Plot IV: Character vs The Unknown

There is something out there, and it wants to kill us.  That is basically the gist of this one. everything is going along smoothly and suddenly your character realizes that there is something that is causing problems for them. they don't know what it is or why but it wants to at the very least make his or her life miserable.

I have two examples today. The first is Signs. What I originally loved about this movie is that M. Night Shyamalan did something that Hitchcock was known for which was don't show the monster. You knew there was something that no one could see and it was dangerous.  then the showed the monster and well he wasn't very scary looking. and i don't mean when the fingers come out from under the door, nope I mean the green thing walking across the open area. that movie would have been much scarier if we had never seen the alien.  But any way.

Second Example is Star trek. the basic plot of pretty much each episode is something out there and it wants to kill us and we are going to find it and kill it first. think about it the ship is cruising along, the captain is making thier record and then something strange happens. they don't know what or why but suddenly they know they are under attack by something. the rest of the episode is about finding out what it is and basically killing it.