Stranded

A series of extreme decisions leads a distraught man down a desolate road where his encounter with a young woman alters both of their fates.

A new-ish take on an old story.

From TSL (The Script Lab) Coverage:

This is a visually rich script with deep meditations about anger, guilt, and punishment. The script bravely defies the classic screenplay writing advice of choosing a protagonist, giving them an obstacle, and letting the story unfold. Instead of that, the writer chooses to take us through a primeval emotion of jealousy and anger. Greg finds his obstacle in the end but to his agony it is insurmountable. He must suffer for eternity with the punishment.

"Stranded" evokes such bleak images from the very first page that one can sense it is going to be an engaging read. At just over 10 pages the writer does not disappoint even a bit, not a single word is wasted. Despite moving at an apparently slow pace the story keeps the tension at maximum. The oft-quoted expression ‘hauntingly beautiful’ comes to mind while going through this neat piece of work.

From Shore Scripts Coverage:

Stranded has a distinctive combination of thriller, ghostly scares and existential horror.Greg is an interesting protagonist through which to explore ideas of aggression, violence, guilt and repercussion. It is written with great skill and this reader has confidence that this script can be an extremely chilling, haunting film.

There is a very cultivated use of sound, with long stretches of quietness interrupted by the pop of John’s gun, the blaring car radio and the engine. These details bring the script to life for a reader and give an excellent idea of tone. The script is clearly written with a skillful sense of cinematic detail.

The pacing is excellently conveyed in the script. There is a great build of suspense, particularly in the withholding of information and the visual and audio details. The energy builds from the taut first half into a more fast paced second half, bringing the film to an effective climactic point.