Script File

Checking Out

On Halloween night, a group of friends attends an immersive haunted house inside an abandoned hotel, only to discover the attraction is a real killing ground orchestrated by a mastermind who believes society’s obsession with violent entertainment makes the audience complicit.

  • JJ Brent
    Writer
    Flashing Back, Porch Pirates, Dead Men Show No Smiles
  • Project Type:
    Screenplay
  • Number of Pages:
    94
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • FilmQuest

    September 4, 2025
    Semi-Finalist
  • Terror In The Bay Film Festival
    Toronto, Canada
    September 15, 2025
    Official Selection
  • Nashville Horror Film Festival
    Nashville, Tn
    September 20, 2025
    Official Selection
  • Nashville Horror Film Festival
    Nashvillr, Tn
    October 5, 2025
    Best Local Script
  • Open Gate International Film Festival

    January 1, 2026
    Official Selection
  • Open Gate International Film Festival
    New York, NY
    January 18, 2026
    Best Feature Screenplay
  • Pegasus Film Awards

    January 12, 2026
    Best Horror Screenplay
  • Filmmatic Horror Screenplay Awards

    February 17, 2026
    Semifinalist
  • Oxford Script Awards

    April 3, 2026
    Best Horror Screenplay
Writer Biography - JJ Brent

JJ Brent is an award-winning screenwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee, specializing in character-driven thrillers, crime dramas, and elevated horror. His work explores themes of trauma, justice, and survival through grounded, high-stakes narratives, with a strong emphasis on creating complex, compelling characters that actors are drawn to inhabit.
His feature screenplays have earned multiple accolades, including Best Feature Screenplay at the Open Gate International Film Festival (Checking Out), Best Horror Screenplay, and finalist placements in competitions such as the Chicago Script Awards and Wiki Screenplay Competition.
His completed scripts include Flashing Back, a nonlinear psychological thriller blending investigation and survival; Porch Pirates, a crime thriller about two petty thieves uncovering a human trafficking operation; and Checking Out, a high-concept horror film set inside a deadly immersive attraction.
With a background in live entertainment and a strong visual storytelling instinct, Brent writes with a focus on tension, authenticity, and cinematic execution.

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Writer Statement

Checking Out began with a simple question: What if the haunted house was real and no one ever came back out? Beneath that premise is something more unsettling. The way we consume violence as entertainment and how easily real pain becomes spectacle.

This story is not just about the victims. It is about the audience. What we choose to watch, ignore, and celebrate. Through the antagonist Marus Redmers, I wanted to explore what happens when someone decides that horror fans, filmmakers, and even survivors are part of the problem. To him, survival is not bravery, it is branding. He believes that by turning trauma into recognition, we have lost the right to be horrified. In his view, the only fear that matters is the kind we do not consent to.

Checking Out is built around that philosophy. A world where safety, performance, and voyeurism collapse into something violent when the rules stop applying. The Ridgeview Hotel is not just a trap. It is a statement. Every room serves a purpose. Every death is intentional.

I do not write horror for shock. I write it to confront. To hold up a mirror, sometimes closer than we are comfortable with. Checking Out asks what happens when trauma becomes content and no one looks away. Because someone is always watching. And this time, he is not entertained.

JJ Brent