You may not realize it, but one of the most important things about writing a screenplay is creating a perfect logline. It’s what sells your story and makes people want to dive in and read it. A logline is basically a summary of your story in just a few sentences, ideally 1 to 2. Great loglines should tell us a little about the main character, the conflict and/or the antagonist they’ll face, and the time and place of the script, if that’s important to the story. It should give us just enough information to spark an interest, while not giving too much away.
The following are 6 horror feature loglines and 6 horror short loglines that you can study, learn from, and use as a guide to help you create your own perfect logline. If you’re submitting to the Killer Shorts Contest, use these examples to help you workshop your own logline to make it the best it can be!
Feature Films
Feature film loglines often include everything that is important to the story. It includes the main character, one or two adjectives to describe that character so we can get an idea of who they are before jumping into their journey, the conflict they will ultimately face, the antagonist who will get in their way, and the time and place of the story, if necessary. For feature loglines, you want to summarize the overall story, give a hint to who the character is, while keeping it short and not revealing too much so that the reader feels like they already know your story. Below are 6 great examples that can help you in crafting your own.
The Babadook (2014)
Logline:
A single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children’s book titled “Mister Babadook” manifests in their home.
Who It’s About:
A single mother and her child.
The Conflict and/or Antagonist:
An eerie children’s book manifests in their home.
The Setting:
Their home.
This logline offers just enough information about the mother for us to understand her character. Of course, we don’t know what she’s fully like, but we know from this logline that she’s a single mother, which is no easy feat in and of itself. We also get the main conflict of the story – a weird children’s book starts to come to life in their home. From this alone, we can start to get a feel for how eerie and creepy it’ll turn out to be.
Funny Games (1997)
Logline:
Two violent young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic “games” with one another for their own amusement.
Who It’s About:
A mother, father, and son.
The Conflict and/or Antagonist:
Two violent men break into their vacation home and terrorize them.
The Setting:
Their vacation cabin.
This logline immediately sparks your interest and makes you wonder where this story will ultimately be heading. It gives us the right amount of information about the situation that this family finds themselves in without giving too much away. We know it’s going to be violent, we know it’s going to be sadistic and maybe even sickening. But we don’t know who will come out on top.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Logline:
A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.
Who It’s About:
A young F.B.I. Cadet.
The Conflict and/or Antagonist:
She must come face to face with a cannibal in order to solve the case of another serial killer.
The Setting:
Unknown.
Here, we know that the main character is a young F.B.I. Agent, so already we know she’s got a lot to learn. The most interesting part of this logline is the emphasis on the F.B.I. Agent getting help from an imprisoned cannibal. So much of this film is about Clarice’s relationship with Hannibal, and we can see that right from the logline.
It (2017)
Logline:
In the summer of 1989, a group of bullied kids band together to destroy a shape-shifting monster, which disguises itself as a clown and preys on the children of Derry, their small Maine town.
Who It’s About:
A group of bullied kids.
The Conflict and/or Antagonist:
The kids must work together to destroy a shape-shifting monster that preys on children and wrecks havoc on their small town.
The Setting:
The small town of Derry, Maine. The summer of 1989.
This logline has just about everything you need to know about the story. We know it takes place in the past, in 1989. We know it’s about a group of kids. An important but usually overlooked detail is the adjective of “bullied.” This tells us so much about the kids of the story. We immediately understand that these kids are going to be shy, dorky, alone, outsiders, etc. And we know why they band together. Because they have no one else. The logline also offers the chilling and disturbing conflict that the kids are going to face – a clown who eats children.
The Thing (1982)
Logline:
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Who It’s About:
A research team.
The Conflict and/or Antagonist:
They are being hunted by a shape-shifting alien.
The Setting:
Antarctica.
A good example of a short, one sentence logline that gives the perfect amount of information. We don’t know much about the characters in the story, other than being a team of researchers, but we do know that the antagonist won’t be easy to destroy. We also know that it takes place in Antarctica. Which can easily mean they don’t have an easy escape or easy communication due to the weather and location that we can expect. This alone causes suspension and certainly grabs your attention.
Green Room (2015)
Logline:
A punk rock band is forced to fight for survival after witnessing a murder at a neo-Nazi skinhead bar.
Who It’s About:
A punk rock band.
The Conflict and/or Antagonist:
They are forced to fight for their lives.
The Setting:
A new-Nazi skinhead bar.
Another great example of a super short logline with just enough information. From this, we know the story will follow a punk rock band. We can typically take a guess at what kind of characters these are going to be and what they’re going to be like. Sure, we don’t know everything about what makes them interesting, but we can get an idea. We can also get an idea of what the antagonists are going to be like, just based off the provided location. A fight for survival in a bar sounds like it can get brutal and messy, which is enough to pique anyone’s interest.
