependent on delivery. But everyone in the script acted like they knew they were in a movie. No one acted in a way that felt “real.” This really took any possible suspense out of the thing.
Biggest issue – according to the logline (and ignoring the 2nd/3rd massacre problem), the main character is supposed to be trying to get over into the romantic comedy universe. OK…I mean, I can buy the overall concept here sold by the logline. That’s not a problem. What’s a big problem is I kept waiting for that part to actually happen. Like, when will the protagonist realize she is in the wrong genre? It’s a horror/comedy, so you figure it should move somewhat fast.
o Page 20? Nope. But that’s alright, it must be coming soon.
o Page 30? Nope. Hmm. Feels like it should have happened by now, but let’s see how it
goes.
o Page 40? Nope
o Page 50? Nope.
o Page….58? If I’m watching this as a film, I gotta sit through almost an hour of runtime
before I even know what the movie is about? WTF?
On top of all this, our main character was passive the entire time. Even after she realized she was supposed to be in a different movie/universe/genre. I’m not sure how often a passive main character has worked in the past (“The Pianist,” maybe?), but I think the numbers are pretty low.
Finally, the way to switch universes in this story involved some weird, never-explained mumbo jumbo about a film projector and an infinity symbol and I think electricity. I really didn’t get that part. So, in case this was not made clear before, I suggest SKIPPING this one.
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Yeah, the “life upside down” moment was long in coming.
I think either you maybe read this with less than your full attention or I’m generously misunderstanding the script. At the start, I believe, the heroine is undergoing her third massacre. So it sort of makes sense.
I understand your gripes, but I actually enjoyed it as a love letter to Movies. It reminded me a little of Final Girls and Happy Death Day, but it has a fun Back to the Future epilogue twist, Scary Movie vibes, and obviously it’s very Romantic Comedy. Not the best thing ever but with a rewrite and the right production it could be a fun movie.