The opening of the film will show a woman preparing to host a dinner date at her home. Our intention is to make the first portion of this opening seem as normal and romantic as possible for people to even think that it could be a romance movie. We will attempt to create this opinion by first, starting the opening off with hands from a woman off-screen placing a vinyl into a record player and moving the tonearm to start playing a soft and instrumental song. I actually spent a few minutes trying to find out the name of the part of a record player that touches the vinyl and actually plays it. After searching through the Google results of "vinyl record player," I decided to search up "parts of a record player" to find the following picture that contains the name of the part I was looking for.
Anyway, right after this small opening of the opening, the song will go over a montage of a woman setting up the dinner table and cooking food, switching back and forth between the two aspects of a home dinner date. Again, this sequence will appear like an extremely regular set of actions to occur UNTIL the ease of the opening is interrupted by a brief flashback sequence. The woman will be slicing a fruit or vegetable (we're still unsure which type) and a piece will fall to the floor. When she reaches down and picks it up, the knife still in her hand, everything about the environment will shift. The knife and woman's hand/arm will be covered in blood as will the floor, the source of it being shown as a man's dead body on the floor in front of her as the same music playing being now distorted will add to the flashback's tension. The scene will transition back to the normal setting it was in before and the woman will throw away the piece of fruit and inside the trashcan, the audience will be able to see bloody cleaning gloves and even more bloody towels laying inside. She will drop the chopped pieces of fruit into a bowl and place it on the table when her phone suddenly buzzes. She will then pull out her phone to see she received a text from someone named Jackson, reading, "Hey Elena, I'm outside." Below the most recent text, which is Jackson, will be several other men whose last texts are stating their arrival at Elena's home. For example, "i'm here," "just got here," "walking up to your door," etc. After seeing that Elena has met with several men before and all of their last texts have been from before entering her home, the audience will be able to tell that Elena is a serial killer.
Speaking about the texts, Vicky and Bella were thinking of showing it through the normal messages of a phone but I was thinking that since they're young and since we should probably explain how Elena is finding and meeting these men, we can have the texts be shown through a dating app. Whether it's Tinder or... well, that's the only dating app I know since I'm only 15, it might be troubling to actually show it since we're minors and we can't sign up for it. If anything, we can use one of our parents' or adult family members' phones and then make several Tinder accounts (Elena's account and then all of the guys that she's texted) which hopefully doesn't cause many complications.
Elena will be seen smiling at the text and the title card will be shown.
Regarding the title card, we came up with the title "Manslaughter" and Vicky had the amazing suggestion of distorting the word "man" in "manslaughter" to emphasize that Elena is a serial killer and targets men specifically. We could either have the word "man" melting or dripping to resemble blood, have a more sinister font for it, or maybe something else entirely different. We haven't aired out all the details for that part but we have come up with the concept of it.
During the title card, the doorbell will ring and either the two minutes ends right there or if we have some extra seconds, we can show the front door from either the inside or outside and have Elena open the door, either Elena or her date being shown on the other side which depends on the camera's placement.
When it comes to the description of the film, it's pretty much just going to be a cat-and-mouse type of thriller where the entire movie is Elena versus her date, Jackson. Since Elena has had several victims and the movie is about Jackson, we were thinking of having something different about this guy. Either he can win and kill Elena at the end, get away from her and potentially lead to a cliffhanger where she chases him down, or ends up revealing himself as a serial killer as well. We're leaning more towards the serial killer ending as it can explain Elena's motives for killing all these men: she's searching for the perfect boyfriend. By meeting a charming man who also is as inhumane and violent as her, the two of them can become the perfect ones for each other and while this ending is concluding, it also has room for a cliffhanger as a sequel could be about their relationship being a murderous couple.
When I think of a cat-and-mouse thriller revolving around a man and woman who are revolved romantically, I instantly think of Ready Or Not (2019) but instead of the man (and his family) hunting the woman, the woman hunts the man. We wanted the woman to be the killer as for one, seeing the woman preparing for a dinner date adds to the assumption that she and the film in general will be innocent. The second reason is that it's 2025 and it is time roles are reversed and in this case, the man shouldn't always be the one who is criminal and preying on victims as in real life, it isn't always like that either.
Ready Or Not (2019)
Circling back to when I mentioned on how Elena and Jackson could be in a murderous relationship together in a potential sequel, I envision them as Joe and Love from You (2018) but in a different font. Joe and Love (spoilers) are both murderers and they go through their relationship killing together but also killing separately and having to help each other clean their murders up. The season from You (2018) where Joe and Love are a couple can be a great inspiration for a sequel on Manslaughter/Elena and Jackson's relationship. If we did make a sequel and continue with this "killer" element, we'd obviously have to change the title and instead of something as basic as "Manslaughter 2," we always have the chance to title it a different type of murder such as "Homicide" or straight up "Murder."
You (2018)
