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Day 1 Assignments
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32 Replies
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(THE SWARM) Horror Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment is to analyze a horror movie while I’m watching it, rather than just getting primal feared.
This movie doesn’t quite match the model, but it’s kind of close. Listed as Horror on Netflix.
Title is pretty darn scary. It lured me to look at the concept.
Concept A single mother breeds locusts as high-protein food, but has trouble getting them to reproduce until she finds they have a taste for blood.
Terrorize the characters Locusts eventually attack the mom, her two kids, the family pet goat, the neighbor and his dog, and in the end, the swarm escapes to get everyone else in the universe they will come in contact with.
Isolation The farm is set off from the nearest neighbor by a good distance.
Death: Dog, family goat, neighbor, and other locusts.
Monster/Villain: These things swarm like a single predatory beast.
High Tension From the outset we expect these beasties to attack, as they don’t reproduce and are rather fidgety, dying when the woman needs them to reproduce for her business to survive. Then she gets hurt and wakes to find the swarm crawling all over her, and picks several of their legs from her wound. So we expect them to get worse and crave more blood. and they do.
Departure from reality
I mean, like, who raises locusts for food (in France, where, you have to admit, they do eat some strange things)? Locusts that eat blood is rather removed from reality, as far as I know.
Moral statement: Careful what you wish for. Virginie wanted her locust crop to grow so she could sell more and make more money.
What made The Swarm a great horror movie is the subplots where other people depended on Virginie’s growing enough locusts to help their businesses and vineyards survive as well. Sympathy for her two young teen kids, especially the daughter brought you into their world. The daughter (Laura) did not like the locusts and wanted to get rid of them, but ironically, by destroying their sacks in which the mother kept them, Laura released the swarm.
MY CONCEPT (most of this is off the top of my head)
TITLE: VEGGIE BITES
CONCEPT: When a vegetarian acquires a taste for meat, parasites and predatory animals acquire a taste for her husband.
Terrorize the Characters: Well really, there’s only and he gets put through some rather harrowing experiences. Then, in the end, the little monsters get her too.
Isolation: They somehow are staying in a remote out building of a castle some place in Gothic Europe, or at the edge of the Amazon in some country bordering on that River.
Death: Not to give it away, but it’s the wife who dies…and then he has to do this horrendous thing to her in order to save his own life.
Monster/Villain: These plagues are the work of the Eumenides who act as judge jury and executioners of those who transgress their own values or that of the community.
High Tension: These plagues appear out of nowhere with no explanation and grow increasingly more horrendous with each attack.
Departure from reality: The sequencing of attacks which grow from harmless gnats to ravenous piranha is hopefully as far from reality as you can get.
Moral Statement: Your decisions affect more than yourself.
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Dave Bender
What I learned doing this assignment is to dissect movies to see what makes them tick.
Title / Concept: Blackstock Boneyard/Brothers who were prominent black farmers, forced to sell their land and wrongly executed. 100 years later, they come back to avenge their deaths.
Terrorize The Characters: A descendant of the family that killed the farmers is stalked, along with the other people that are trying to profit off of selling their land.
Isolation: It takes place in a small town in Louisiana.
Death: The farmers are electrocuted and they stalk and kill the descendants with electrocution and various farming tools.
Monster/Villain: The spirits of the two farmers that were wrongfully killed 100 years ago.
High Tension: The characters become trapped in the plantation house as the spirits of the farmers hunt down and kill them.
Departure from Reality: The ghosts of the farmers are unstoppable invincible killing machines.
Moral Statement: The sins of the father shall be visited upon the children.
Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film? I wouldn’t say it was a great horror film. It had certain moments that were good and scary. It can be watched for its moments and not as a whole film.
My Concept:
Concept: A paranormal “fixer” is able to absorb and eliminate negative entities and spirits from those inflicted.
Terrorize The Characters: A paranormal team is called to a location to assist a family whose child is inflicted with an entity.
Isolation: The situation occurs at a residence. The characters can’t get away from the entity that has latched onto them.
Death: Several people die as this entity absorbs their life force, causing them to kill themselves or others.
Monster/Villain: A demonic entity that has the ability to absorb and attach itself to others.
High Tension: The family is afraid for their child’s life and is seeking help when the entity attaches to the child.
Departure from Reality: The fixer has the ability to absorb and eliminate negative entities that he encounters in the people he meets. He temporarily houses these entities until he is able to shed them from his body.
Moral Statement: People’s faith is tested and those that don’t believe are likely to suffer the consequences of their disbelief.
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BEFORE I WAKE – Horror Conventions
What I learned: Horror does not have to be grisly – as long as it honors the conventions well.
· Title / Concept: BEFORE I WAKE – A couple adopt an orphaned child whose dreams – and nightmares – manifest physically as he sleeps.
· Terrorize The Characters: Monsters and ghouls come alive when Cody sleeps. The “Canker Man,” who is always with Cody, absorbs people until they disappear forever.
· Isolation: The horror occurs in his foster parents’ own homes – or wherever Cody sleeps.
· Death: Cody’s mother dies when he is very young, and several foster parents and a bully at school cease to exist.
· Monster/Villain: The “Canker Man” and other frightening ghoulish characters come alive during Cody’s nightmares.
· High Tension: Whenever Cody sleeps those around him may be delighted by his dreams – or terrorized and killed by his nightmares.
· Departure from Reality: Cody has the “power” to manifest things from his imagination – triggered by sleeping.
· Moral Statement: Adults have a responsibility to care for children, with sensitivity.
· Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film?
The use of an adorable child who “channels” the destructive monsters is conflicting for the audience. The pain of the parents who lost a child is relatable and a horror in itself. (I chose this film mostly because of the child as a vessel for the monsters, which is similar to my concept.)
My Concept: NURSERY CRIMES
· Concept: A precocious young child unleashes heinous creatures and lethal forces on their family.
· Terrorize The Characters: Tarantulas, rattlesnakes, scorpions, and coyotes are among the deadly forces that the child can conjure up and control.
· Isolation: The family is stranded while camping in a desert area in their RV.
· Death: Vicious and venomous critters, and other desert menaces threaten the lives of the family.
· Monster/Villain: Their own precious child unleashes deadly forces.
· High Tension: Natural dangers and disasters. Survival in a harsh environment. Impending doom.
· Departure from Reality: Child acquires supernatural abilities and superhuman strength for the purpose of punishing the parents.
· Moral Statement: Parents pay the price for their offenses – enriching themselves by exploiting and swindling innocent people.
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Subject “The Ritual”
Horror Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment is watching the range of emotion being dialed up and down, scene by scene. Seeing the tension being setup between the characters, this furthers the experience of isolation. Observing the theme being restated of “Gutless” or coward. In the opening scene the lead character fails to act when his friend is attacked, he hides instead. This theme carries forward as one by one his other friends are killed by the monster and displayed “gutless”. As the story progresses the lead character is always the first to see each warning sign, ignoring the warning they move forward to another loss. Runes are used to insert symbology into the story. When down to the final and lead character left alive, one of the villagers delivers exposition on the monster. The lead character escapes and set’s fire to the trophy room, this hails the return of the monster and pits the character between the “burning house” and the “monster” furthering the theme of the fire you have created and facing your demons head on. Only after running out the door of the burning cabin past the monster, has he earned the right to the full visual reveal of the monster.
· Terrorize The Characters:
o Opening scene involves the brutal murder of 1 of 5 friends, with one witnessing the killing while remaining frozen in his own fear.
o None one wanted to hike remote Sweden, only the friend who was killed in a robbery wanted to go. (Begins with low level common dread, in memorial of a tragedy, before turning up the heat)
o They discover the first sign, an eviscerated animal carcass displayed in the trees after entering the wilderness
o They take shelter in a cabin during a rainstorm, with hanging rune symbols (matching forest tree carvings) and a ritualistic effigy in the attic
o They are terrorized by dreams/visons while sleeping at the cabin. One by his visions of their common friend whom he was too cowardly to save, he is marked on his chest during the vision.
o After leaving the cabin, due to weather and injury they camp. The character who lead them into the forest is snatched from his tent, while they are each isolated in their own tents.
o Leaving their equipment behind they search in the night for the missing leader, who is found displayed and eviscerated in the trees (gutless is a repeated theme, synonym for the cowardliness in the opening liquor store death scene).
o The lead character runs ahead separating and finding what looks to be their destination from a ridge top, turns to see a second friend is snatched by the monster.
o The remaining two race off in the dark after discovering the second friend eviscerated and displayed in the trees. Following a path of small tree stump torches to a village.
o They are captured and bound in a cabin, for no known reason.
o The lead character who is marked is given water by an old woman possessing the same marks.
o Lead character escapes his ropes to find a “ritual trophy” room
o Lead character sets the “ritual trophy” room in the attic on fire, trapping himself between the burning building and the returning monster.
