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Since 1990 up to now, there have been at lest 88 horror screenplays sold on spec that became horror movies. This is a list of the known horror spec scripts that became movies: (↬ Scott Myers)
1990-2017 Horror Spec Script Sales
In the mid-nineties the spec script market started to boom. There was a high demand for original screenplays that sparked many bidding wars. The figure at the end of each item is the price each one sold by.
“Flatliners” (1990) $400000
“City of Darkness” (1990) $750000
“The Conjurer” (1993) John Lesher
“The Willies” (1995) John Jarrell
“Scary Movie” AKA “Scream” (1995) Kevin Williamson $400000
“Fallen” (1995) Nick Kazan $1000000
“Ravenous” (1996) Ted Griffin
“Idle Hands” (1997) David Lubliner
“The Astronaut’s Wife” (1997) Rand Ravich
“Faith” (1997) Brian Everingham
“The Sixth Sense” (1997) M Night Shyamalan $2250000
“Black Ice” (1997) David Colden
“Jenny Hanniver” (1997) Dennis Bartok
“Scream If You Know What I Did Last Halloween” (1998) Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer
“Gator” (1998) Mark Swift, Damian Shannon
“Munchies” (1998) David Kukoff , Matt Roshkow more than $450000
“Ashes to Ashes” (1998) Adam Kulakow
“The Judas Curse” (1999) Douglas Hensley
“Sherlock Holmes and The Vengeance of Dracula” (1999) Michael Valle $700000 against $1000000
2000
“Curse Of The Bog Women” Barry Hutchison
“The Immortals” Michael Jonascu, Justin Stanley
“Stray Dawgz” Darryl Quarles
“Nightcrawlers” Brian Lynch
“Godsend” Mark Bomback
“Shudder” Matthew Odgers, David Markus
2002
“Next Door” Jake Wade Wall
“In Vitro” Ben Ripley
“The Deciver” Keith Davidson
“Alone Kevin” Taft
“The Reaping” Brian Rousso
“Mile Zero” Holly Brix
“Skeleton Key” Ehren Kruger
“The Woods” David Ross
2003
“Hell Week” Michael Peterson, Ted Peterson
“Revolver” Adam Sussman
“Town Creek” Dave Kajganich
“Drawn” Rand Ravich
2004
“The Strangers” Bryan Bertino
“Bedbugs” AKA “Dead Asleep” Carter Blanchard
2005
“Forsaken” Ari Margolis, Jim Morley III
“Superstition” Neal Marshall Stevens
“The Dionaea” Eric Heisserer
“Amusement” Jake Wade Wall
“Absolute Angels” Genevieve Jolliffe, Andrew Zinnes
2006
“Damned” Jim Agnew, Sean Keller
“Shiver” Mikey Wigart
“They Came From Upstairs” Mark Burton
“Dead in the Water” Noah Hawley, Alexi Hawley
“Anvil” Adam Sussman
“Buried” Jeff Dixon
“Mercy” Carolyn Townsend, Eddie Hartman
2007
“The New Daughter” John Travis
“Ink” Harris Wilkinson
“Hurt” Anthony Grieco, Jeff Drongowski
2008
“The Knights Templar” Adam Torchia, Justin Stanley
“The Harvard Zombie Massacre” Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit
2009
“The Violent Kind” Mitchell Altieri, Phil Flores
“Supermax” Christopher Allen Nelson
2010
“Boy Scouts vs. Zombies” Carrie Evans, Emi Mochizuki
2011
“Harker” Lee Shipman
“Inherit the Earth” JT Petty
“Zombie Pet Shop” E.L. Katz
“The Watching Hour” Carey Van Dyke, Shane Van Dyke
“Haunted” Erick Kripke
“Hellfest” William Penick, Chris Sey
“The Mountain” Helen Childress
“Hidden” Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
2012
“Bermuda” Bobby Lee Darby, Nathan Brookes
“Tape 4” Jeremy Slater
“Lockdown At Franklin High” Greg Bishop, Joe Ballarini
“Garden District” Tony Jaswinski, Luke Goltz
“The Bloody Benders” Adam Robitel
“The Quiet Ones” Vic Weet
“The Last Breath” Paul J. Salamoff
“Haunt” Andrew Barrer
“Peste” Barbara Marshall
2013
“Ink and Bone” Zak Olcewicz
“Party Girl” Vikram Weet
“The Unseen” John Travis
2014
“Darkness” Francis Jay and C.B. Liffer
“Vice” Andre Fabrizio, Jeremy Passmore
“Red Ice” Keith Ray Putman
“The Bringing” Brandon Murphy, Philip Murhpy
“Scarecrow” Mike Scannell
“Midnight” Travis Baker, Richard Tanne
“The Babysitter” Brian Duffield
2015
“Realm” Rebecca Sonnenshein
“Temple” Michael Savelloni
2017
“Untitled Hill Project”
Did Scott Miss Any Horror Screenplays that Sold on Spec?
Photo Credits
Garry Knight
Wikimedia Commons 1,2,3
© Bholenath Valsan 2021 — Spec Horror Screenplays