Short Films
Short film loglines can often be more vague, as there is a lot less story to summarize. But that only makes them much harder to write. Short film loglines should be ambiguous, but they should also hint at where the story will be headed or what the main conflict is. You should provide just enough information while keeping it compelling. There’s more room to play around with short film loglines and there are many different routes you can take in crafting one that best fits your screenplay. Below are 6 great examples to help guide you in writing your own.
Larry (2017)
Logline:
Larry lives behind a window. He can see you through the glass. Will you be Larry’s friend?
Who It’s About:
Unknown.
The Conflict and/or Antagonist:
Larry.
The Setting:
Unknown.
This is a perfect example of a more vague logline. If you go this route with your logline, make sure it’s still interesting and attention-grabbing while giving little to no information. Here we know there’s a least someone or something named “Larry.” We don’t know the main character or anything about him. We don’t know the setting. But just from these three, very short sentences, we get that it’ll be creepy, eerie, and haunting. This logline addresses you, as if you’re the main character, as if you are being watched by Larry. “Will you be Larry’s friend?” alone will make you watch/read this.
Salt (2017)
Logline:
A demonic presence closes in on a mother and her sick daughter. Their only protection – a ring of salt.
Who It’s About:
A mother and her sick daughter.
The Conflict and/or Antagonist:
A demonic presence. They must fight to survive as it closes in on them.
The Setting:
Unknown.
This logline tells us that the daughter in the story is sick. Which raises questions already. What kind of sickness? Can she move? Is she bedridden? A sickness is risky enough but on top of that, we know that a demonic presence is closing in on them, which seems to be afraid of salt. We don’t know why or how, but it’s too interesting to pass up.
Mama (2009)
Logline:
A young girl wakes up and tells her sister that their mother has returned home.
Who It’s About:
A young girl and her sister.
The Conflict and/or Antagonist:
Possibly the mother?
The Setting:
Their home.
Another great example of a short, vague, but interesting logline. This logline is SO mundane and normal that it’s creepy. What should be a normal thing will definitely turn out to be horrifying. From this one sentence, questions start to arise. Where’s the dad? Where was the mom? Is there a babysitter?Were the girls home alone? How old are the two girls and are they the same age? This should tell you that even a simple, mundane logline can be enough to spark interest if it’s crafted well.
Lights Out (2013)
Logline:
When you are all alone in a small dark room, what do you fear the most? Is it the temporary blindness or is it the uneasy deep feeling that someone, or rather something, is observing your every move?
Who It’s About:
Unknown.
The Conflict and/or Antagonist:
Someone or something.
The Setting:
Unknown.
Another direction you can take, similar to Larry, is just simply addressing the reader and asking questions to spark their interest. This logline does it so well and manages to creep you out and avoid turning the light off. Another vague logline, but it offers enough information that we can put together. We know it’ll probably be about someone who is alone in a dark room. We know they are being watched by someone or something. We know it involves the vulnerability of darkness.
The Captured Bird (2012)
Logline:
A girl follows a trail of dark liquid into a building and witnesses the birth of five creatures that threaten the world.
Who It’s About:
A girl.
The Conflict and/or Antagonist:
Creatures that threaten the world.
The Setting:
Unknown.
This logline is super interesting and offers a feature-length idea, while still being somewhat vague. We know it’s about a young girl and we know that there are some fantasy/sci-fi elements to the story. What are these creatures? How do they threaten the world? There’s a bigger picture being offered in the logline, which is reason enough to read/watch.
Blinky™ (2011)
Logline:
A young boy living in the near future looks for an escape from a home with arguing parents. As a way to cope with the recent arguments from his parents he receives a robot companion that he ends up abusing.
Who It’s About:
A young boy.
The Conflict and/or Antagonist:
He needs an escape from his arguing parents.
The Setting:
His home.
This logline gives us a lot of information, but doesn’t offer too much. We know the story will follow a troubled young boy. We already know what his home life is like, just based on the description of his parents. We also know that the boy’s actions will mirror those of his parents, as he abuses his companion. But we don’t know what it’ll lead to, although we can get an idea.
Loglines can be fun yet frustrating to craft, but they are also great to study and practice to help hone your writing skills. Writing loglines helps you condense an entire story or the idea of a story into one to two sentences. Practicing enough could help make your writing more effective, while using less words.
Try this for an exercise: the next time you watch a film or read a screenplay, try writing the logline afterwards without looking it up. Try to condense the story you just watched/read into one to two sentences, without giving too much away. Then look up the actual logline and see how well you did. You might surprise yourself!
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