The Devils Hour and the 7th circle of hell

7 drafts. I am now starting over Devils Hour from a page 1 re-write for the 7th time.

This officially makes it the most re-starts on a script since Indom, which has 11 drafts........ till that puppy comes due to be feature'd and I'm sure I'll set an untouchable record for that one when the time comes.

Devils Hour:

Draft 1 - started off with "Randy", a writer trying to escape the daily distractions of life in a cabin in the woods only to have paranormal happenings occur to him.

Problem? I played ball with the "why wouldn't you just fucking leave!?" The escalation of the story was too quick and I had 0 reason to keep him there. Ugh.

Draft 2: Melanie takes her dog out for a walk late at night in a park. Dog gets loose and stumbles into the woods and sees a witch and runs away. Melanie attempts to follow and has a stand off with the witch blocking her path to follow her dog. She finally cuts around an alternate exit to the park and makes it home, only to have the witch follow her.

Took too long. Felt cliche. Ah fuck it, start over.

Draft 3: Randy again, only this time driving home from somewhere in the rain and falls asleep at the wheel. Once he wakes up with his car in a ditch he realizes he's surrounded by the thickest, creepiest fog he's ever seen. Shadows of witches surround him and move around the car and he's frightened to get out.
Had him get out and disappear into the fog only to hear his screams cut short far in the distance.

Too fucking cliche again and kind of boring.

Draft 4: A boy, Randy and Melanie (listen, names are good, you keep them.) walk along a dirt road late at night. They're discussing their cheating affair on Melanie's best friend and Randy's gf. A lone witch like figure stalks them from far behind and eventually catches up to them disrupting the conversation. They are all alone on an abandoned road late at night and try to avoid confrontation with the figure as it stalks alongside them silently.

Didn't know how to end it. Fuck. Start over.

Draft 5: A young guy drives home from the night shift and upon entering his drive way, sees a shadowy figure at his left and right neighbor's doors. He quickly makes his way into his house after they both start approaching him. He locks up the house quick and attempt to go to bed and ignore it. Winds, sounds and fear keep him awake and he decides to investigate. He takes a baseball bat and works his way around his house to find 3 witches waiting for him. He runs back to the house and finds his parents dead, and attempts to get his little sister from the house only to have her dragged away by the witches as another witch casts a spell on him, preventing him from moving, only to listen to his sisters screams and cries for help. An unknown monster pulls him into the basement and he screams - cut to black.

Again - felt too cliche and gave exposure to everything all too quick and the mystery factor seemed lame yet again. Damn it, start over.

Draft 6: Start right out the gate with the main story. A family arrives at a cabin house in the woods to start over after the death of their mother. While this remained the main story for the first 7 drafts - it recently came too close to the story of "The Conjuring" in both content, style and execution.

Ugh.

More to follow....