· Isolation:
o Hike in remote Sweden
o They take a “shortcut” through wilderness due to a one friend twisting an ankle
o When camping they are isolated in individual tents
o They are isolated by their strained relationship and questions over the death of a friend.
o They are literally and figuratively “off the beaten path”
o The lead character is “marked” during a vision, singling him out.
· Death:
o Opening scene, a friend dies in a robbery.
o An animal carcass is found after entering the woods.
o The character who leads them into the woods is killed.
o A tent, a shoe, id and credit card of a missing family is found by the group.
o A second member of the group is taken by the monster before their eyes and killed.
o A third member of the group is given up as a sacrifice to the monster and killed by it.
o The final member and lead character is told “your ritual begins tomorrow” threat of death
o Lead character shoots a member of the village point blank, assumed dead
o The monster kills the older woman for the burning of the “trophies”
· Monster/Villain:
o Ancient Nordic God
o Bastard child of Loki
o Demands sacrifice of a life in exchange for long life
o Remains confined to the secluded forest
· High Tension:
o The story begins with “normal” tension, setting up an emotional comparison for what is to come.
o No one agrees on the location of the trip (everyday tension)
o A friend dies with only one witness, his story does not make sense (strained friendships)
o Early on one member is injured on the hike, no one else believes his injury to be bad enough to delay them though he insists the pain is too great. (Disagreement about his level of injury causing prolonged journey)
o They leave the hiking trail and enter the forest (uncharted territory)
o They encounter gruesome displays
o They encounter signs of carved runes
o Prolonged cold along with thunderstorms
o Seek shelter in a creepy cabin, disagreeing on the decision
o Encounter ritual effigy
o Death of friends, loss of map
o Question main character’s role in friends’ murder
o Captured and bound
o Listening to a friend’s death while being bound and afraid to act
· Departure from Reality:
o Remote location in Sweden
o A living descendent God/Beast of Loki
o A village that remains unknown to society
o Ancient religion kept alive and secret
· Moral Statement:
o Face your fears head on, or they and the price you pay will only grow larger
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What I learned doing this assignment is how important these horror conventions are in successful horror movies that really deliver what the audience is looking for. It also helped me see the difference between truly scary horror movies and movies that play out more like dramas with some horror elements.
CANDYMAN (1988) Horror Conventions
TITLE/CONCEPT
Already this is a terrifying concept — a brutally murderous villain with a supernatural power to appear and disappear when you say his name in the mirror. It’s almost like a game for the audience to be invited in on. Surely everyone went home after seeing it and said his name five times in a mirror — or not? There’s intrigue and the reward of violent, horrifying deaths for naive and weak people thinking they’re strong and brave enough to play the game. We love watching stupid people getting what they deserve! The poster/villain image is a tall and imposing figure of a man with a bloody hook for a hand. This is gruesome and suggests gore and pain, and that there is some form of sadistic pleasure in his killings.
TERRORISE THE CHARACTERS
Helen says Candyman in the mirror five times then immediately a jump scare is setup with her husband crashing onto her bed in the middle of the night. Sets up that she will need to be on edge, on the lookout for trouble now. Helen gets put in real jeopardy when she goes to the toilet in Cabrini Green then gets attacked by a man with a hook. The first really terrifying scene is right after when Candyman first appears to her 43minutes into the film. He tells her to come with him and be his victim, then Helen goes into a trance and wakes up covered in blood in Anne Marie’s bathroom in Cabrini Green. A heartbeat pounds on the sound track as Helen walks through and discovers a dog’s head and a hysterical Anne Marie screaming out for her baby. She gets attacked and Helen’s head is bashed against the floor, forcing her to lash out with the butcher’s knife and cut Anne Marie, spurting blood out. Anne Marie goes wild as the police come in and thrashes around. The whole traumatising scene is underscored with the wild screaming of Anne Marie, making us afraid, terrified.
Helen is forced to undress at the police station, covered in dried blood. It’s humiliating and gruesome. At 55 minutes, Helen is on her own in her apartment and then Candyman’s hook bursts through her mirror and appears in the corridor. He entrances her, cuts her neck and abducts her from her apartment. Whilst Helen is helpless on the floor, Candyman appears to Helen’s friend who arrives and gruesomely attacks her with his hook. We don’t see what he does but we hear the cutting and then see the gory aftermath in the next scene. The doctor tries to convince her she’s insane. He shows her footage of her claiming Candyman is under her bed. She trembles when she sees no one is there. She wonders, did she do it after all?
Candyman kills the doctor in a frighteningly gory way, cutting him in two from behind. Blood splatters everywhere. When Helen realises her husband has moved on with someone else, Helen is at her lowest ebb. Candyman kisses bees into Helen on the altar in his lair, and he reveals his exposed and decaying ribcage to her. It’s like some strange sexual ritual she can’t escape, like a marriage from hell. Helen finally sets on fire and crawls away burning, carrying the baby. Even when her husband Trevor regrets abandoning Helen, he calls out to her but she appears and brutally slashes him up, leaving him to decay in the bathtub and Trevor’s new girlfriend to presumably be framed for it. Candyman is unstoppable!
ISOLATION
Before the terror begins for Helen, she does a few things ‘alone’: she’s the only one who says Candyman’s name in the mirror five times; she’s the only one who goes into Candyman’s apartment alone. It’s like she’s gradually inviting the trouble upon herself. It’s a slow burn into real isolation. Helen goes to the toilet on her own and gets attacked. At the first encounter of Candyman in the car park building, Helen is left alone by her friend who drives off. She beeps and Helen waves to her as she drives away. Helen wakes up and then gets framed for Anne Marie’s baby’s kidnapping — she’s alone at the police station, undressing, traumatised, crying, covered in blood. She gets yelled at and intimidated at the police station. Her husband doesn’t pick up the phone, we suspect he’s up to no good. Why isn’t he at home? Helen is totally on her own in the jail cell. Candyman appears to Helen when she’s on her own in the apartment and kills her friend. All her allies are pushed away and she really looks like a criminally insane person now. Helen is totally on her own when she discovers her husband has given up on her. She has no home.
DEATH
In the opening short prologue we see a young babysitter getting savagely attacked by Candyman for saying his name in the mirror. Blood pours through the ceiling, promising more grizzly deaths later in the film. We understand how the legend works almost straight away, and we understand the kind of people who get attacked. The naive, the young (and sexually active), adventurous, those who like taking risks and who enjoy the rush — i.e. all horror fans! Anne Marie’s dog’s head is cut off, covering the apartment in blood, and baby Anthony is nowhere to be seen. Is he dead? What’s happened? Is any of the blood his? Helen’s friend is killed in a gory and horrifying way by Candyman. The doctor is slaughtered from behind with Candyman’s hook right in front of Helen, and blood goes everywhere. Helen crawls right into a trap with Candyman, a burning pyre surrounded by angry residents. She faces a terrible, painful death. Helen burns in the pyre as she tries to escape.
MONSTER
The film opens with a voiceover setting up his intentions — to split people from groin to gullet. Swarms of bees over the city skyline suggest his power over nature, and everyone fears bee stings too. We get a glimpse behind the babysitter in the prologue but not long enough to really see him and register him. We find razor blades in chocolates when Helen looks in the abandoned apartment. Candyman’s hypnotic voice and appearance in the car park entrance us, adding a new dimension to his character. He’s not just a deadly psychopath, he’s almost romantic, he has a new agenda to be believed in, like he’s some kind of God, like he needs followers, a congregation. This makes him really interesting. And then straight after we see what Candyman has done — cut off a dog’s head, stolen or killed a baby and ruined a mother’s life, as well as Helen’s, in the most traumatic and gruesome way. Candyman is clearly unstoppable the way he just appears to Helen i her apartment through the mirror, hypnotises her and then brutally kills her friend.
There’s another intriguing dimension to Candyman — he looks after baby Anthony in his lair, and even lets him suckle his finger. Candyman’s voice calls out to her when she’s on her own after escaping the hospital. ‘They will all abandon you — all you have left is my desire for you.’ Candyman sheds a tear and then dances with Helen in his cathedral. He carries her like a bride to the altar at the other end. Candyman explodes into flames and bees rush out. Is it. the end of him?
