Pitch your horror movie to win amazing prizes!

Time Out partners up with the Cine Excess festival to offer aspiring screenwriters the chance to have their horror movie pitch read by Kim Henkel, writer of ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre ’, and win a load of great prizes

Do you have a sick mind? A twisted temperament? A few skeletons in your closet? Could there be a great horror movie lurking in your brain somewhere, just screaming to get out?
 
Next month, to celebrate the release of Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s amazing new twist on the genre, ‘The Cabin in the Woods’, Time Out is planning a massive celebration of horror movies, featuring contributions from a dazzling array of directors, actors, writers and critics including Roger Corman, Simon Pegg, Guillermo del Toro, Clive Barker, Kim Newman, Alice Cooper and – we hope – you. 

In partnership with London’s annual Cine Excess festival, we at Time Out are asking aspiring screenwriters and horror fans to send us their ideas in the form of a 30-word pitch. The pitch can involve anything – monsters, mad scientists, ghosts, ghouls, vampires, killer household appliances – as long as it sticks roughly within the boundaries of the horror genre (so no intensely personal tales about your childhood, please – unless you were born a mutant serial killer, obviously). 

The winning entry will be selected by horror legend Kim Henkel, screenwriter of the original ‘Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ and director of the underrated ’90s follow-up, ‘Return of the Texas Chain Saw Massacre’, which launched the careers of Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger. 

The winner will get a one-day pass to this year’s Cine Excess festival, which begins on May 24 at the Odeon Covent Garden and Italian Cultural Institute and features exclusive screenings and talks with legendary action director Enzo Castellari (‘Inglorious Bastards’, ‘Keoma’) as well as Euro-cult horror maestro Sergio Martino (‘Torso, 'Mountain of the Cannibal God’), alongside a themed conference on the topic of cult adaptation.   

The winner will also get a package of horror DVDs from Lionsgate, plus the chance to have their ten favourite horror movies listed on Time Out’s website alongside an incredible line-up of horror legends. 

To enter, just type your 30-word horror film pitch into the box below.

IMPORTANT! When we say 30 words, we mean it. We know it’s not a lot to work with, but any entries over this limit will be excluded. The title isn’t counted as part of the 30 words. The deadline is April 4 (any entries received after that date will be ignored), and the winner will be announced on April 13. You will retain all the rights to your idea, though Time Out reserves the right to publish any or all of the pitches on our website, www.timeout.com/film.

Terms and conditions

Closing date: Wednesday April 04 2012