Raleigh Hightower
Lifestyle Editor
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Murray State alumnus Phillip Dishon has embarked on an award-winning entertainment career, drafting several critically acclaimed horror scripts.
Dishon graduated from the Murray State Honors College with a major in journalism and electronic media and a minor in creative writing in 2007.
Though Dishon later studied film production in Miami, he claims his love for horror actually found its roots during his time at Murray State.
“I haven’t always been drawn to horror films,” Dishon said. “In fact, I was quite the coward when I was younger. I only started to appreciate horror in my teens and during my time at Murray State.”
Dishon graduated with a master’s in film production from the University of Miami in 2009. He said during his time in Miami he focused on the horrors of suburbia.
“Miami was a massive city that ranged from poverty to super wealth, and I wanted to tell grounded stories of the horrors that went on behind closed doors,” Dishon said.
The first award-winning script Dishon authored was titled “Everyone.” Dishon said he was inspired to write “Everyone” after waking up from a very vivid nightmare.
“‘Everyone’ developed from an extremely vivid nightmare I had where a ghost child whispered, ‘If you see her, you can’t run, because she eats everyone’ into my ear,” Dishon said. “After I woke up screaming, I immediately jotted down the poem into my phone notes.”
“Everyone” eventually evolved into an 11-page horror short set in the 1990s. The script is centered around a young boy who messes up an initiation ritual at his new school and angers a vengeful spirit.
“At the time, I just felt like I needed to get it out of my head,” Dishon said. “The dream scared the hell out of me, and I figured if it could unsettle my desensitized mind then it could probably work as a horror short.”
Dishon submitted “Everyone” to a film script competition at Hollywood Horrorfest in the summer of 2021. “Everyone” won the festival, receiving the “Best of the Fest” award.
“Everyone” has since been selected by 17 festivals, and it was also selected as a quarterfinalist and semifinalist at several of them. “Everyone” brought home awards from five of the 17.
“Winning a festival is a great feeling,” Dishon said. “Even making the finals is a tremendous feat. But like all artistic endeavors, judgment is very subjective. I decided early on to focus on submitting to horror genre festivals. Horror is a popular genre, but it is hard to stack it against well-written dramas or comedies.”
Contrary to his inspiration for “Everyone,” Dishon wrote his script titled “Staring Contest” in an attempt to challenge himself. “Staring Contest” is about a girl who faces off with an unseen entity in a high-stakes staring contest.
“The entry fee was $5 and I wanted to challenge myself,” Dishon said. “One page might sound easy, but finding a story that can be shocking and frightening within that limited space sounded like a good exercise.”
Dishon wrote “Staring Contest” with the intent to submit it into the one-page category of the Killer Shorts Horror Short Screenplay competition.
The Killer Shorts competition is designed for emerging screenwriters. The competition only accepts submissions within the horror genre and subgenres. The main contest category requires that scripts be 25 pages and under, but there is a separate category for scripts that are one page or less.
The Killer Shorts contest received over 1500 entries, and Dishon’s script made it into the Top 10 entries.
Dishon said a key element of participating in film festivals is the networking and connections made by attending.
“Even though I’ve only been able to attend them virtually this past year, I’ve made all sorts of contacts by participating in film festivals,” Dishon said. “Nothing is set in stone yet, but there is some promise that ‘Staring Contest’ might very well get made soon because of a chance meeting at an online film festival.”
Dishon said students interested in making careers out of entertainment must be willing to put themselves and their work out there by submitting to film festivals.
“Films and scripts don’t do you any good if they are on a hard drive,’’ Dishon said. “I speak from experience. It’s never too late to try. The worst thing that can happen is someone telling you no.”
The winner of the Killer Shorts competition will be named on April 25. Anyone interested in reading Dishon’s scripts can download them at filmfreeway.com/PhillipDishon.