Lesson learned

That I'm often a blind fool and rank my scripts in my own mind in unacceptable ways. Lesson here?

"Return To Darian's Point" just hit the semi-finals at Writers on the Storm's Screenplay Competition. Those guys are TOUGH on scripts -- so tough, I even once wondered if the competition was just a method of pushing their script coverage service, because writing I thought was brilliant on my part (working on my writer's ego, here) got shrugged off by the quarterfinals. But here's my "compromise script" kicking ass. I've been knocked down a couple pegs in attitude, and rightly so.

Therefore allow me to present the main characters to my Gothic-Horror screenplay, "Return To Darian's Point."

Michael "Perri" O'Brien -- a young man who's come to believe his family's cursed
D'Arcy McNamara -- a mysterious, gifted Irish lass who knows about the curse
Dr. Kinsella -- a professor at the university who's been studying the curse
Matthew & Holland O'Brien -- Perri's parents, who are crushed by the curse
Neal Van Heuten -- Perri's uncle, who has plans for the curse
Tully -- who warns Perri of the curse
Hurley -- who tries to fight the curse
Moira & Brenna -- D'Arcy's sisters and Dr. Kinsella's assistants in her research into the curse
The Dagda -- king of the Tuatha Dé Danann and the cause of the curse
Morriggan -- who began the curse

All very oblique, eh? How about a synopsis?

Michael (PERRI) O’Brien was eight-years-old when his brother, KEVIN, disappeared in Ireland. The family was picnicking by their ancestral home at Darian’s Point as a fog rolled in -- and Perri saw the four year-old get snatched away by a dark, demonic figure. Sixteen years later, after the collapse of his video-game development company (the latest cruel setback in his life), Perri returns to Ireland to sign that property over to a university -- and kill himself.
But from the moment he is met at Shannon Airport by lovely D’ARCY McNAMARRA and driven to the coastal town of Doinenn, curious things happen. Tens of thousands of seagulls follow him, as if protecting him. People cast mournful, fearful glances in his direction and send blessings his way. At a pub, he’s told by a man named TULLY that if he returns to Darian’s Point, he will be murdered. But that’s exactly where D’Arcy insists he go to complete the property’s transfer. It’s not until Perri saves Tully from being killed by that same dark, demonic figure that he begins to see a lot more is at stake.
Since D’Arcy keeps dancing around his questions, Perri uses his computer skills to discover his bloodline is caught up in a pact made between two warring peoples in Ireland’s ancient times. Part of this pact requires the sacrifice (every hundred years) of a young man to “The Old Woman,” a vicious harpy that lives in the caves of The Cliffs of Moher -- the demonic figure Perri saw with both Kevin and Tully -- and Perri is fated to be that sacrifice.
The thing is, he’s the last surviving male of this bloodline so if he dies, the old woman will be free to roam and kill at will. Of course, now Perri wants to live, but first he must face not only the demons that have haunted him since his childhood -- but also what will probably be his doom should he return to Darian’s Point.

Now imagine someone like Chris Evans as Perri. I can.