8 Eldritch Horror Scripts You Must Read

Eldritch Horror is a genre for weird, supernatural, ghostly, or sinister horror. The idea of this horror is to explore brands and ideologies far beyond what we can perceive and relate to. Within film, Eldritch Horror can be polarizing because of the inherent disconnect with its audience and main characters because of the notion of “How to explain the unexplainable?”. How do you write this brand of horror into a screenplay? These are the 7 best Eldritch Horror screenplays you can download and see how they did it the right way.

#1 Alien

When a merchant ship in outer space answers a distress call, they accidentally unleash a horrific hostile entity that stalks the ship crew as they drift alone through the cosmos.”

Critic Consensus: A modern classic, Alien blends science fiction, horror and bleak poetry into a seamless whole.

Tomato Meter 98%

Audience 94%

Alien Script.pdfDownload PDF • 2.46MB

#2 Aliens

When a human colony’s communications suddenly stop, Ripley leads a group of marines to find survivors and fight off a swarm of the hostile aliens she’s faced before.”

Critic Consensus: While Alien was a marvel of slow-building, atmospheric tension, Aliens packs a much more visceral punch, and features a typically strong performance from Sigourney Weaver.

Tomato Meter 97%

Audience 94%

Aliens Script.pdfDownload PDF • 998KB

#3 Evil Dead

After awakening an evil presence from its eternal slumber, four college students fight for survival and sanity in a remote cabin

Critic Consensus: This classic low-budget horror film combines just the right amount of gore and black humor, giving The Evil Dead an equal amount of thrills and laughs.

Tomato Meter 95%

Audience 84%

The Evil Dead Script.pdfDownload PDF • 280KB

#4 Annihilation

After her husband returns from the mysterious area comatose, a biologist and a group of female scientists enter what is known as ‘The Shimmer’ to investigate and find a world far removed from the natural order.”

Critic Consensus: Annihilation backs up its sci-fi visual wonders and visceral genre thrills with an impressively ambitious — and surprisingly strange — exploration of challenging themes that should leave audiences pondering long after the end credits roll.

Tomato Meter 88%

Audience 66%

Annihilation Script.pdfDownload PDF • 271KB

#5 The Thing

A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.

Critic Consensus: Grimmer and more terrifying than the 1950s take, John Carpenter’s The Thing is a tense sci-fi thriller rife with compelling tension and some remarkable make-up effects.

Tomato Meter 85%

Audience 92%

THE THING (1982).pdfDownload PDF • 1.35MB

#6 Cloverfield

When a giant unknown being emerges from the sea to wreak havoc in Manhattan, displaced partygoers navigate the destroyed city to find their missing friend.

Critic Consensus: A sort of Blair Witch Project crossed with Godzilla, Cloverfield is economically paced, stylistically clever, and filled with scares.

Tomato Meter 78%

Audience 68%

Cloverfield Script.pdfDownload PDF • 1.81MB

#7 Hellraiser

When a family moves into their ancestral home, they are haunted by their resurrected uncle and the interdimensional, sadomasochistic demons who pursue him

Critic Consensus: Elevated by writer-director Clive Barker’s fiendishly unique vision, Hellraiser offers a disquieting – and sadistically smart – alternative to mindless gore.

Tomato Meter 73%

Audience 72%

HELLRAISER SCRIPT.pdfDownload PDF • 337KB

Bonus – Event Horizon

When a family moves into their ancestral home, they are haunted by their resurrected uncle and the interdimensional, sadomasochistic demons who pursue him

Critic Consensus: A fantastic “horror in space” thriller led by an excellent assemble cast (Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neil, Kathy Quinlann). Do we really want to know what can be found at the edge (event horizon) of a black hole?

EVENT HORIZON SCRIPT.pdfDownload PDF • 306KB

Extra – At the Mountain of Madness

When a team of researchers travel to Antarctica to investigate a major discovery, ancient beings and secrets come to light that destroy their perception of reality.

Fun Fact: Full spec script of the unproduced passion project written by Guillermo Del Toro & Matthew Robbins.

AT THE MOUNTAIN OF MADNESS SPEC.pdfDownload PDF • 1.47MB

Post by Reece Taylor. He is an award-winning Comedy/Horror Writer based in metro Detroit. A lover of atmosphere, you’ll often find him in bookstores working on a new project or jogging in the forest.