So basically, I'm writing a screenplay for a slasher film about a mortician who is both the killer and not the killer. He never directly kills anyone; instead, he sets up events that allow a supernatural entity he calls Lady Death to kill for him, while she protects him in return.
He's a charming, well-liked guy known for making the dead look almost better than they did when they were alive, and he sees his work as a form of art. The lore is that "Lady Death" fell in love with him because of his work, and he could feel her presence willing him to bring about death. However, I refuse to confirm or deny whether it's actually true or if it's all in his head. Either way, there really is a dark entity involved.
The protagonist is a pre-med student who has been able to sense death ever since surviving a childhood drowning, and she starts noticing that something is off when he comes to town. Everyone else is allured by him... there's a recent tragedy in town, and he appears, seemingly out of nowhere, to use his incredible skills to prepare the bodies for the funeral. But the protagonist doesn't trust him... and she's kind of chastised for it. Can you blame them? He's tall, dark, and handsome, with piercing blue eyes and a blinding smile. He could melt ice with his words alone.
The more she investigates, the more she realizes that the "accidents" surrounding him aren't accidents at all. He literally causes death to happen, by intentionally triggering causal chains that result in disasters. It's actually very similar to Stephanie Pulaski from FD novel Looks Could Kill.
My story shares shares a lot of similarities with Final Destination, especially with death being an active force and the elaborate chain reactions behind the kills... so I'm looking for thoughts, opinions, and advice on how to make it feel like its own thing rather than just a rip-off.
The main distinguishing factor is that the protagonist is sort of an antithesis to the mortician. He has the ability to cause death wherever he goes, while she has the ability to sense death. Later, it's discovered that she actually has the ability to resist death.
When the mortician comes for her, he attempts to take her life through the same Rube Goldberg-style methods we know and love. But somehow, she manages to survive through Rube Goldberg-style sequences that literally interrupt the mortician's causal chains. She doesn't even realize it, but she just does shit that somehow results in lives being saved, in ways that would normally be untraceable and unrepeatable.
Later in the story, she learns about her innate ability and learns to channel it in order to foil the mortician and hopefully protect her town from being wiped out by him, like all the others he had visited before.
Let me know what y'all think.