HIGH TENSION
The Projects in Cabrini Green are setup to be hostile and dangerous. On edge as we follow them through the buildings. Constant glimpses of Candyman in graffiti, folk tales, reports from neighbours in the Projects. Keep raising the stakes and the likelihood that Candyman is real. There are subliminal flashes of Candyman’s graffitied face at various points when Helen takes a photograph; bees in the toilet. The heartbeat running through the scene of Helen waking up covered in blood in Anne Marie’s apartment builds great tension as we discover the scene simultaneously with Helen as she explores it. The screams lift the anxiety to the next level! Helen descends even lower as she’s arrested and put in a psychiatric hospital for the murder of her friend. Helen appears to be totally trapped, strapped to a chair in the hospital whilst she talks with the doctor. Helen, on the verge of accepting insanity, calls out to Candyman in the mirror. The doctor awaits what’s next. Nothing happens. And then He appears and murders the doctor in a the most gory way yet, ripping him in two from behind with his hook, blood goes everywhere. Helen escapes from the hospital and it looks like this is her chance to get out of this terrible situation. She then appears to become the maniac as she walks in on Trevor and his new girlfriend. Helen is really on edge. Helen tries to crawl out of the burning pyre even through she’s on fire. Will she make it?
DEPARTURE FROM REALITY
The premise takes us out of our reality because we know this isn’t possible in our world, and yet feels like it could be, like somehow it’s close to home. Candyman entrances Helen and makes her black out. The next thing she knows she wakes up covered in someone’s blood and is framed for murder. This is inconceivably cunning by the Candyman. Candyman floats down on top of Helen in the hospital — he has preternatural abilities.
There’s a mythic-like quality to Candyman’s lair. All the artwork, graffiti, blood, broken glass, the mural’s depicting Candyman’s life. A Cathedral of despair. It takes us outside of our own experience. Candyman is asleep on the altar. He takes Helen to the other altar and hikes up her skirt with his hook, it’s like a wedding night ritual.
MORAL STATEMENT
Helen’s husband realises he’s made a mistake. He’s terribly sad about what he’s done, abandoning Helen. He calls out to her in the mirror. But he gets his comeuppance — Helen comes back and slaughters him, traumatising his new adulterous girlfriend as well. Helen, as the truly innocent protagonist, is finally vindicated too, and Candyman is burned in the fire.
WHY ELSE IS CANDYMAN SO GREAT A MOVIE?
There’s a poetry to it; Candyman’s dialogue, his hypnotic voice, the way Helen becomes entranced all the time. It’s almost like a love story. A most gruesome villain who is also a romantic. Amazing! What an intriguing character! There’s also a satisfying and somewhat uplifting resolution in that Helen is vindicated in her death — all the residents turn up at her graveside to pay respects. They know she was saving the baby from Candyman and that she wasn’t the killer after all.
MY PROJECT “BELOW GROUND” HORROR CONVENTIONS
CONCEPT
A billionaire family retreat into their half-built underground emergency bunker below their house after a surprise vigilante attack on them in the night, only to find they have no way back out again and worse — someone else may be down there already.
TERRORISE THE CHARACTERS
Once safely in the bunker, the parents’ teenage daughter begins to suffer without her medication so they have to risk leaving the bunker for a moment to get it. However, their brave teenage son gets brutally trapped and beaten to death on the way back to the bunker through the house, whilst the family make the awful choice to keep the door locked else they all die. Suddenly whilst eating together in the bunker the body of a man falls through a trapdoor above them and they have no idea who he is or how he got there. This keeps them on edge in case he wakes up and means them harm. The family become hysterical when they realise their oxygen is running out and their water supply has been cut off. They argue about whether to kill (or even eat?) the stranger in there with them, but then he wakes up…
ISOLATION
The family are completely trapped. Their son is dead on the other side of the door. They all keep falling out and find it hard to agree what to do next before they die of starvation or oxygen or threat from the stranger.
DEATH
Their teenage son is viciously attacked and killed as they watch on the camera. They know how evil their attackers are. The stranger wakes up in the night and the family fight to restrain him.
MONSTER
The attackers outside, but also all of their dark human natures coming out… Facing the threat of a slow and agonising death, they begin to realise it’s every man for himself.
HIGH TENSION
They keep forming plans and then they get thwarted e.g. the son dashing for his sister’s medication before facing his death as he returns to the bunker. A stranger crashes through the roof and no one knows who he is or why he’s there. The stranger wakes up but can he be trusted? What does he want?
DEPARTURE FROM REALITY
It’s such an extreme situation — shortage of food, space, air, water, in an ill equipped bunker. Plus the presence of a stranger who begins behaving oddly — could the stranger have some kind of extraordinary gift or threat about him?
MORAL
Ultimately it’s about the mother and father’s underhand actions to become so wealthy… you live by the sword, you die by the sword, and those you love may pay the price too.
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Carmen Mosley
Candyman (2021) Horror Conventions
What I learned from this assignment was how particular situations filled with tension and anticipation really fueled Candyman. While there were bloody deaths, the building tension is what made this a great horror example. I chose this movie because 1 – I hadn’t seen it yet and 2 – because it deals with the idea of the supernatural revenge horror mini-subgenre – which is the subgenre for my new concept.
Title / Concept: Candyman (2021). An urban legend of a black man wrongly accused of harming a little white girl comes to life goes on a murderous rampage
Terrorize The Characters: Candyman stalks his prey and plays tricks on their mind – only showing himself in the mirror
Isolation: Once summoned he can reach anyone, anywhere
Death: He kills with gleeful abandon! He uses his hooked hand to rip into them, their throat, their back, leaving serious blood in his wake.
Monster/Villain: A supernatural being with a new twist for Jordan’s Peele’s vision – Candyman is replaced every generation. He cannot be killed or stopped. He is a supernatural entity
High Tension: He comes at people who least expect it. You know he is coming but you don’t know when. He releases his carnage once his name has been said 5 times in a mirror.
Departure from Reality: In real life, urban legends are not real and you cannot summon a supernatural being from a mirror who then releases their wrath.
Moral Statement: It began in the 1890s – black men being wrongfully killed by white men and their mobs- starting with the original Candyman and continues through the decades. The gentrification of Cabrini Green in Chicago and forcing black people from their homes keeps Candyman’s legend alive. He is a judge, jury, and executioner!
3. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film? I liked the twist ending and keeping continuity from the first Candyman and having the baby Helen saved become this generation’s Candyman. The timeliness of the subject matter is sadly still relevant.
4. With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.
MY CONCEPT HORROR CONVENTIONS
Concept: The right-hand man and nephew of the most prolific Vegas mob boss, Don Salvatore, seeks revenge from the grave after he is betrayed. But, the mob boss owes the Devil a debt and he must pay!
Terrorize The Characters: Don Salvatore becomes an unstoppable force. He targets anyone who has wronged him for their souls – his payment to the Devil for his wealth and power. The targets know who they are and it’s just a matter of time.
Isolation: The Las Vegas valley is trapped on the north end – an earthquake has shut off the Virgin River Valley and California has shut all its borders. Not only can Don Salvatore get his victims there is no escape. Because he is supernatural – he can go anywhere – there is no hiding from him.
Death: He sucks his victim’s souls – crushing their bones and skull and leaks out all their bodily fluids to consume.
Monster/Villain: The vengeful reincarnation of Don Salvatore hell-bent on paying revenge and paying his debt to the Devil.
High Tension: Relentless killer. No escape. The town is in hysteria from being trapped. The only water left is what is already there. This situation amps up the tension by adding another layer of dread for the characters.
Departure from Reality: In real life, no supernatural revenge killer exists and the Las Vegas valley is in hysteria from limited water.
Moral Statement: Be careful who you wrong! There are consequences for turning on the family.
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What I learned doing this assignment is a new format for recording film notes.
Title / Concept: SCREAM. A masked prank caller torments the daughter of a slain woman and her high school friends.
Terrorize The Characters: Every single character is terrorized in their own way, though not every scene includes outright fear. Because of the one-year anniversary of a murder in their small town and the recent murder of a high school teen girl, everyone is in danger. Everyone is a suspect. When the killer isn’t lurking around a corner, the protagonist is still terrorized by the anguish of reliving her mother’s murder and facing her true killer, not to mention the guilt of possibly having put the wrong man on death row.
Isolation: A small town. A house with nowhere to go but upstairs.
Death (spoilers): Sidney’s mother 1 year prior; Casey (Drew Barrymore, the star of the film in a twist no one saw coming back in the day); The school principal (aka The Fonz); The protagonist’s BFF Tatum; The Poor Camera Guy; Multiple close calls for Sidney, Randy, Dewey, and Gayle; The killers.
