Horror vs. Thriller

Last week, I was fortunate enough to be asked to speak on Network ISA’s online panel event ‘Writing a Hit Horror Movie’ with other horror writers. Now, admittedly, I’ve only written three horror movies: Summer’s Moon, Cannibals, and Zombie at 17.

Summer’s Moon, which starred Ashley Greene who finds out her father, whom her mother told her was dead, is actually alive and travels to a small town to find him. That could be the logline for pretty much any genre—romcom, thriller, drama… but in this case, she finds her father, who happens to be a serial killer, and his new family, who all happen to also be serial killers including her half-brother Tom who routinely abducts girls and keeps them chained up in his basement. It’s a fun romp.

Cannibals was never produced. A companion piece to Ruggero Deodato’s cult horror film Cannibal Holocaust, I was hired over a decade ago to write the script, but the project fell apart in pre-production due to creative differences between Deodato and the produ…