![[Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competition]](/images/ads/austin2021a.png)
BELSNICKLE
When it seems an evil folklore character begins killing people in a rural town during Christmas week, a young, inexperienced sheriff with his job on the line tries to stop him.
The first murder in the town's history occurs Christmas Eve, when a retired judge is garroted with a string of Christmas lights. It is followed by another grisly murder the day after Christmas when a prominent doctor is beheaded.
Geoff thinks at first the motive is robbery since the victims presents are also taken, but that and other clues slowly point to the bizarre theory that the murders may really be the work of a green-robed, snaggle-toothed folklore creature named Belsnickle, who legend says comes to life during the Christmas holidays to reclaim Santas presents.
When the town's most prominent citizen, a state senator is found flayed alive in a smokehouse,the once sleepy town is hurled into the national spotlight.
Tabloid journalists descend on the town and hold Geoff up to ridicule for his Belsnickle theory. The town council wants Geoff's job, the governor puts pressure on him to solve the murders, and to make matters worse,Belsnickle himself taunts Geoff and his family at night by phone.
As the murders continue,Geoff becomes so obsessed with restoring his reputation and capturing Belsnickle, that he forgets the safety of his own family until one day Belsnickle kidnaps them, and Geoff must rescue them in a fight to the death with Belsnickle amid the boiling vats of a slaughterhouse.
Amy Ryan
Tim Blake Nelson
Untraceable
No Country for Old Men
Shoot in Philadelphia (Finalist) [2015]
Lone Star (Quarterfinalist) [2000]
Show More
ScriptLinks
Post Your Script Here!Sunflower Care
Sunflower Care is a comedy television pilot about a cantankerous eighty-five year-old nursing home resident who battles wits with the grim reaper in an attempt to stay alive.
Turf War
As Florida neighbors fall in love, their rival lawn ornaments start a war.
Spike
A Native American environmentalist is pitted against his logger brother after a botanist whistleblower is pushed too far in the struggle to maintain the forests of Northwestern Montana.
A Good Soul
A sitcom actor risks losing his soul for the chance to prove that he can be more than the lovable big brother he played on TV.
The Schoharie
A volunteer firefighter of Native American descent must convince a small town sheriff with a grudge that a vengeful Indian spirit is bent on destroying their town with the flood waters of a nearby creek.
Harpo's Bike (Can't Find My Way Home)
A young ad artist takes a trip to New Orleans on a Harley inherited from his estranged Marine father to prove to his family that the man was having an affair.
Autumn Blood
Bad Apples Don't Fall Far From The Tree.
Perfect Prophet
A death metal atheist with a tortured religious past becomes the target of his satanic fan base because they think he's something more.
THE SOCIAL POLICE
Twenty years from now, an FBI agent patrols the social media This pilot streamer has it all.
The Sea Dragon
England, 1810: A sharp-witted young girl who hunts and sells fossils to help support her impoverished family unearths a never-before-seen skeleton that shakes the foundations of science and religion.