Monster/Villain (spoiler): The big twist is that it’s TWO teen killers in silly masks, not just one. Stu is a comic relief psychopath (“My mom’s gonna be so mad at me!”) while Billy is out for revenge against his own girlfriend because he blames her mother for breaking up his parents.
High Tension: The characters KNOW the rules of horror movies, yet find themselves struggling to avoid the cliches and survive. The knife, the mask, and the inevitability of slasher movie conventions and body counts means the audience anticipates terror in almost every scene.
Departure from Reality: The dialogue and meta humor suggest these characters know they’re in a horror movie to some extent. Some of the close calls, the impossibly suspenseful timing, and “coming back to life” moments are over the top on purpose.
Moral Statement: It doesn’t matter whether you watch scary movies like Stu–there are psychos amongst us regardless. Watching horror films might just help you survive. Also, badass women might have to make up NEW rules to survive.
Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film? I’ve watched Scream over 100 times, and it never fails to engage me on an emotional, comical, and intellectual level every single time.
My Concept: SCHOOL DANCE
Concept: While decorating for a homecoming dance, a group of mismatched high schoolers are trapped inside their haunted high school. Think Breakfast Club meets Scream.
Terrorize The Characters: First the teens terrorize each other. Then they think it’s the urban legend of a ghost girl who died there in the 1960s. Then they realize… It may be one of them who is the killer. And the ghost is key to saving them. (maybe)
Isolation: A broken security system traps them all inside school on a Friday night.
Death: All but two teens will die. Their ghosts will remain behind at the end.
Monster/Villain: The Mascot… I’m still trying to decide who the killer actually is, but they wear the outdated creepy mascot uniform of a wolfman with a hatchet. (maybe)
High Tension: Trying to escape the building carries its own physical risks. Then there are the supernatural elements that spook them. Then there’s The Mascot with a bloody hatchet.
Departure from Reality: The urban legend ghost story and unlikely serial killer Mascot.
Moral Statement: Surviving high school requires a lot of growing up, empathy, and teamwork. And even then we’re lucky to make it out alive.
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(Insidious) Horror Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment: normal boundaries can be torn down, and you can customize the norm for your script.
Title: INSIDIOUS
Concept:
A spirit can travel between the world of the living, and the world of the dead.
Terrorize the characters:
All of the characters are terrorized in this movie.
Isolation:
The movie takes place in one of two houses.
Death:
The fear of death is present in 3/4 of the movie
Monster/ Villain:
The monsters/ Villains are demonic spirits from the dark world.
High Tension:
The high tension starts when the mother sees a demon and convinces her husband that they should move to another house.
Departure from reality:
We are led by drawings, photographs, Ghostbusters and a psychic into the realm of the dark world.
Moral statement:
(Maybe it is… fight evil) I am not sure if it had a moral statement or not.
My Horror Concept
Concept:
After being pronounced dead, a person has exactly 24 hours to either go to hell, heaven, or return to life-whether they are truly dead or not.
Terrorize the characters:
The characters are terrorized by fear of being killed by the undertaker and sent to hell before they are truly dead.
Isolation:
The movie takes place in a funeral home.
Death:
Actual death is only possible after 24 hours.
Monster/villain:
The monster is the undertaker, one of Satan’s demons.
High Tension:
High tension starts when the undertaker discovers ACCIDENT VICTIMS who are not dead yet.
Depart from reality:
The departure from reality is the 24 hour grace period after death.
Moral statement:
Dopers must die.
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Relic (2020) Horror Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment is that to this day, simple gothic horror elements can still be used effectively to build up suspense, tension, and ultimately, horror.
Title: RELIC
Concept: When a family matriarch goes missing, her daughter and granddaughter return home to find her, and subsequently discover a haunting presence hanging over the home, which is taking over the grandmother’s mind.
Terrorize the Characters: The daughter’s past haunts her, but really, it is the erratic behavior of her mother that concerns the daughter and vicious mood swings that terrorize the granddaughter. Simple thumps and knocks in the wall are played up, as well as the impending mold/blight within the home.
Isolation: Remote home on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia. Only one nearby neighbor is acknowledged.
Death: The grandfather dies alone from dementia. Now, the grandmother is dying in the end, but it’s the caring embrace of the daughter staying with her and helping her shed her “skin” and acknowledging who she is now that resonates powerfully. That she will share her burden of dementia and care for her, and it will ultimately be passed down to daughter and granddaughter.
Monster/Villain: The grandmother who has Alzheimer’s becomes lost within the corridors of her own mind, and her actions become increasingly dangerous to herself and those around her.
High Tension: Unknown sources of sounds. Mold taking over home. Grandmother’s bizarre behavior.
Departure from Reality: There is a suggested dark presence in the home throughout, but it’s the end that’s the clincher when the daughter literally peels the skin away from her mother’s dying, rotting body and holds her that is the biggest departure from reality.
Moral Statement: We must support our family in the darkest of moments because they could soon be ours.
Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film?
Tapping into the universal fear of watching a loved one wither away and lose themselves, and ultimately, die, is a brilliant visual, emotional journey to bring to the horror genre. Accepting death with a bit of grace is something that is unusual.
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Title: THE OLD ONES
Concept: A black estranged couple, mourning the passing of their child, are thrust together to investigate a new strain of death in a bigoted, southern town, where they uncover a lair of female creatures luring men to propagate their long-lived species.
Terrorize the Characters: A black, child-less, couple have to deal with the racism still prevalent in a good ol’ boy, bigoted southern town. In addition, they have to deal with their own grief due to the loss of their child, as they are around these women who are promoting the future of privileged and chosen children.
Isolation: Remote, small town in Georgia with a older, southern plantation that is under renovation to be a finishing school for “Fine Young Girls.”
Death: Withering bodies, old age. Traps. Dismemberment. Key town players are killed. Husband will be sacrificed and killed, maybe by his own wife, who is turned to believe that one of the birthed aliens looks like her own daughter, and whom she takes with her back to the city.
Monster/Villain: Centuries-old creatures that have a glam over them to make them appear human-like. They mate and kill the men. They kill anyone who discovers who they really are. Their purpose is survival, and only the females survive.
High Tension: Racism. Invasive mating rituals. Nest of eggs. Ticking clock to the birth of the latest clutch of aliens.
Departure from Reality: Lovecraft-type albino alien creatures with pink eyes who slither, but they are disguised as a trio of women in various stages of life: the “seducer”, the “caretaker”, and the “matron.”
Moral Statement: To live with loss, you may need to deceive yourself for your own happiness.
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INSIDIOUS Horror Conventions
I learned some of the components and wildness of Horror.
What I watched:
Title / Concept: Insidious. / The story centers on a couple whose son inexplicably enters a comatose state and becomes a vessel for a variety of malevolent entities in an astral dimension.
Terrorize The Characters: Family and paranormal detectives.
Isolation: In the family home.
Death: Yes. The Psychic is killed by the husband’s astral demon.
Monster/Villain: Spirits, a red-faced demon, tortured souls of the dead.
High Tension: Yes, in the anticipation and what’s delivered.
Departure from Reality: Paranormal investigators, astral travel.
Moral Statement: Ends with Psychic dead and Husband possessed. (Bad End. Good for the franchise.)
My IDEA:
Concept: CIA Agents are being killed by astral projections.
Terrorize The Characters: America is losing the CIA to weaponized astral travelers.
Isolation: It’s a very hush hush world with only one to one communications.
Death: Many many unexplainable deaths, panic, and no clue.
Monster/Villain: A paranormal investigator with a God complex.
High Tension: Absolute hysteria all in a one on one world.
Departure from Reality: Yes.
Moral Statement: To be determined.
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The Conjuring Horror Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment is the “official” conventions. I’ve never really seen them put down before.
Watch the movie and as you do, note its conventions.
- Title / Concept: The Conjuring / Two demonologists help a family whose new home is haunted by a malevolent sprit who wants to possess the mother and kill the youngest daughter.
- Terrorize The Characters: Thumps and bangs, followed by marks on mom’s arm, people getting dragged through the house and thrown around, and finally a possession.
- Isolation: The church won’t help them. It’s just Ed and Lorraine. Mom is singled out.
- Death: Nobody dies, but several scares and mom is possessed.
- Monster/Villain: A demon witch who hung herself after killing her own child.
- High Tension: The hauntings get worse, going from scary to dangerous as the family gets hurt, scratched, thrown around, and finally possessed.
- Departure from Reality: Ghosts and demons and mediums, oh my!
- Moral Statement: The love for family can conquer anything.
Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film? The hide-and-clap was truly terrifying. More so than the possession.
With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.
- Concept: A meteorite that crashes near a rural town brings with it a spores which take people over and begin to convert the area for colonization by extraterrestrials.
