NEW SCRIPT: "The Funeral Director's Assistant" (Short, Horror)

A funeral director's assistant is forced to reveal a dark secret while watching over a dead body in the viewing room of a funeral home.

If you've visited the FEATURES page on my site, you'll notice that there is a screenplay titled The Dead Body on there.

The Funeral Director's Assistant is a short script based on/pulled from that feature script. I had combined some elements from each story of the feature into one short.

My goal was not only to experiment with my writing yet again, but to also create a short script worth filming, something that is low-budget (enough) with as few characters, locations, and special effects as possible while still providing a gripping story that starts and finishes, without leaving too much for the reader to figure out on their own.

So, for anyone who is curious about picking this project up (you never know), just FYI these are the script specs:

• 4 characters total (all male; 1 main, 1 side, 1 minor, 1 voice over)

• 1 location (funeral home viewing room, can easily be any bland, window-less room)

• No special effects/makeup effects

• Minimal lighting effects

• Big expense: a casket

I wrote the feature script back in 2021, and the short story pulls from the first story in the feature (The Driver). I wanted to make it different enough, and easy to film. So I decided one location could be a viewing room in a funeral home, easy to film (with any bland, window-less room), and thus created The Funeral Director's Assistant.

I've always loved the idea of a cursed object/hand-me-down type of story, and eventually wrote The Dead Body. If it's any further consolation for a filmmaker to pick this story up, it would be a great short/prologue for the feature script to get funded. The feature itself still needs work, but it is complete. Maybe soon I will return to it. By next Halloween, let's say that.

Otherwise, read the first five pages of The Funeral Director's Assistant by clicking the button below. If you're curious about how it ends, I can send a copy of the script.

Read "THE FUNERAL DIRECTOR'S ASSISTANT"

Stay spooked!