A Night of Horror and Fantastic Planet are pleased to announce the finalists and winners of both festivals' short and feature length 2016 screenplay competitions.

A Night of Horror Feature Screenplay Competition

Finalists (alphabetical order):

APOLLO THORNE by Chuck Griffith: Apollo Thorne, a supernatural vampire slayer, ends retirement to save his sixteen year old daughter and an Iowan town from an army of ravenous vampires bent on world destruction.

CALIPHATE by Grant Bayliss: A special forces solider endures a grim and brutal journey of survival through the winter deserts of western Iraq. Pursued by Islamic state through the rain, crippled, fevered and on foot, he discovers a mass exodus of civilians fleeing west, running from the Caliphate. After months in isolation, he is the last to learn that Earth has made contact with another planet and organised religion has spiralled into global pandemonium.

COVETOUS by Jared Bentley, Eric C. Storley and Darrin Scane: A new girl with a dark past arrives at a prestigious performing arts high school. After witnessing numerous abuses afflicted by the 'haves' on the 'have-nots', she orchestrates a series of accidents that not only cripple the privileged students, but rob them of their most prized attributes.

DEVILTRY AFOOT by Carol Pritt: A woman seeks answers to her daughters murder finding a man who is both body and spirit spreading a reign of terror.

DUAL OF THE IMMORTALS by Michael Gibrall: Two immortal men quest for the Spear of Destiny, while an organized group wants the secrets of their immortality.

THE FARM by Anika Contos: When a young couple relocate to the family farm, they disturb a maniacal killer who knows them better than they think.

HUNT OF THE JANIC WITCH by Mitchel Hall: In the 19th century, A British detective travels to colonial Australia to investigate a string of diabolical murders.

IMP by Taylor Sardoni: A lonely security guard vomits up a tiny creature and decides to raise it as his own.

LEFT OF THE DEVIL by Stephen Anderson: Two boys are abducted by a psychopath and raised as brothers, until the eldest escapes. Years later he’s married with a young daughter, living a normal life, until the emergence of a child-killer drags him back to his brother and their buried past.

STONERS VS VAMPIRES by Stuart Creque: When two stoners discover that a nest of vampires has taken over the local marijuana trade, they realize it's up to them to save the weed - and the world.

TOWN OF SAMHAIN by Mike Kelleher: Ashley, a young woman will travel to another place filled with the weird, the spooky, and the terrifying. The past will haunt her, the accused will be Judged, and inner fears manifest in the Town of Samhain.

VENOR by Matt Nye: After venturing down a secluded back road, a young couple finds themselves on the run from a family of country killers who, for their own protection, mean to sacrifice them to an even more sinister woodland evil.

Winners:

Winner: LEFT OF THE DEVIL by Stephen Anderson

1st Runner Up: DEVILTRY AFOOT by Carol Pritt

2nd Runner Up: COVETOUS by Jared Bentley, Eric C. Storley and Darrin Scane

Fantastic Planet Feature Screenplay Competition

Finalists (alphabetical order):

7TH SLAYER by Jesse Griffith: A legendary warrior arises from hiding to reunite his fellow disgruntled dragon slayers to defend the land from a new demonic threat.

ABOVE THE GRAVE by Mitchell Hall: Covers the first day of a prison officer in charge of a super villain prison in the deserts of South West Africa.

COLD IMAGE by Ian Keiser and Shaun Lapacek: Aided by a technology that imprints other people's memories into the users head, a bereaved father sets out on a path of revenge but risks losing his remaining humanity.

THE CRICKETEER by Ian Feldman: In a dramatic fantasy, from a land where futures and dreams never bloom, a poor Hindu kid discovers powers he never had and devotes himself to becoming the world's best Cricket player. But fate and a personal transformation launches him toward stardom in another world, that of American Baseball, as he painfully learns what justice in life is all about.

DUMBEST GENERATION by Leslie Lyshkov: A twenty-something slacker, with no knowledge of history, is mistakenly sucked back to May 1942 by a Navy WAVES (Women Auxiliary Volunteer Emergency Service) physicist who seeks the knowledge of a history major from the future to help the USA defeat the seemingly invincible Japanese Imperial Navy. The young man from the future comes to recognize the importance of his role and to earn the WAVE physicist's respect races to uncover information which may rescue the US Navy from seeming defeat at the Battle of Midway.

KNUCKLEBALL by Kevin Cockle and Michael Paterson: Alone - and targeted – on an isolated farm, 12 year old Henry finds himself at the center of a maelstrom of terror, and a dark family legacy, when his secretive grandfather dies suddenly in the night.

NIGHTBREAK by Mark Gunnion: After Earth stops turning, the President's daughter fights to get her geophysicist husband across Nightside’s empty Pacific ocean bed and the chaotic, sun-burned Dayside America - and get to Washington with a plan to save the planet.

RESURRECTION TIME CONSPIRACY by Jim Carroll: Teenagers must travel back in time to prevent time-travelling Islamic extremists from murdering Jesus before he was crucified.

STARLIGHT JANE by Nikhail Asnani: A not so usual cadet and her classmates jet off to the international space station to stop a bomb countdown that would cause world devastation.

STORMCROWS by Alex Acks: In Stormcrows a Challenger II tank crew and a young female electrical engineer must find a way to kill enormous, invisible monsters hidden in a storm that consumes everything in its path before Scotland—and the world—is turned into a wasteland.

