Brief

After taking part in a mean prank, a 12-year old boy is cursed by his classmate's great grandmother. For one week, the boy is transformed into a different monster each day. And if he doesn't learn his lesson by the time the curse runs out, he'll be forced to stay a monster forever.

What We Liked

MONSTER BOY is a Children's/YA Halloween project with a solid core message. It explores the consequences of bad decisions by transforming a young boy into various monsters as he attempts to learn who he is, and who he wants to be. Along the way, our hero faces his parent's divorce, his first crush and learns the meaning of true friendship while the clock ticks away and he waits to see if his life will ever be the same.

Film: MONSTER BOY could be well-suited for film. It has relatively firm start and end points, both of which encompass the story's core message. The protagonist hits several different highs and lows, which help elevate the tension and could keep audiences engaged. Additionally, the characters all have the potential to be engaging with proper development. Across the board, they're likable and easy to root for.

TV: Because this is a Halloween project, it feels much better suited to a miniseries in lieu of a typical series format. That said, each phase of the protagonist's journey could be its own episode. At different points, the lead character transforms into Frankenstein, a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost. There is enough source material to expand each section into its own Hero's Journey, and the story has enough of a through line to sustain multiple episodes.

Key points:
Theme.
Potential crossover appeal.
Fun concept.
Relatively low budget.
Great core message.

Synopsis

TUCK (12) dares JOEY (12) to knock on COOPER aka POOPER’S (12) front door and spit in his face. Joey complies, hoping that it will win him some popularity points with Tuck. Tuck leaves Joey to face Pooper’s great grandmother, GG, who calls him Monster Boy over and over. That night, Joey dreams of the old woman and Pooper, and that he scrapes his knee. Joey wakes up to realize that he has scraped his knee. His brain is foggy, but he makes it to school. His nerdy best friend, MARK CHANEY (12), approaches but so does Tuck and Joey is rude to Mark.

Joey is taking a vocabulary test when one of his eyeballs pops out of his head. He hurries to the bathroom and pops it back in. But soon, both eyeballs fall out. The school bully, BRICK, arrives and tries to fight Joey. But Joey’s eye sockets scare Brick, and he runs off. Joey waits inside a stall until Mark shows up and discovers that Joey has transformed into a zombie. He walks Joey to the nurse’s office and Joey begins trying to eat people's’ brains. The NURSE gives Joey cough medicine and knocks him out. When he awakens again, he is normal.

Pooper tells Mark that GG is a European witch, who cursed Joey to become a different monster every day for five days. If he doesn’t learn his lesson by the last day, he will remain a monster forever. Mark helps Joey write an apology letter to GG.

The next morning, Joey wakes up and everything appears normal. On the way to school, lightning seems to be going right for Joey. He wakes up in the science lab and discovers that the lightning separated all his limbs. Mark tells Joey that GG knows that he didn’t write the apology letter and brings Joey a costume from the theatre department to disguise himself throughout the day. Joey approaches Pooper at the bus stop. Pooper tells Joey that he accepts his apology and feels sorry for him. Pooper tells him that he could try his luck at apologizing to GG in person.

Joey finds himself outside of his dad’s new house. A MAN approaches and gets aggressive. He tries to hit Joey with a bat, but Joey’s monster strength breaks the bat. When the man gets a good look at Joey’s face, he runs. Joey runs all the way home, locks himself in his room and falls asleep.

The next morning, Joey wakes up with a chip on his shoulder. He’s angry, and he sprints off to school. He interrupts his teacher’s lecture and gets sent to the principal’s office. He doesn’t go and instead helps his crush, AMANDA, with posters for the school dance. He spots the football team practicing and finds a practice jersey. He joins them and pummels one of the players.

At home, Joey finds his mother and her co-worker, LEE, eating chicken. He convinces himself that Lee is trying to replace his father. Upstairs, Joey transforms into a werewolf. He wants to eat Lee, and his mother. He jumps out of his window and finds Mark waiting for him. Joey can’t help but want to eat Mark and throws himself into a moving car to protect Mark. He runs through the woods, and ends up back at his father’s house. Through the window, he sees his father with his new wife and her daughter, reading together. He uses his snout to shatter the window and scare them all. At the last moment, he runs off and back through the woods.

Joey wakes up to discover that his mother has made him fresh eggs and orange juice. He’s thrilled, until she cuts her finger, and he realizes that he has a craving for blood. Now a vampire, Joey decides to go apologize to GG. She forgives him but tells him that she cannot remove the curse. It will only wear off if Joey has truly learned his lesson.

Joey gets to school and realizes that he has control over everybody. He decides to have some fun, and punches Brick in the gut. He asks the principal to mark him present in all his classes and do his homework for the week. He sees Amanda and struggles with both wanting to kiss her and wanting to bite her neck. He realizes that he can levitate. He calls Mark out of class and realizes that he wants to bite him, too. He tells Mark to run and goes home. He meditates on the roof, and when his mom gets home, demands that she go to the movies with Lee, so he doesn’t bite her. He flies around town and ends up at Amanda’s house. He enters through her window, and she reveals her neck, asking him to bite her. At the last moment, Joey decides to fly home.

The day of Scary Fest is normal, and Joey waits to see which monster he’ll transform into next. Tuck tries to convince him to prank Mark at the dance, but Joey refuses. On the way to the dance, Tuck knocks him unconscious. Joey wakes up a ghost and stashes his body in a doghouse. He realizes that Tuck fixed a dance contest so the nerds would have to dance in front of everybody. Joey steps into Mark’s body and helps him succeed on the dance floor. He does the same for another contestant but is surprised when the third can dance all by herself. He finds Tuck and throws him into Brick, starting a fight between the two bullies. Then, he’s drawn back into his body and wakes up in the doghouse. He returns home to find his mother and Lee asleep on the couch. Upstairs, he falls asleep instantly. The next morning, Joey and Mark ride over to Cooper’s. They watch scary movies together and Joey discovers the change in himself. He makes amends with his mother and his father and becomes a kinder person to all around him.

About The Author

J.D. Harelik is a private tutor and test prep instructor. He holds a BA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing.