And the winner is...

Our three entries for the Splatter Cinema challenge took distinctly different approaches to the challenge. None of them really quite nailed the concept of a treatment, though that's not surprising. We lean heavily toward traditional prose fiction around here, so it's likely none of this week's Challengers has written a treatment. Translation: no points off for not hitting the format of a treatment exactly right.

Let's take a look at the entries:

Patrick Henry - This story is more Flash Roasted Cinema than Splatter Cinema. This is a variation on the dream-turns-out-to-be-real approach, which isn't a strike against it. The bigger strike is the sparseness of the treatment. It seems less like a treatment and more like the notes a writer would write to make sure he didn't forget his idea. There are a couple of things you'd need to explain in a full screenplay. First, you'll need to have some kind of physical evidence of the dream come over before the note; a spot of ketchup on the reporter's tie or something like that. Otherwise having the note cross over from dream to reality will just look like you're pulling a rabbit out of your hat. Second, you'll need to show the president writing things down every now and then rather than simply talking to the reporter in the dream; again so you don't have a sudden change in how things are working in the dream world. I think this could work pretty well as a full length thriller with supernatural overtones, with the reporter racing against time to expose the president and stop the war.

Miko - You got the "splatter" part right as we got plenty of blood right at the end, but you gave us an entire short story rather than a treatment. Here we give you the chance to write less and you turn around and write more! Writers... Mock disappointment aside, you've got a really creepy story that could, I believe, easily be made into a short film. High school students. Check. They enter a place they shouldn't. Check. Ancient curse. Check. I don't like horror yet I felt compelled to continue reading your story just to find out what was going to happen. You do have a change of POV after Nathan turns Jamie into a vegetable that could be a bit jarring. You could avoid that by maintaining focus on Jamie even after Nathan finished "operating" on her; staying with Jamie as Nathan leaves then returns with a knife. Otherwise, an excellent, creepy tale.

Ben-El - Well, you warned us you had written a treatment for a big budget, full length movie... Honestly, I can see something like this being touted as "high concept" and receiving a major promotional campaign for Mall Cop 2. Or, with a few minor changes, you could probably make this work as Get Smart 2. With all of the dialogue, this reads more like a short story with all of the action "summed up" between the dialogue, but the whole thing does work. Not only does it work, you should probably give serious thought to writing a proper treatment and screenplay. Lord knows your ideas are much better than the ones I usually see in "comedy" movies.

You all essentially hit the "sci-fi/horror story." Miko's entry could definitely be made into a 20 minute without any real trouble. Patrick's entry might be able to be squeezed into 20 minutes, but only if you go with the "nuclear war" ending and if you move really fast. Ben-El's entry would take at least 90 minutes to bring to life on film. Each of you have added elements of horror, science fiction or something paranormal (I'm not sure how else to describe the idea of physical items coming out of the dream world into the real world than "paranormal"). To sum up, we've got the following: Patrick Henry's treatment that's short on details, Miko's horror entry that's a short story rather than a treatment and Ben-El's entry that seems part short story, part treatment and much too long for a 20 minute film.

Bruce says: I don't have anything to add.

Henry returns: In the end, we select Ben-El as this week's winner! Send us your address so we can send your prize, J. Michael ("Babylon 5") Straczynski's utterly authoritative phonebook, The Complete Book of Scriptwriting, to you. Of course, if you'd prefer something from behind Door #3, include your selection in the email with your address.