- Terrorize The Characters: The spores change people, first mentally and then physically. Those already affected begin trying to drag others to the impact site to also be infected. Those who try to rebel are either infected or outright killed.
- Isolation: The MCs are the only ones who are unaffected as their friends and neighbors succumb to the spores.
- Death: One by one the characters are either infested or killed.
- Monster/Villain: The alien spores are like the zombie ant fungus: it changes people, makes them little more than worker drones.
- High Tension: It starts with a single person who found the meteorite, then it starts infecting people before anyone realizes what is actually going on, then the drones begin to actively pursue more people to convert and kill any rebels.
- Departure from Reality: Alien spores, ramping up to an alien colony.
- Moral Statement: Wear your damned mask.
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I have done my premise or idea but do not see where to post that. However, I did take a stab at Lesson 1. I made the mistake of looking at an older film, VAMPYRES, which is dubbed and one of the slowest movies I have ever tried to watch,(worse that ‘The Secret ofThe Incas).
All the conventions were ticked off…but everything happened so slowly I lost interest before the second pallid jump scare. There was very little character development, or attempt at such. I will try again with a different movie tomorrow. I don’t recommend this one, and I frickin’ love vampire movies.
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MANDY-Horror Conventions
CONCEPT: A woodcutter and his wife are attacked by a cult leader that wants his wife. <div>
TERRORIZE THE CHARACTERS: our characters are taken hostage in their home. The husband is crucified in his yard and forced to watch as the cult burns his wife in a sleeping bag in front of him.
ISOLATION: They live in the deep woods and are pretty much nowhere near civilization.
DEATH: Our hero goes looking for revenge and is taken hostage by a group of masochistic leather clad drug induced killers. Using the drug himself, Red is able to slice and dice his way out of harms way.
MONSTER: The cult leader and his followers will do anything for him. It makes them think they are nigh invulnerable. But the real monster is Red, as he kills everyone that had anything to do with Mandy’s murder.
HIGH TENSION: The leather clad demons on dirt bikes and four wheelers seem like they are not killable, the leader of the cult uses his followers as shields, all while Red is trying to avenge his wife’s murder.
DEPARTURE FROM REALITY: Red having to kill seemingly invulnerable entities that turn out to be deranged humans. Red getting into a chainsaw fight with one of the cult members. The high amount of hallucinogenic drugs Red ingests to fight his detractors.
MORAL STATEMENT: Don’t poke the bear. By making a pact with drug induced devils and killing Mandy all players didn’t realize the lengths Red would go to, to exact revenge. That or make sure the guy is dead and you can get away with murder.
My Concept:
Title: Recessive Lens (working title)
Concept: An optometrist’s obsession with finding the perfect eyes leads him to killing patients that don’t take their eye care seriously.
Terrorize the Characters: A teen girl finds out the grizzly truth about her optometrist and warns others about him. People don’t listen and he sets out to get her cutting down anyone that believes her including his own child.
Isolation: When you are in the chair, you may stay forever. Our optometrist lives remotely and has a home with a working eye care center.
Death: After hours emergency surgery, home invaders, derelicts, most will die by means found in his optometry equipment. Especially the air machine, and pupil dilation with LSD. He takes the eyes, and keeps them on display, hiding in plain sight.
Monster/Villain: A man that has been killing for a while and likes it, his wife knows but is too afraid to say anything. His power is knowing that once in his chair he is calling the shots. His obsession for finding the perfect eyes is his hope that he will stop.
High Tension: The closer she gets to knowing his intentions she finds that she has the perfect eyes, and he wants them and will stop and nothing to get them.
Departure from Reality: An optometrist killing his patients and keeping their eyes on display while an investigation goes on.
Moral Statement: Perfection is unobtainable, even when it is.
What I learned from this was horror comes in all forms and flushing out some ideas is the best way to get the ball rolling.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Douglas Ryan.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Douglas Ryan.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by
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What I learned doing this assignment is how to dissect a horror movie and it’s components.
<div>
</div>Title / Concept: The Decent. A group of women get together every year and do extreme sports. This year, they go spelunking.
<div>
Terrorize The Characters: The characters quickly learn they are not alone beneath the earth’s surface. They are alone, in tight spaces, and in the pitch dark.
Isolation: The humanlike creatures that live in the caves have evolved to live and thrive in the dark, unlike our main characters.
Death: The main characters are pushed to their physical limits navigating the caves as well as their mental limits when other characters get hurt. One character has to stay quiet while watching another character get eaten by human like creatures.
Monster/Villain: Subterranean human-like creatures, that have adapted to survive in the pitch dark.
High Tension: The main characters decide to go to a cave no other human has explored and is off the charts. No one else knows where they are, they HAVE to find another way out when the main entrance is destroyed by an avalanche. All while trying to not get eaten by the caves human-like residences.
Departure from Reality: The movie takes place in an unexplored cave.
Moral Statement: Truths about friendships are pushed to the limit and what the characters really think of one another comes out, including one character admitting she had an affair with the husband of another character.
I loved that this had an all-female cast! Dark and cramped spaces can be very scary. The gallons upon gallons of blood doesn’t hurt either.
My Concept
Concept: The Devils Toy Box. A storage facility built on ground that is possessed by the devil. Not only do the items in the units possess the people that come in contact with them there is also a demon overseer of the objects that help them carry out their evil. </div>
Terrorize The Characters: All the hallways of the storage facility look the same and it’s easy to get lost and confused. The light switches, once turned on, go off every 30 minutes and have to be turned back on.
Isolation: Strangers gather at a storage unit facility and get lost in the maze of halls that all look the same.
Death: Once the characters realize they can’t find their way out, tensions rise and people succumb to the control this building and its possessions have on them all while being stalked by the keeper of the devil’s toys.
Monster/Villain: Anyone can become a killer along with the keeper of the toys.
High Tension: Every hall seems to lead to another hall that looks all the same. The lights knobs need to be turned on on a regular basis and only stay on for 30 minutes at a time before they have to be turned on again. That is if you’ve turned it all the way on…
Departure from Reality: A storage facility where the devil keeps his possessed items that in turn possess the people they come in contact with. The toys have a keeper whose mere existence enhances the toy’s power. Toys can be anything from a pencil, to a mattress, to a coffee mug, anything can become a tool too kill.
Moral Statement: The devil has discovered people who cheat on their partners are of less moral value and easier to for his “Toys” to possess.
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What I learned doing this assignment is…conventions are important guidelines for writing in any specific genre.
Title: The Evil Dead
Terrorize The Characters: Unseen demons in the woods awaken when a group of college students read a book in the basement of their vacation cabin.
Isolation: A cabin in the woods cut off from civilization
Death: Everyone dies except Ash.
Monster/Villain: Unseen demons and possessed trees
High Tension: Attacking trees, demon possession, murder
Departure from Reality: Unseen demons in woods possess the bodies of teenagers and make them kill one another
Moral Statement: IDK – Don’t go skulking in basements and looking through other people’s stuff? Don’t leave the cabin in the middle of the night? Don’t go in the woods?
Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film?
When I told my husband I was taking a horror writing class he suggested The Evil Dead. I’d never heard of the movie/franchise. I think it hits all the conventions, but I’m a little confused about the moral statement, not sure what it is.
With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.
Concept: An over anxious reporter checks into a wellness spa and discovers the place is being run by cannibals who plump up and eat their clients.
Terrorize the Characters: They are to be killed and eaten.
Isolation: The wellness spa is in an old mountain lodge in the wilderness away from civilization and surrounded by wild animals.
Death: The characters are detoxed, fed well, made happy, then slaughtered and eaten.
Monster/Villain: Dr. Smooth Carver is the wicked cannibal running the wellness spa. The wellness spa employees are part of a cannibal cabal secretly franchising their brand across the country.
High Tension: Locked in a dungeon with a rabid cannibal, escape through a sewage tunnel, stabbed in the eye with rebar, falling into a giant pit, car chase up a mountain, a bear rips off a human face, hacked limbs, fingers, eating human flesh, stuffed humans
Departure from Reality: Once you taste human flesh you crave it like an addict craves heroin. It is like a powerful drug you will do anything to get.
Moral Statement: You are what you eat?
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Hi Carolyn, I’m loving your concept.
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Thanks, Ricki!
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1. George Shepard’s The Thing (1982) Horror Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment are the conventions of the Horror Film.
Analyze a HORROR movie to discover how the conventions were expressed. It is totally okay to analyze a movie you’ve already seen, but please watch it again. Don’t just do it from memory.
