An aspiring horror filmmaker stumbles upon and films a fairy-tale copy-cat murder, but when no charges are pressed, he must try to stop another murder.

For me, I get a little lost when you mention he films a murder, but yet there are no charges? Even with a very corrupt justice system, you'd at least expect a charge if they were caught on camera. Granted, they may still get off, but I am left wondering why being caught on camera you can escape a murder charge.

>>>a murderer who is recreating a fairy-tale

So there's the story hook: ?a serial killer who compulsively (ritualistically?) acts out the same scenario of a specific fairy tale.

Any particular reason you ?want to make the protagonist a filmmaker instead of, say, a detective?

Could the film maker get involved when he is consulted on the case because the serial murders replicate the scenario of his most successful -- and notorious -- horror film? ?Life imitating art -- that's the copy-cat aspect?

fwiw

Agreed with DPG, when I read fairy-tale murder it conjured up strange... very strange images... Cinderella holding a piano wire etc...

In addition to the above, why doesn't he tell the authorities what he witnessed? Or show them the footage he filmed? Surely that would get the police on the case, how could the killer not be persued?