Interview with Dexter Williams, author of Enslavement
About Dexter Williams
An award-winning screenwriter who has been writing screenplays for two decades. He has a huge love for the horror genre and has written five feature film scripts and four short film scripts. One of his feature film scripts, “Demon Crystal”, was recently optioned by Pulse Pounding Productions. Virtually all of his scripts have been recognized by major film festivals.
About Enslavement
“Enslavement” is a cross between “The Craft” and “Red Dragon”, and it’s a horror-thriller about a shy high school student who gets hypnotized by a dangerous Goth girl into performing bloody ritual sacrifices for her sinister goddess-worshiping cult. Four performances provided the inspiration for “Enslavement”: Fairuza Balk in “The Craft”, Kim Director in “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2”, Sophia Bush in “Stay Alive”, and Dakota Fanning in “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”. It took me just two weeks to finish the script, and it recently was named an Official Selection in the Underground Indie Film Festival.
The Interview
A. The Goth girls are the antagonists in “Enslavement”, but it is in no way a put down of Goths in general. There are some Goths who do positive things in the community. I feel Goths have a unique fashion style that I find quite interesting and cool.
A. It is an interesting trope I wanted to explore in “Enslavement”. I think the trope in general is kind of cliché.
A. The Goth girl villain in “Enslavement” is different in that she is an expert in hypnosis and mind manipulation. I don’t think there has been a portrayal like that I’ve seen in any feature film. She does hypnosis in a way that is different from the typical swinging watch thing.
A. In no way were the villains in “Enslavement” inspired by any sort of fear of women. My treatment doesn’t touch on that at all.
Q. What other horror projects have you worked out?
A. In addition to “Enslavement”, I’ve also written the feature scripts “Mistresses of Sleep” and “Demon Crystal”. “Demon Crystal” was recently optioned by Pulse Pounding Productions, an up-and-coming production company specializing in genre fare (especially horror). I’ve also done the short film scripts “Curse of the Scorpion Ring”, “Fear the Clowns”, “The Hypnotic Trap”, and “Slave in the Spotlight”. I will soon be starting work on a short called “Zombie Killer”.
Q. Those sound exciting! Can you tell us more about your short film scripts, “Curse of the Scorpion Ring”, “Fear the Clowns”, “The Hypnotic Trap”, and “Slave in the Spotlight”?
A. “Curse of the Scorpion Ring” is about a young lady who “borrows” an ancient Egyptian ring from the local museum, and the horrible price she pays for it. This script was partly inspired by a scene from the film “Warlock” in which a character wore a Scorpio ring.
“Fear the Clowns” is about a lady who visits a hypnotherapist in an effort to discover the reason behind her recurring nightmares of being chased by sadistic clowns.
“The Hypnotic Trap” is about a teenage girl who gets hypnotized by a mysterious woman-in-black into staying at her house, and the terrible fate that awaits for the teen.
“Slave in the Spotlight” is about two best friends whose night-out-on-the-town takes a dark turn when they go to see an alluring hypnotist’s nightclub act.
“Fear the Clowns”, “The Hypnotic Trap”, and “Slave in the Spotlight” became Official Selections in the Sacramento International Film Festival. In addition, “Slave in the Spotlight” became a recent Official Selection in the Underground Indie Film Festival.
Another thing the three aforementioned scripts have in common is that hypnosis plays a pivotal role in the stories. I strongly feel that hypnosis is a fascinating subject that should be explored in more horror films (both features and shorts).
A. It was the hypnosis scenes in “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” that got me interested in taking it as a subject in my horror scripts. I thought the light pendulum used in that film was really cool, especially the scene in which Heather Langenkamp‘s character (Nancy) used it to hypnotize the other characters to rescue Patricia Arquette‘s character (Kristin). Coincidentally, Jennifer Rubin’s character in the film (Taryn) has a Mohawk in her “dream”. She was the major inspiration for the main protagonist in my horror feature script “Enslavement II”.
Q. What are some of your favorite horror movies?
A. Of course “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, the 1984 original that not only made me a horror fan for life but also inspired me to write my very first screenplay in the genre “Demon Crystal”, which was recently optioned by Pulse Pounding Productions. My other favorites are Rob Zombie‘s Halloween films, “The Collector”, “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2”, “Get Out”, and “Saw”. As far as film franchises go, “Saw” is my all-time favorite (horror or otherwise).
Q. Is there a website or anything where people can contact you about your work or see more about your projects in development?
A. If anyone is interested to know more about my work as a screenwriter, I can be contacted at Oyou78020@hotmail.com.
Sumiko Saulson 