2. Watch the movie and as you do, note its conventions.
Title / Concept: The title is not very clever. It was shortened from the original The Thing from Another World. Concept: At an isolated Antarctic base, a creature from another planet, a master of mimicry, kills and “assimilates” the scientists and workers one by one to fulfill its ultimate goal: replacing all of Earth’s animal life.<div>
Terrorize The Characters: In the form of a dog, it violently assimilates the other dogs before the men’s eyes. A party explores the Norwegian station where it left no survivors. They find the Flying Saucer. Back at camp, it assimilates the men one by one. They now distrust each other. Red herrings are employed to throw off the characters and audience. The leader wants the men to stay together. Aliens rip several apart and are burned with flamethrowers. The surviving creature destroys the camp’s power generator. The leader decides to burn the base to the ground to kill the alien.
Isolation: They are in the middle of the Antarctic. The nearest base is destroyed. The radio operator can’t reach anyone. One scientist realizes the threat that the alien poses to Earth. He goes berserk and destroys their transportation and radio. Help will not come while they live.
Death: Of the original 12 characters, only two survive. The aliens kill nine of them, eight by entering their bodies and violently hijacking all their cells. The ninth apparently burns himself to death to not be assimilated. One is suspected of being an alien and is shot by the leader when he attacks him. It is understood that the two survivors will freeze to death in short order.
Monster/Villain: An intelligent alien, a master of mimicry, that violently kills and “assimilates” other animals, creating new aliens. It seems insect-like in some of the effects. It has tendrils that grab its prey. One tries to build a mini-saucer to escape the Antarctic.
High Tension: Some of this has been covered under Terrorize the Characters. The Norwegians are desperately trying to kill the dog in the beginning. It violently assimilates the American base’s dogs in front of the men. They think that they’ve killed it. Dr. Blair realizes its threat to Earth and that the cells are still alive. It moves under the blanket in storage and assimilates a man. Neither the audience nor the characters know who has been replaced by an alien. The men are at each other’s throats in several scenes. The leader tries to reveal those who have been taken over. The alien emerges from an unsuspected man and assimilates another. The men burn them with flame throwers. Dr. Blair, who has been confined, emerges as an alien. The leader decides to burn the base to the ground so that the alien does not escape. The leader and another survive. Is the other a replacement?
Departure from Reality: Although it’s a horror film, it does have a basis in science. It is likely there are aliens, and some could be driven by survival to be hostile. That said, there is little overwhelming proof for their existence, and no one I know has admitted to encountering one. What are those Tic-tac shaped objects that Navy pilots have chased and filmed?
Moral Statement: We must be willing to sacrifice ourselves for the greater good. As Kurt Russell says, “We’re not getting out of here alive but neither is that thing.” Conversely, the aliens must die because they have no respect for other animals.
3. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film? This is very highly regarded (#162 on imdb), but it could have been scarier.
4. With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.
Concept: (I picked The Thing for analysis because my concept is similar.) A vicious, advanced, alien scout answers a mountain observatory’s call to E. T.s and uses the employees as lab animals to prepare for Earth’s conquest.</div>
Terrorize The Characters: It eats some and rips others to pieces for study. Its crashed craft blocks the only road. It is cold, and they are surrounded by high cliffs. The monster thrives in the cold and the dark. It can smash into the building. See under Monster for its other powers.
Isolation: It’s a mountain observatory in a rural country. Its only road is now blocked. Its wifi is cut; its 4G jammed. The cliffs are enormous.
Death: It eats some and rips others to pieces for study. Someone will fall off the mountain.
Monster/Villain: It has huge teeth and hind claws, sort of a bear with a shark’s mouth. It possesses superhuman strength and can leap tens of feet. It is intelligent and sophisticated with fingers and advanced technology. It has infrared vision and prefers the dark. It arrived freeze-dried, so it is practically indestructible.
High Tension: It kills people at night. It cannot be stopped. It breaks into the observatory. One scientist tries to communicate, but its answer is terrifying. It intends to use the radio telescope to phone home its report.
Departure from Reality: The same as for <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>The Thing. Although it’s a horror film, it does have a basis in science. There are likely aliens, and some could be driven by survival to be hostile. That said, there is little overwhelming proof for their existence, and no one I know has admitted to encountering one. What are those Tic-tac shaped objects that Navy pilots have chased and filmed?
Moral Statement: Sentient beings should respect each other’s lives. Unlike <i style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>The Thing, the humans try to communicate with the alien. It views us as if we were cows. Cows with missiles.
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Halloween Horror Conventions
What I learned from doing this assignment is John Carpenter developed a horror film model that still works 43 years later. It’s a very simple story that is well-executed and relentless in it’s pacing and shows that a bloodbath isn’t necessary if the story is well-plotted out.
Title/Concept: Halloween: as psychotic killer breaks out of the mental hospital he has been locked in for 15 years and returns to the scene of his original murder to wreak havoc on new victims.
Terrorize the Characters: Michael Meyers stalks and kills unsuspecting victims with no apparent motive and is apparently impervious to death.
Isolation: An isolated neighborhood Halloween with not parents at home and the young trick or treaters are at home with their babysitters.
Death: Strangulation, strangulation/stabbing,
Monster/Villain: An unrelenting, psychopath hell-bent on wreaking death and destruction to young women and their boyfriends repeating the origin murder spree.
High Tension: The audience knows the victims are in jeopardy long before the victims know it. The isolation and lack of any outside support or rescue from the horror (Laurie Strode, screaming in a state of hysteria, knocks on a neighbor’s door for help, but is ignored.
Departure from Reality: Michael Meyers has superhuman strength and the ability to navigate a world that he hasn’t lived in since he was a child (expertly driving a car, navigating the journey from the mental hospital to his former residence). Also, impervious to multiple stabbings, gunshot wounds and 2-story falls.
Moral Statement: Teenage girls and boys having sex get punished with death.
Title/Concept: Oak Park (working title)
Terrorize the Characters: A psychopathic killer who has laid dormant for several years is triggered on the night of his wedding shower (actually, the wedding shower after the wedding shower with just the bridal party and groom-to-be. The victims have no idea that the fiancé/friend/acquaintance is a killing machine about to be unleashed. Like in Halloween, the victims don’t know there in danger until it’s too late.
Isolation: A home in a surburban neighborhood (let’s call it Oak Park) that nothing bad ever happens. Neighbors rarely venture out and interact with each other (or don’t want to get involved), particularly late at night (and more so during COVID).
Death: Strangulation (for those who aren’t familiar, there was a famous murder in Chicago back in the 1960’s and the killer managed to kill 8 nursing students living together in an apartment, in an apartment building that no one was aware that the murders had happened. Stabbing, blunt force trauma.
Monster/Villain: The psychopathic killer in question, committed a double murder five years earlier (in another town called Oak Park), killing his girlfriend and a guy she was having sex with after he caught them in the act. He escaped justice and hid his past until being triggered at the shower.
High Tension: the victims are up against a relentless killer who will not stop until he kills everyone in the house.
Departure from Reality: It’s not everyday that your fiancé turns out to be a dormant sadistic killer that’s triggered at your wedding shower.
Moral Statement: Pre-marital sex can get you and your friends killed.
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What I learned doing this assignment by Anthony Ward
What I learned doing this assignment is the big difference between horror and thriller. I also learned what smart horror is.
Title / Concept: The conjuring. A family moves into a big house and are terrorized by a monster.
Terrorize The Characters: The family members are bruised, possessed and their dog is killed. They are under attack by the demonic entity.
Isolation: The family lives in a house away from other people.
Death: First the dog is killed, then a bird flies into the house. It tells the daughter it wants her family dead.
Monster/Villain: The demonic spirit
High Tension:Experts are brought into the house and it is discovered that there is an evil entity inside the home.
Departure from Reality: There are evil occurrences that happen prior to the family being attacked.
Moral Statement: Demonic spirits don’t posses things, they posses people.3. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film?
4. With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.
Concept: A group of young adults visit and old abandon mansion.
Terrorize The Characters: They are terrorized by stage happenings and one by one the partygoers are killed.
Isolation: They are trapped in the house, because there is a bad storm outside. The only way to safety is by boat.
Death: One by one they start to die.
Monster/Villain: The ghost/ ashes of Errol Brennon
High Tension: The characters discover the ashes of the deceased old man is killing their friends.
Departure from Reality:On a house on an island some young adults visit a mansion and while there they reach out to a spirit and accidentally summon the ghost of the previous homeowner.
Moral Statement: I do not have one yet. -
The Rain Killer ~Horror Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment:
It is easier to see the horror movie broken down in concept categories to have a start point for own idea. Putting together puzzle pieces is a great way to see it.
What smart horror is and what is not smart horror.
