Hello again, my friends! It's time for another installment of horror that has to happen! Really appreciated hearing people's thought on our last Haunted House Necessary Evil. This Friday marks the end of the 20 year gap between 1996's Independence Day and it's long-awaited sequel, Independence Day: Resurgence. Hence with aliens invading Earth on our minds, we decided to come up with our own horrific version that touches on the current state our society is in. I truly hope our world can survive.
IDEA: A new and timely alien invasion horror film. Let's call it Humanity.
OUTLINE: The world is in chaos. Horrific tragedies are occurring at an unfortunately faster rate. Terrorism is still rampant. Poorly chosen political figures are heatedly facing off for supremacy. People are choosing sides. Society seems to be building toward a fever pitch of negativity. Small wars are starting to develop across the world over these hate-causing issues.
The film opens showing news footage relating to all the aforementioned events. The last piece of footage shown reports of a mass shooting at a theme park. The gunman has just been killed and police are beginning to move through the area. The gunman's body is taken away in a coroner van to an undisclosed headquarters in order to shake all forms of media and give authorities a chance to identify who he is. The body is taken to the basement level of the headquarters through a maze of corridors to a large medical room. Once the doors are locked, two doctors, three officers, and a SWAT member attempt to examine the body… and then it wakes up!
The gunman hops off the examining table to the complete shock of everyone in the room. The officers draw their guns and order him to lie on the floor. He simply tells them there is nothing they can do and steps forward. The officers open fire, however the bullets do nothing. They attempt to physically restrain him, but he easily manhandles each of them, knocking them unconscious. The gunman tells them that their world is no more and attempts to exit the room. Suddenly, one of the doctors swings a power saw at him and chops off his leg at the knee. A strange ooze spurts from the wound giving the impression that the gunman is not human. He limps awkwardly out of the room, leaving a trail of ooze.
The doctors and SWAT member wake up the officers, informing them that the gunman escaped, but is wounded. Feeling that they are most likely dealing with a being not of this Earth, they vow to try and take it down before it can ascend from the basement level and back into the world. What follows is a suspenseful game of cat and mouse with the humans hunting the alien gunman and the alien gunman taking out the humans one by one.
Eventually, the doctor who used the power saw becomes the sole remaining human. He ends up trapping the alien in some sort of X-ray room and turns on the X-ray machine at full power. The doctor watches through a glass window as the radiation begins to deteriorate the alien. Realizing that he's about to die, the alien lurches up to the glass and tells the doctor that nothing has been stopped. The world is still no more. The aliens have been setting it up for a very long time, sending scouts (like him) as well as hate-mongering waves down to the people of Earth, causing unrest, stirring up fear and anger, orchestrating national tragedies, and more. While human fights human on issues such as gun control, immigration, foreign policies, etc, the aliens are now primed to take over amidst the mass terror and confusion. "You made it easy for us," are the last words the alien speaks before dropping dead.
With this newfound knowledge, the doctor rushes up from the depths of the basement. He exits the building to complete anarchy on the streets. Colossal riots have broken out due to the latest mass shooting and not just in the current city, but across the globe! The bough has broken. Reports are coming in of large-scale wars erupting in other countries. Mankind has become split down the center. The doctor is horrified and randomly pleads for the people fighting around him to cease. "We need to work together!" he shouts. "They're coming for us! It's our planet and they're coming for us! If we can't work together, we're dead! WE'RE ALL DEAD!"
WHY IT COULD WORK: Well, I'm not sure how well the Independence Day sequel is going to do yet, but I have a feeling that audiences are still down with alien invasion movies, especially if they have some sort of new, creative angle. Humanity certainly has its own way of telling the typical invasion story and perhaps its message will have some weight with audiences as well. Think a modern day Twilight Zone, with its blend of sci-fi, horror and thought-provoking subtext.
CHARACTERS: Obviously the doctor is the main star here. I'd want an actor possibly nearing middle age for the part with an innocent yet serious look. I'm a huge Michael Shannon fan, so let's say him. The other doctor, police officers, and SWAT member should be pretty easy to fill in. As for the alien gunman, I think we need an unknown because the role is so mysterious to begin with.
CONCLUSION: Yes, this film has an important message, but it also is centered around an alien invasion. Hence, we have to give the audience some great alien action in the confines of the basement of the headquarters. If that can be done and the gravity of the message is handled carefully, this film could be quite jolting in more than one sense of the word.
I hope this Necessary Evil didn’t come off as overly preachy. It’s just that the recent tragic events happening here in the US truly affected me and I needed some type of outlet. Despite all the horror we see in the world (not the movie genre kind), I still feel that the good will always overcome the evil. If you need to get something off your chest and/or have an opinion about our alien invasion idea, kindly spit your metaphorical bullets below! And if you have any ideas that you think should be made into horror reality, let me know at mikecatalano@joblo.com.