TAPE 21
Dustin Wood (Story By Elijah Sullivan & Dustin Wood)

After finding a box of discarded VHS tapes, two friends are drawn into
a blood-soaked mystery that leads them to a terrifying reckoning.

When he discovers a box of VHS tapes at the side of the road, affable 30-something, Chris, brings them straight to Leon—his cinephile pal and the only guy in town with a working VCR.

As the duo settle in for what they assume will be a collection of well-worn porn classics, they discover instead a knock-off attempt at Jackass style stunts performed by the mysterious Hector and Charlie.  But their laughter is short-lived, as with every fresh tape they find themselves bearing witness to an increasingly darker series of events that blur the line between the watcher and the watched:

INT. LIVING ROOM. NIGHT

Leon and Chris are both laughing as the blue screen returns, signifying the end of the tape.

Chris presses the eject button and grabs another tape from the box and inserts it into the VCR.

TAPE #17 INT. SMALL ROOM. NIGHT

Both Hector and Charlie sit in a dark room, the only light from the flickering of a television playing the contents of Tape #16.

They both sit, almost mesmerized by the content on the television.

The video glitches for a second, showing both men covered in blood watching the television.

Video ends.

INT. LIVING ROOM. NIGHT

Both Leon and Chris stare at the screen, Leon is deep in thought as Chris looks unimpressed.

CHRIS
Well they clearly discovered iMovie,
that's adorable.

LEON
But why would they put the edited
footage back on a video tape?
Why not on a disc or upload it
somewhere? The odds of someone
finding this and actually playing it?
Slim. So why?

CHRIS
So they can laugh their asses off
when one of us that finds the tape,
thinks it's real and asks about it
on Reddit. Come on. This is clearly
a bad attempt at horror.

Leon, still with a perplexed look on his face, ejects the tape and grabs another one from the box and puts it in the VCR.

TAPE #18- INT. SMALL ROOM. NIGHT

The video starts in the middle of Hector speaking directly to the camera in the dark room.

HECTOR
... it wasn't me. It's the tapes.
The tapes made me do it. If you
find these you need to...

The image stops. The word PAUSE in the top right-hand corner.

Torn between skepticism and concern, the duo continue to trawl the tapes for clues as to the fate of Charlie and Hector. But the more they uncover, the more they find themselves a part of the mystery; trapped in a bloody spiral of horror until the truth of Tape 21 is finally revealed.

Dustin Wood & Elijah Sullivan’s TAPE 21 delivers a frenetic, mind-bending slice of nightmare fuel that builds its concept to a bloody conclusion.  Featuring a cast of four and a handful of locations, TAPE 21 would be perfect for the aspiring filmmaker looking to add a low budget horror short to their portfolio.