Winners:

Winner: COLD IMAGE by Ian Keiser and Shaun Lapacek

1st Runner Up: NIGHTBREAK by Mark Gunnion

2nd Runner Up: RESSURECTION TIME CONSPIRACY by Jim Carroll

A Night of Horror Short Screenplay Competition

Finalists (alphabetical order):

ASWANG (GHOUL) by John Bartolome: While trawling the streets of Manila for a victim, a vampire accidentally hitches a ride in a taxi driven by a predatory organ harvester. In a battle of wills between two monsters, who wins?

THE BALANCE Blair Downey: A young man races to Dunwich to stop an unspeakable evil before it's too late!

CHARON Franck Zuanic: Autumn, the year of Our Lord, 1014 AD. A time of unimaginable woe. The forces of His Majesty, the Emperor Basileus the Second destroy an army of murderous Bulgars at Kleidon. The fifteen thousand that he captures he sets free to return to the lands from which they came. Lands they will never see, for the emperor’s gift of life and freedom comes at a price for the Bulgars, the price of their eyes. Boris and Samuil, two Bulgar, two sightless survivors stumble through the lands that they laid waste, a land that will take their miserable lives……. and souls.

DAKOTA CAVES – 2 MILES by Robert J. Rogers: Elmwood, a sleepy town in rural Nebraska, is the epicenter of an alien invasion. A space ship drops millions of six foot, egg-shaped objects into the atmosphere that float down and hover on the ground. And while the planet attempts to understand what the object is, inside is a growing, vicious, creature that eventually matures, cuts it's way out of the thick, epidermal layer, and attacks humanity with blood-thirsty intentions.

THE EYES Roy Obal: Two desperate con artists running a lucrative property scam discover a derelict estate inhabited by an other-worldly religious order that threatens to destroy them both.

THE FINICKY CAT by Garin Pirnia: John and Mary adopt a cute cat named Mittens, but they later find out it has a hankering for human brains. The couple must succumb to the cat's insatiable hunger--or else. It's loosely based on a true story.

HIDE AND SEEK by H. M. Mirza: An aging father discovers that his now adult son was haunted by an “imaginary friend” that also haunted the old man's brother.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF TEDDY WHALLEY by Mike Wedderburn: An old mans life flashes before his eyes as he goes through his last minutes. We see the steady progression of terrible events that have lead him to make this most final of decisions.

THE NEW NEIGHBOURS by Filipoo Santaniello: Three friends are screening and selecting short films for a low budget horror film festival when the babysitter from the floor below rings the bell. Something bad has happened and she needs help.

RAY'S APOCALYPSE by Gareth James: The story of Ray, an office worker leading a mundane existence whose life takes an unexpected turn following repeated altercations with one of his co-workers.

RED COATS by Lachlan Marks: An unfortunate accident sees a pioneering scientist and his squabbling interns trapped in a secret laboratory on the day of a make or break presentation with a new investor. Can he commit to an unthinkable act in order to preserve “the cure” and get out in time?

WALTER'S DAYS by Nathan Ludwig and Charles Devin Hill: A young man wakes in a field every morning only to repeat the same day over and over again as he's brutally murdered in increasingly elaborate and ridiculous ways.

Winners:

WALTER'S DAYS by Nathan Ludwig and Charles Devin Hill

1st Runner Up: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF TEDDY WHALLEY by Mike Wedderburn

2nd Runner Up: DAKOTA CAVES - 2 MILES by Robert J. Rogers

Fantastic Planet Short Screenplay Competition

Finalists (alphabetical order):

THE ART OF DNA by Mary Anzalone: The DNA of an artist might just save a civilization.

BAIT by R. Wayne Gray: When bodies start floating down the river, a fisherman catches more than he bargained for.

DESTROYER OF WORLDS by Humayun Mirza: An alienated couple raise a demon to make the world a better place but fail in a way even their twisted minds can't fathom.

THE GRAVEYARD OF MYSTERIES by Augusto MaK: A gothic girl discusses death with her demons.

GENERATION KILLER by John Bias: An assassin is sent back in time in search of an object and at the same time kill off an entire bloodline. Can someone within the generations put a stop to the chronological murder spree, or will this family be wiped from existence?

LAST FLIGHT OF THE CONDOR by Troy Harvey Graham: An elderly man watches as the residents of a retirement hospital die one by one and senses that his day of reckoning may be near... but by whom?

LOVEIN' IT by Stuart Creque: A member of a Narcotics Anonymous support group rudely brings the thing another member craves most to a meeting.

MESSAGE THROUGH THE STARS by Vijay Varman: While traveling at the speed of light to a distant planet, a young mother must deal with the fallout this journey has on her only child.

NOTE TO SELF by Humayun Mirza: A scientist invents a radical new form of brain therapy but must subject herself to the first human trial.

POPULACE by Dan Horrigan: Populace follows a day in the life of John, a clone, who works for the tyrannical Orweillian Populace corporation. His world is turned upside down when he is forced to choose between the reason he was created and the woman he loves.

WALTER'S DAYS by by Nathan Ludwig and Charles Devin Hill: A young man wakes in a field every morning only to repeat the same day over and over again as he's brutally murdered in increasingly elaborate and ridiculous ways.

Winners:

Winner: MESSAGE THROUGH THE STARS by Vijay Varman

1st Runner Up: POPULACE by Dan Horrigan

2nd Runner Up: LOVEIN' IT by Stuart Creque