Scott Beck, usually writing with Bryan Woods, has a gift for making simple rules frightening. His scripts are less convincing when they explain their characters’ grief or repeat a scare that worked once.
Fi1m perspective
In A Quiet Place (2018), making a noise puts a family in danger, so ordinary decisions become frightening. The breakthrough for Scott Beck and his writing partner Bryan Woods came from a rule that needed little explanation. John Krasinski, their fellow screenwriter and the film’s director, makes the danger matter through the performances. We recommend it, though some family decisions are arranged too visibly around the next scare. The actors find more in the family’s protectiveness and guilt than the script supplies.
65 (2023), which Beck and Woods wrote and directed, shows how quickly a simple setup can become repetitive. Adam Driver’s pilot and Ariana Greenblatt’s child survivor have no shared language, a useful restriction for a journey through a prehistoric forest. But the script keeps sending them through the same sequence of rustle, creature, rifle and escape, with pauses for the pilot’s grief. Editors Jane Tones and Josh Schaeffer give these encounters the same rhythm, while Chris Bacon’s score announces each switch from sadness to fear. The creatures are decent; the solemn interruptions have too little written behind them.
The Boogeyman (2023) has a related problem: Beck, Woods and fellow screenwriter Mark Heyman do not trust us to understand why the family is hurting. Making the monster a metaphor for grief might have been enough; having a therapist explain it to Sadie makes the point harder to endure. Rob Savage directs the dark-room scares well, and Sophie Thatcher holds the film together. But the school bullying feels imported from a duller drama. The script also keeps everyone without a torch for longer than we can reasonably accept.
Heretic (2024) is the more promising change: Beck and Woods put conversation at the centre of the threat. Hugh Grant’s Mr Reed welcomes two Mormon missionaries into his house and has questions about their beliefs. We were frightened by that first hour of talk, with Grant apparently pleased to see his visitors and the door staying shut behind them. The second half falls back on more ordinary horror, but the early scenes show how much Beck and Woods can do when they let a conversation run. Start with A Quiet Place; come to Heretic for the unnerving hospitality, allowing for the disappointment afterwards.
Biography
Scott Beck (born 22 October 1984) is an American filmmaker. He works as a writing, directing and producing duo with Bryan Woods. Beck was born in Denver, Colorado, and the pair met while studying at the University of Iowa, where they founded Bluebox Films.
Beck and Woods wrote and directed the horror film Nightlight (2015), their feature directorial debut, followed by Haunt (2019). They wrote the story for and co-wrote A Quiet Place (2018). They wrote, directed and produced 65 (2023) and Heretic (2024), and wrote the screenplay for The Boogeyman (2023).
