Lan's Scripts

alphabetical | chronological by category
Features (50 pages or more)

VISITOR: This is my first screenplay.  It took ten years to write.  It started years ago with a few mental pictures.  I didn't really do anything about it until my girlfriend, Tracy, told me to try to be more creative.  (I'm an engineer.  Logic rules!)  I wrote down some scenes, but again failed to do much about it.  Years later, a friend of mine, Steve, said he wanted to make a movie.  I offered to work on my ideas to see if I could complete a script.  This is the result.  It tells the story of an outer space vampire, and the man who must defeat her.  WGAW #669699 (1997, ~121 pages)

BLOODY COVEN (VISITOR 2): Much of this one was developed during the writing of Visitor.  I had too many ideas for scenes to fit into one script and have it make any sense.  Rather than lose all of that creativity, I saved the ideas and used them here.  Dirk Stranger (from Visitor) takes on a coven of witches who have discovered a new way to celebrate the holidays.  WGAW #703846 (1998, ~117 pages)

UNPLEASANT DREAMS: A collection of three shorts combined with a wraparound about ghost stories around a campfire: The Drifting Snow, The Donor, and The Hound.  I wrote Unpleasant Dreams after reading an article by screenwriter Terry Rossio that stated too few people are willing to put sex scenes in their screenplays.  Maybe I got carried away.  WGAW #722806 (1998, ~123 pages)

TREPANATION THEATRE: A collection of eight shorts (some very short) combined with a simple yet strange wraparound: The Teacher, Heartbeat, Stranger, Sensation, Abduction, Nightlife, Communication, and Night of the Reptile.  WGAW #795003 (2000, ~102 pages)

SCARY MEDICINE (VISITOR 3): This is the final adventure of Dirk Stranger from Visitor.  It took a long time to write due to a bout with writer's semi-block.  I call it semi-block because I wrote most (if not all) of the shorts included in Trepanation Theatre while working on this one.  I took advantage of the long Labor Day weekend to finally finish the "Stranger Trilogy."  WGAW #800078 (2000, ~103 pages)

CHROME: This one is shorter than the other full-length scripts.  Once you add commercials, it will fit into a one-hour timeslot on TV.  It was written as a pilot episode for a series.  It's a minor departure from most of my writing in that it isn't a horror story, it's science fiction.  It contains an interesting sequence that takes place at the end of World War II.  The opening statement is true, and the name of the plane is true.  WGAW #803042 (2000, ~53 pages)

EVENING GALLERY: This is a collection of all of the shorts I've written since Trepanation Theatre.  I bundled them all together with a throwaway wraparound that was inspired by Night Gallery.  It contains Return of the Wizard, Alone, Salem, The Amulet, The House at the End of the Street, The Neighbor, The Secret of Antigravity, Vampire Hunter, Winter Wonderland, Life, Dead of the Night, and Bob Makes a Deal with the Devil.  WGAW #1195393 (2007, ~124 pages)
Shorts (less than 50 pages)

THE DRIFTING SNOW: An unauthorized adaptation, included in Unpleasant Dreams.  Steve (the same one from Visitor) wanted a short story by August Derleth called "The Drifting Snow" turned into a movie.  It shows how a man's temper can be a dangerous thing. (1998, ~43 pages)

THE DONOR: I had to come up with some more material to make Unpleasant Dreams full length.  This one shows a new method of justice that may be just around the corner. (1998, ~32 pages)

THE HOUND: Another unauthorized adaptation, included in Unpleasant Dreams.  I wanted a short story by H.P. Lovecraft called "The Hound" turned into a movie.  Even death cannot prevent vengeance. (1998, ~46 pages)

THE TEACHER: I had an idea one night that basically was, "what if vampires just aged slowly instead of being immortal?"  I scribbled the note down in my idea book and it just sat there for a month or two.  One day at work, I had some ideas for scenes for the story.  I scribbled them down as well.  That weekend, I had the urge to write.  I sat down and scripted the whole thing in one day.  It's about a vampire who's going to die soon, but he feels the need for his legacy to continue.  Dirk Stranger from Visitor makes a brief appearance.  This screenplay won 1st place in Blood Candy's 1st Short Screenplay Competition. (2000, ~19 pages)

HEARTBEAT: An unauthorized adaptation, included in Trepanation Theatre.  This one is "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe.  I had to modernize it a bit, and also come up with an explanation of why the two men were living together.  I also felt I had to explain why one man's eye was deformed.  An old, familiar tale, made into something that could be happening in the house across the street. (2000, ~24 pages)

