Plot Similarities...

All depends upon the execution.

If you can find a new twist for the 'all get bumped off and then there were none, but there was one who didn't really get bumped off...' then try it and see.

MrRuff said:

I was thinking recently about something that I'm now very curious about.

"A group of people are invited to a remote house, then killed one by one" seems like a really generic plot that's been overdone and become cliché. There are many parodies of it.

But when I actually think of it (and when I google it) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie seems to be the only book that actually does this... Correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't researched intensely.

Do you think someone would run into trouble trying to use such a story? It seems cliché and uncopyrightable, but it's a lot less overdone that it seems... If that makes any sense at all.

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I believe it's a very common plot in the movies rather than in books. And of course it's generic because it's missing the details. Who's invited, who invites them, why are they invited, why are they being killed off. You answer the questions in your story and it's not likely to be generic anymore. Problem solved.

I don't think you should go novel with this one. Go screenplay instead. Here's why:

virtue_summer said:

I believe it's a very common plot in the movies rather than in books. And of course it's generic because it's missing the details. Who's invited, who invites them, why are they invited, why are they being killed off. You answer the questions in your story and it's not likely to be generic anymore. Problem solved.

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It's a plot that I don't believe can be duplicated in book form because the book world knows Agathie Christie originated it, and that world of book consumers would be very unforgiving of any upstart wannabe novelist who tries to steal it.

As for films, its quite forgiveable for it to get transplanted a hundred different ways into multiple films. It's a very visually gripping story, takes place in a limited location, in a compressed period of time, has a limited number of characters, and has myriad and multi-layered conflicts. All these factors work well together and make for good cinema.

MrRuff said:

Do you think someone would run into trouble trying to use such a story? It seems cliché and uncopyrightable, but it's a lot less overdone that it seems... If that makes any sense at all.

Click to expand...

Try these movies. Study them. And via your study, glean the "formula" which makes them work.

Ten Little Indians - 1965

Identity - 2003

Devil - 2010

You might also want to peruse the books,

Plot & Structure
The Hero's Journey
20 Basic Plots

And maybe take a look at Alexandra Sokoloff's blog where she breaks plot structure down in detail and compares movie and story lines to show how their plots and structures break down along similar if not identical lines and still tell different stories or the same story different ways.

MrRuff said:

But when I actually think of it (and when I google it) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie seems to be the only book that actually does this... Correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't researched intensely.

Click to expand...

TV Tropes has a page about it, including book examples:

Ten Little Murder Victims

There isn't a problem in using the basic idea. Like any other trope, it's about how you handle it.