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plot Script Idea: Black and white, universal monster movie interpretation of The Danse Macabre

I've been kicking around this idea for a few months now and have even tried to start writing a rough draft for it. However I'm not necessarily an amazing writer and have a hard time conveying my thoughts. However, I can give a simple overview of the plot. Any critiques, questions, or other comments are all welcome. I'm still pretty new to this.

The Film, with a working title of The Dirt, is set in an unspecified year but roughly in the late 1800's. It follows Ezekiel a cemetery inspector for the state of Massachusetts, who has attempted suicide three times. Each time has failed and after the third time, he thinks he's getting better. However after being sent on a job in the town of Innocence Massachusetts he comes face to face with a force of nature that compels people to return, and force others, to The Dirt.

I have a lot more of the story fleshed out but I'm also new to forum posting and I'm not too sure what counts as too long of a post and a multitude of other uncertainties. If anyone would like to hear more, like I said feel free to sound off.
 
:shocked: Given how hard it was just to stay alive in 1800s - average life expectancy less than 40 years - I'd be looking for a really good explanation of how/why Ezekiel failed in his three attempts!
If anyone would like to hear more, like I said feel free to sound off

You asked for it!

I agree with CelticRambler; I'm sure that you could find another way to make your character despondent.

If your character is "familiar with death," perhaps you could make your protagonist a Civil War veteran with PTSD (although the didn't have diagnoses like that back in the 1800s), or having suffered some other psychological trauma. Death was always around you before the mid-20th century.

A simple cut could become infected and kill you.

Families had large numbers of children in the hope that a few of them would survive.

Nature was nowhere as nearly controlled as it is now; a storm could wipe out entire communities; a bad season would cause starvation.

RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH! There's gold in all them thar words! Start panning/digging. I know that delving into unfamiliar territories inspires me.

Remember, you asked for it!

I'm not necessarily an amazing writer and have a hard time conveying my thoughts.

My craft is sound editing/design, but I'm on my own new journey; I'm writing a novel. (It started as a screenplay, and may even end up a screenplay again at some point.) So I understand where you are coming from. I'm sort of blogging my way through it, organizing my thoughts and journaling my trials, tribulations and discoveries as I write, sharing an artists journey into something new with other artists. You can follow my adventures here:

 
I agree with Celtic.... Or maybe that's why you chose that time period, because suicide was extremely looked down on and taboo.

Although, I did some quick research, looks like the mindset behind suicide changed from "demon possession" to a mental disorder between the 1700s and 1800s... Got this from: https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/sickness-our-time-how-suicide-first-became-research-question

Clinical observers and researchers began taking up the subject in the early 19th century. In 1807, Danish physician Heinrich Callisen (1740–1824) dubbed it a form of illness and others soon followed suit.4 This was not due to the emergence of any new clinical evidence, however. Rather, legal and judicial changes in defining criminal responsibility inspired debate within psychiatry over a range of issues: the possibility of “partial” insanities, the existence of emotional and volitional forms of madness, as well as whether suicide should be treated simply as a symptom of an altered state of mind. On the latter question, some-like the famed French psychiatrist Jean-Ãtienne Esquirol (1772–1840)-generally believed it to be “a disorder of the emotions,” a view a later writer in 1857 would criticize as “. . . a dangerous and serious mistake which can give rise to undesirable moral consequences.”

Why in particular did you choose that time period? Is that why??? Or because you like the aesthetic?
 
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