Screamplay is a 1985 American

Cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

 horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 directed by Rufus Butler Seder.

Plot

Aspiring screenwriter Edgar Allen (Rufus B. Seder) arrives in Hollywood carrying his most valuable possessions: a battered suitcase and a typewriter. Edgar Allen's best attribute is his wild imagination. He imagines scenes so vividly for the murder mystery he is writing that they seem to come to life...and they do! As mysterious gruesome murders pile up, Edgar Allen must confront aging actresses, rock stars and the police in a bleak setting of broken dreams and hideously broken bodies in Hollywood. As the line between reality and imagination becomes more blurred, Edgar Allen, convinced the only way to be a real writer is to suffer, is driven slowly mad.

Release

The film was released on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 by Troma in 2005. This release is currently out of print

Out of print

Out of print refers to an item, typically a book , but can include any print or visual media or sound recording, that is in the state of no longer being published....

.

Reception

The film is currently distributed by Troma Entertainment

Troma Entertainment

Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974.The company produces low-budget independent movies that play on 1950s horror with elements of farce...

. Many Troma fans cite Screamplay as one of the company's better films in terms of quality: the film is very well received by film fans for its writing and heavy German Expressionism

German Expressionism

German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s...

influence, lacking the gratuitous gore, nudity, and/or cheap gags present in most Troma films.