2018 ScreenCraft Horror Screenplay Contest Winners Announced

Burner by Mukilan Thangamani has been selected as the grand prize winner of the 2018 ScreenCraft Horror Competition. Drawing inspiration from Strangers on a Train, Maya uses a black-market phone app to kill her sexually abusive boss, only to find she must repay the favor. The allure and timeliness of the concept truly resonated with our panel of judges.

Wolves Don’t Cry by Scott Fleishman has been selected as the runner-up. An eccentric director invites an A-List cast of actors to an isolated mountain retreat to rehearse for his new film. The group soon finds themselves in the early stages of a zombie apocalypse. But is it real or staged Hollywood fiction? Fleischman impressed the judges with his strong writing style and unique voice.

In addition to the ScreenCraft team, the judges included: Ryan Turek, VP of Development at Blumhouse Productions (company credits include PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, INSIDIOUS, SINISTER, OCULUS, THE PURGE, OUIJA, THE GREEN INFERNO, Academy-award nominee WHIPLASH and UNFRIENDED); Andrew Wilson, manager at Zero Gravity, the production and management company behind dozens of genre films, as well as such top Hollywood talent as Katherine Heigl, Madison Iseman, Will Yun Lee, Maggie Grace, Dolph Lundgren, and Kellan Lutz; Sean McKittrick, film Producer of DONNIE DARKO, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES and Jordan Peele’s recent blockbuster GET OUT; Kailey Marsh, Manager at Brillstein Entertainment Partners and creator The Bloodlist whose clients include multiple staffed writers & directors as well as clients writing projects for studios; and Scott Beck & Bryan Woods, screenwriters of A QUIET PLACE, the surprise 2018 blockbuster (starring John Krasinski and Emily Blunt) that topped the box office two weekends in a row

Grand prize winner Mukilan Thangamani will receive a $1,000 cash prize and hand-picked industry consultations and introductions, while Fleishman will receive $500 and will have his script circulated and recommended to ScreenCraft’s network of over 60 managers, agents, producers and development executives.

Congratulations to these winning writers, and thank you to our judges and to everyone who submitted projects; we read a number of remarkable screenplays.

View the quarterfinalists, semifinalists  and finalists here.

And be sure to check out more of ScreenCraft’s recent success stories here.

Writing a feature film, short, or TV pilot script? Don’t miss these upcoming competition deadlines.