This year's Screenplay competition has been narrowed down to four finalists by our illustrious jury (Ross E. Lockhart, Dominique Lamssies, Susan O'Neill, Gwen Callahan). The winner will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on Sunday night at 7 pm! We can not post screenplays, but here are the synopses of the four contenders:

Feature screenplay - "Lovecraft: Into the Abyss" by Mark Sudano

When one of his stories is found at a gruesome crime scene, a young HP Lovecraft must team up with Harry Houdini to clear his name, but as they investigate, it becomes clear that Lovecraft's inter-dimensional horrors exist in real life - and the reanimated corpse of Edgar Allan Poe is using them to find the Necronomicon to end life as we know it.

Feature screenplay -"Three Men Dwell" by Bill Bradshaw

It is the year of our Lord 1900. In the storm of the century, a team of Lighthouse keepers are stranded on a barren island off the North West coast of Scotland. The storm brings carnage and destruction but it also harbors something far more sinister. As the days edge by, the team becomes aware of a centuries old evil that threatens, not just the island, but their very existence. "Three Men Dwell" is 'A Perfect Storm' meets 'The Wicker Man' to the bleak backdrop of the North Atlantic. 

Short screenplay - "You and Me and Dagon Makes Three" by Mack Mani

Sometimes meeting the parents is about more than making a good impression, for Joe it means traveling to an isolated island and opening himself up to a whole lot of cosmic baggage. It turns out that finding the man of your dreams is the easy part, meeting his parents and their ancient god...that's another issue entirely. Pass the ritual. Survive the night. Plan the wedding. "You and Me and Dagon Makes Three" is a gay horror/rom-com about what it takes to love someone despite their cosmic flaws and the sometimes horrifying lengths we go to to prove that love.

Short screenplay - "Wet Rot" by Stuart Creque

Kit wonders why Dad is spending so much time in the basement, cleaning up the mildew growing there. "Wet Rot" is a short, but effective creep out, and has a nice take on Lovecraftian themes without ever referencing the mythos.

Congratulations to the finalists, and good luck!