Screenwriters who want to distinguish their work as riveting
in terms of meaning and being thought-provoking can look to myths (living or
dead), literature, and even dreams to gain depth and uniqueness. The lesson here
may be that drawing on even well-known fables or myths need not deprive us of
crafting unique stories that audiences will not view as formulaic. Put another
way, a screenwriter is perhaps most fecund when he or she draws both deep
within and on stories that have stood through oceans of time and thus are
etched into our collective unconscious.
The full essay is at “Writing to Bring Horror Films Back from the Abyss”