STRANGER: This is a highly condensed version of Visitor.  It's main purpose was to see if Steve and I could successfully tackle a short project before trying a full-length one. (2000, ~17 pages)

NIGHTLIFE: Another one of those one-day wonders.  I came up with the idea while eating lunch at Taco Bell with my friend, James.  I explained the story concept to him on the way back to work, and I had the script finished that night.  Ever wonder what happens to those losers at the bar who never seem to impress the ladies? (2000, ~11 pages)

SALEM: Everyone has heard of the Salem witch trials.  Many innocent people were tortured or killed based on imaginary evidence.  But were they all innocent?  This screenplay won 3rd place in Blood Candy's 1st Short Screenplay Competition and was a finalist in the Shriekfest 2007 Film Festival and Screenplay Competition. (2001, ~16 pages)

THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET: This is adapted from the short story of the same name.  I started with the title.  I just like the way it sounds.  Next, I had to develop a story to support the title.  Some of the details are taken from my childhood (not the house).  One detail was taken from Mom's childhood (again, not the house). (2004, ~18 pages)

THE SECRET OF ANTIGRAVITY: This was derived from a joke.  It sat around unfinished for a long time.  I finally finished it for Blood Candy's 2nd Short Screenplay Competition.  It didn't win...oh well... (2005, ~19 pages)

WINTER WONDERLAND: This is a slightly modified version of my screenplay of The Drifting Snow.  I removed the parts adapted directly from the original story, then reformatted the part that's my expansion of about two paragraphs of the original story. (2005, ~20 pages)

DEAD OF THE NIGHT: This is a rewrite of my short short Communication.  It maintains the same concept in that much of the story is revealed in phone conversations.  It's more detailed, and it contains more characters.  (The original contains one live character and one ghost.)  Worthless factoid: one character is named Tara because shortly before I had to name the character, I heard the song "Oh Tara" by The Knack.  Produced in 2009 by The Adrenalin Group. (2007, ~20 pages)
Short Shorts (10 pages or less)

SENSATION: What if a painting could cause insanity?  I asked myself this question one weekend.  The following Monday, I answered the question with an outline.  A week later, I finished the first draft of the script.  It's a story about a painting into which the artist poured his all.  The dialogue is in French because when I wrote it, foreign films were all the rage, even when they're total crap. (2000, ~9 pages)

ABDUCTION: Conceived, outlined, and scripted in about three hours.  I don't know...maybe it's obvious that very little time was spent on this one, but I thought it came out pretty good.  It sheds a bit of light on alien abductions. (2000, ~8 pages)

COMMUNICATION: I imagined a scene one day.  A woman is relaxing in a bubble bath by candlelight; through the open door to the bedroom, a mist can be seen moving across the floor.  This is the script I wrote to support that scene.  Some people have different ways to communicate. (2000, ~6 pages)

NIGHT OF THE REPTILE: A story about the mad scientist who lives next door, and the outcome of his latest experiment.  The title is an homage to the titles from Wild Wild West episodes. (2000, ~5 pages)

ALONE: A message board I used to read was discussing two-page screenplays.  What the heck...I'll give it a try.  I've often wondered what it would be like to be absolutely alone.  Here's one way it could happen. (2002, ~2 pages)

THE AMULET: Another two-pager.  This was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's story The Hound.  Lovecraft is one of my favorite authors, and The Hound is one of my favorite stories. (2002, ~2 pages)

THE NEIGHBOR: Another two-pager.  Do you really know your neighbors?  Do you live next to someone like this?  Maybe it's you; maybe you are the neighbor. (2002, ~2 pages)

VAMPIRE HUNTER: Another two-pager.  I wanted to come up with something about vampires.  The main character's name is a combination of one of my childhood best friend's last name and my father's middle name. (2002, ~2 pages)

LIFE: Another two-pager.  This one is definitely strange.  It's completely visual.  There is no dialogue.  I grew a lot of varieties of corn this year, all different colors. (2002, ~2 pages)

RETURN OF THE WIZARD: I came up with this after visiting my local used book store.  Although the book in the story is fictional, the passages were taken from old real books. (2003, ~8 pages)

BOB MAKES A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL: Partially inspired by episodes in Mick Farren's Darklost and Terry Pratchett's Eric.  Bob's summoning speach was taken from The Geography of Witchcraft by Montague Summers.  The name Dagref comes from Beowulf. (2003, ~8 pages)