What the defined difference between Horror and Thriller would be to producers and audiences; Emotional experiences, who dies, and what the reality is great to know or reference.
Assignment
Title/Concept
Séance (2021)/Girls at an elite boarding school play a joke in summoning former student who died and one of the girls is killed. When a new student arrives to replace her, the girls perform real ritual (Séance) to find out if she was murdered and they start dying one by one.
Monster/villain
Figure in theatre mask/possibly the ghost of Edelvine Academy
Interesting Terror
What was supposed to be a joke may have awakened a vengeful spirit who kills one of the girls and after the girls perform real ritual they found online; they start dying horrific deaths one by one
Isolated/Horrific Environment
Girls are isolated one by one in different parts of the academy and their deaths are made to look like suicides and accidents, so headmaster and cops won’t believe they are being murdered.
People who will be terrorized
A group of 7 girls who attend Edelvine Academy
TERRORIZE THE CHARACTERS:
Girls receive message from Kerri saying she was murdered; ghost is real, and they start dying and disappearing one by one to point they don’t want to be alone.
ISOLATION:
Each girl is killed in a place she is alone; Kerri is alone in her room, Lenora is outside to talk to love interest, Rosalind is taking shower in bathroom and Yvonne is alone practicing dance recital.
DEATH:
Kerri is pushed out of window, Lenora is stabbed in gut with wooden stake, Rosalind is bludgeoned and made to look like she slipped on shampoo and hit wall, Yvonne has her throat cut.
MONSTER:
The Ghost of Edelvine/ A figure in a theatre mask
HIGH TENSION:
The deaths happen immediately after the ritual, another ritual says Camille is the murderer, only four girls left, and no one believes they are being murdered, they are seeing Kerri’s ghost, two girls are hit and knocked out then wake up tied to chairs next to each other,
DEPARTURE FROM REALITY:
Ritual that works summoning vengeful ghost and ghost of murdered girl, Camille and Helina seeing Kerri’s ghost, the killer turning out to be one of the girls, Bethany and her boyfriend, Trevor to cover up the fact that she stole Kerri’s paper, won a scholarship with it, and didn’t want anyone to find out.
MORAL STATEMENT:
The pressure of performing at such a prestigious school could cause someone to kill to maintain their image rather than tell the truth after they accidentally won a writing competition speaks volumes of pressures wealthy society puts on young girls or boys from birth to compete and remain elite.
The shock of the brutal, senseless murders and set up for one of the girls being the killer and why she was killing them was impossible to see coming.
My concept
Concept
A psychopath called The Rain Killer waits for long periods of rain to be forecast in chosen places to kill random innocent people to challenge good and evil, creating a supernatural spell over the world and an unlikely hero who will need to stop the killer and the mounting evil unleashed.
Terrorize the characters
Due to widespread media coverage like never seen before after a dozen murders, victims wake up in natural places that look creepy or evil and the rainstorm lets them know they are the Rain Killer’s newest victim and will tortured and posed.
Isolation
Natural places that look spooky in nature (forest, desert, decaying neighborhood, old warehouse still in use, old factory not in use) The killer chooses the places to honor what we see as spooky and evil looking.
Death
Long, well-planned, and horrific tortures specific to each victim and their type of innocence or life.
Monster/Villain
The Rain Killer/Evil
High Tension
The moments we see potential victims interacting with their family, friends, and community as news of potential rainstorms are broadcast and the moment they wake up in a spooky place with the sound of the rainstorm. The tension of their knowing no survivors yet, the kinds of torture described in media coverage, the intensity of warnings and safety measures broadcast to stay safe and how far police are from catching Rain Killer. The evil that builds with each murder and the frequency suggests Rain Killer’s challenges to good and evil are being heard. The introduction to an unlikely hero chosen by the ‘good’ to counter evil meeting the Rain Killer’s challenge. Hero zeroing in on Rain Killer more and more with each victim.
Departure from Reality
A psychopath that can evade capture and kill people in public places during rainstorms challenges evil to help him and good to stop him challenges reality or normal as does the mounting spell over the world created by evil meeting his challenge and good needing to stop him without conventional means like police or FBI.
Moral Statement
Even though we should not have to think of evil things like this happening, they do happen; so, all the things we are told to protect ourselves and stay safe should be taken seriously and followed ALWAYS.
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(The Shining) Horror Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment.
This movie checks off all the conventions and has a layered, smart story.
Title / Concept: A writer with a drinking problem and anger issues moves his family into a isolated hotel to become the winter caretaker. A former caretaker, Mr. Grady, killed his family there with an axe. Will history repeat itself?
Terrorize The Characters: An axe wielding father hunts down his wife and son.
Isolation: They live in a massive hotel which frequently becomes inaccessible because of snow storms.
Death: Jack threatens his wife Wendy, telling her that he’s going to bash her brains in. He attempts to get to his wife by chopping through their bathroom door with an axe. He kills Mr. Halloran, the cook, with an axe. He chases his son through a maze with the axe.
Monster/Villain: Mr. Grady, who influences Jack and Jack.
High Tension: Wendy finds out that she and her son won’t be able to escape. Jack has sabotaged the radio and vehicle.
Departure from Reality: Their son Danny has horrendous premonitions. Jack is either being haunted or losing his mind or both.
Moral Statement: This I could use some help with. Any takers?
3. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film? The Shining is a psychological horror classic. The acting, writing, cinemaphotography and score are fantastic!
4. With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.
Concept: A grieving mother, who’s being terrorized in her home struggles to keep her sanity while her son may or may not be trying to push her over the edge.
Terrorize The Characters: Someone or something speaks through the baby monitor. The mother, who’s on meds, hears the cries of her dead baby, etc. She has horrific dreams.
Isolation: Isolated farm house
Death: Infant daughter dies. Will the mother overdose on her meds or kill herself in another way?
Monster/Villain: Is reveled to be the son.
High Tension: The mother finds out that her son is indeed trying to push her over the edge. He uses several technologies to terrorize her.
Departure from Reality: Is the mother seeing and hearing things because she’s on meds or losing her mind or both?
Moral Statement: Letting technology such as the internet, cell phone and computer babysit your child might be a recipe for disaster.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Christopher Harboldt.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by
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The Conjuring
Title / Concept: The Conjuring/Demon Haunts Family
Terrorize The Characters: Kills dog,clap, sleep tugs,
Isolation: house in country
Death: possesses the mother
Monster/Villain: demon/Rory
High Tension: exorcism
Departure from Reality: demon possession
Moral Statement: Love for family overcomes evil
4. With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.
Concept: Family haunted by entity
Terrorize The Characters: smells, sounds, visitations,
Isolation: no money to stay anywhere else / no close relatives
Death: Kills an investigator, injures father
Monster/Villain: feral women
High Tension: Something is in the house
Departure from Reality: supernatural elements/witchcraft simbols/real ghost
Moral Statement: Love can heal
5. Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?” and put it at the top of your work.
Horror can have moral statement
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What I learned doing this assignment is:
It’s not just about slashing people to death – it’s about building tension throughout and layering the events so the final kill attempt is gut wrenching.
1/ Title: CHILDS PLAY – Concept: a toy doll becomes psychotic serial killer.
2/ Terror: Drags mom’s boyfriend off of a ladder, uses an automatic lawn mower to chop him up. Puts the Cop’s mom in a driverless car that he controls, and sends her to her death. Takes over the electronics in the Superintendent’s basement, then slashes him with his knife before turning up the heat so he drops off a beam into a table cutter. Shows up on supermarket TV’s – sends propeller slashing drone toys to kill shoppers. Activates Buddy bear toys to help kill the kid. Puts the kids mom in a noose and raises her up to hang.
3/ Isolation: Basement – Driverless Car – Supermarket – One room apartment.
4/ Death: Murders moms boyfriend – Cops Mom – Creepy apartment superintendent – shoppers
5/ Monster: A robotic doll, Chucky that utilizes the cloud for its own power
6/ High Tension: This builds. Murders moms boyfriend – then we see on a cell phone connection he’s about to kill the Cops mom – the superintendent fixes the doll but we know what’s coming, his horrific death – a supermarket full of innocent people are murdered. The kid goes back into the supermarket to save his mom and confront Chucky.
7/ Departure from reality: A toy doll reads havoc with a mind of its own.
8/ Moral statement: Don’t mess with toy dolls. Or, if you do, don’t make promises to be a friend and don’t keep them.
Anything else you’d like to say: The script was filled with humor and the tension evolved from comedy-horror to pure horror. Thought it was pretty dumb at first but it became more engaging and tension filled as it progressed to a pretty fun/dastardly ending.
My Concept
1/ Title: THE SHADOW – Concept: A shadow figure exacts revenge on a troupe of shadow entertainers.
2/ Terror: Anywhere its dark. – Don’t turn the light off at night.
3/ Isolation: The short-cut home. One room apartment. Rehearsal hall. Back stage in a Victorian Theatre. Theatre auditorium.
4/ Death: The troupe one by one – except one. (Or two)
5/ Monster: A crazed person who can become a shadow figure for real – who used to be part of the troupe –
6/ High Tension: Dark alley after the cell phone light goes dead. During a show when the troupe perform – and we know the shadow figure will strike – rehearsal room when the lights fail –
7/ Departure from reality: A person dies bur comes back to life as a shadow figure.
8/ Moral statement: – Honesty – don’t screw people for gain.
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1. Title / Concept: SQUID GAME. Hundreds of players desperate for money opt-in to a series of deadly children’s games. The catch is only one player will walk away alive … but also mind-bogglingly rich.
2. Terrorize The Characters: People who are desperate for money either from their own vices (gambling, poor choices) or their circumstances (North Korean defector, cancer) are put in a situation where what they are willing to do for a huge cash prize is tested to the max. They already thought they were in a terrible situation before they started the game; inside the game, it’s much, much worse.
3. Isolation: The players are taken blindfolded and unconscious to a remote island with poor cellular reception.
4. Death: 454 players die, including people that we are incredibly attached to. That was key to me – even though we knew they were going to die, I was surprised by how sad I was when the inevitable happened. Guessing it’s because one, the writer spent the time to make me care about the character and that the characters largely stayed true to themselves until the end.
5. Monster/Villain: The Front Man. He administered all aspects of the deadly game with precision and no leniency. The irony is that the “enemy” starts as the Front Man but becomes the players themselves.
6. High Tension: Games are timed. Failure to finish / win = death. Breaking rules = death. Your being alive = obstacle to someone else winning the game.
7. Departure from Reality: Not sure that even extremely wealthy people can really get away with a private death game of this scale for so man years.
8. Moral Statement: There are some things that money can’t buy or fix; stay true to yourself.
Why this is great: The premise is beyond simple – this concept is something we have seen hundreds of times already. What makes this amazing are the memorable and vastly different characters.
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1. My Title / Concept: SPITE HOUSE. An immigrant family with a precocious teenage daughter move into the only house they can afford: the infamous Spite House, wedged on a narrow strip of land between a slaughterhouse and a book bindery. It’s 3 stories tall but only 10 feet wide. And it’s haunted.
2. Terrorize The Characters: Being new to a town sucks. Being new to a town with a hostile house sucks even more!
3. Isolation: An extremely narrow house wedged between two industrial buildings. The family is socially ostracized from the rest of the town.
4. Death: Every plant they bring home blossoms wildly and then dies. And what’s weirder – friends they invite start growing weird protrusions – horns, extra fingers…
5. Monster/Villain: The ghost trapped inside the Spite House can confer starfish-like growth properties on things, but hasn’t managed to transfer himself into any of the growths… at least not yet.
High Tension: They can’t afford to move anywhere else. It’s them or the ghost.
Departure from Reality: Yes, spite houses are real. The ghosts inhabiting them are probably not real.
Moral Statement: You have to own your idiosyncrasies. Peer pressure kills. Assimilate and die.
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I am re-replying to this assignment. the horror movie I watched, VAMPYRES, was from 2015, and was a dubbed version. But, while the pacing was PAINFULLY slow, it did cover a lot of the usual conventions.
Isolation: the first shot is of a motorcycle driving through the countryside, then coming down a dirt road through a remote and dreary forest. Suddenly there is a tall figure clad in black in the middle of the road and the bike skids, throwing both riders. One rider wakes up, finds his dented helmet, and looks for the other rider, who has vanished. The remaining ride trades through the forest, sees another black clad figure and the scene cuts to:
Another scene introduces a threesome of young people who are looking for the motorcyclists, who have both vanished.
The movie continues with this continually isolating one person after another. The men meet a beautiful woman who lives with another beautiful woman in a spooky old house in the forest. Both women are not only VAMPYRES, (who drain their victims a little at a time to make it last,; perhaps they didn’t have a big enough freezer). As the movie slogs along we discover the women are also, aside from being very sexual with their victims, like a bit of torture on the side. Bear traps play and part, as does cutting tongues out of the young woman. I admit I started to lose patience so I will have to re watch or find a better movie. ‘We fell into the second season of “American Horror Story” and are still mesmerized. So I need to go back and count the horror conventions in AHS once we complete this season.
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<div>I learned how to analyze Horror films from a different perspective. </div>
Title / Concept: The Darkness, an autistic boy falls into a cavern on a family hiking trip and ancient evil spirits are welcomed to the world through him.
Terrorize The Characters: Their neighbors dog is barking, the house smells of dead animals, faucets and doors keep opening and closing, and the boy’s sister is seeing shadows, hand prints on her bed, she is bitten, and grandma’s cat is almost killed.
Isolation: The family doesn’t know if it is their home that is haunted.
Death: No one is killed, it seems like the dad will sacrifice his life.
Monster/Villain: The spirits that take over the already strange, misunderstood autistic son.
High Tension: The family takes the boy to Grandma’s but, he tries to kill her cat.
Departure from Reality: 3 or 4 spirits invade this person’s mind and room.
Moral Statement:Being different can sometimes make a person unique and stronger.
It isn’t a perfect film, but is entertaining enough.
Concept: A spirituality, self help retreat turns out to be much more than meets the eye when those who attend must go to extreme lengths to return to wholeness until they cannot leave.<div>
Terrorize The Characters: Some of the characters are noticing some people seem to be maimed.
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Isolation: The main character goes to a desolate mountain town to attend a self help retreat along with Richard who hopes to finally quit being an addict.
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Death: One of the addicts is sacrificed for the group to do a blood bond. One of the nights the participants witness the leader stabbing the participants that are questioning. The next morning. No one mentions and they can’t remember if what they witnessed was real.
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Monster/Villain: Dr. nobility appears as a good person. He is actually a sadistic controller. He kills or mutilates anyone who he cannot control with his manipulation. Non-believers are killed instantly and he becomes increasingly bored with those easily controlled.
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High Tension: Mutilation and haunting is possible in every scene.
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Departure from Reality: It’s legal to give a facility medical power over you.
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Moral Statement: Those who feel lost can be found by evil. Blindly following others won’t save you.
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I watched “Come Play”
Concept: Lonely, non-verbal, autistic boy is stalked by creature of loneliness that he conjures up by viewing an on-line story. Larry can only be seen thru camera of phone or other electronic devices.
Terrorize characters: Lights flicker and explode to indicate creatures presence in our world as he struggles to gain physical access from his world to ours.
Isolation: Boy knows what is going on, but can’t communicate it to parents or friends.
Death: Mother sacrifices herself at end allowing monster to take her to nether world instead of boy.
Monster/Villain: Larry is a huge, thin, dark creature with glowing red eyes and hunchback.
High Tension: Larry gets closer and closer to taking the boy the further the boy reads into the story. He tries to avoid the story, but it keeps popping up on every screen around him.
Departure from reality: Larry eventually makes into our world pursuing the boy anywhere there is a screen around for him to gain access.
Moral Statement: Lonely kids, plugged into their devices and making no friends in the real world are easy targets for problematic intrusion.
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Subject Line: “The Cleansing Hour” Horror conventions
What I learned doing this assignment is the reminding that a concept can’t be copyrighted, only its expressions.
Title/Concept/; The Cleansing Hour. A fake priest conducts a real exorcism after his actress in the reality TV series actually gets possessed.
Terrorize the characters: As the possession progresses the possessed threats everyone’s lives on set unless they expose their deepest secrets to each other.
Isolation: Contained low budget film set
Death: Fire, hallucinations, strangulation and mummification in wires
Monster/Villian: An unknown demon
High Tension: as the fake priest tries to get control of the actual possession he keeps trying to play it off like he’s in control but he’s not. As the demon demands more and more secrets to be revealed each one threatens to change or break friendships.
Departure from Reality: All of the demonic manifestations.
Moral Statement: Don’t fuck with the Devil.
It was ultra low budget and contained. It was an unexpected treat.
My Concept.
Concept: A defrocked Priest tries to save the souls of the already deceased by making them confront what they were running from in life, before they are dragged to judgment.
Terrorize the characters: Each person is chained to a personification of someone else’s demons. They have to defeat the demon they are chained to by helping the person that it is a personification of overcome it but the person they are helping is, in turned tied to someone’s else’s demon and hurting the demon meanings hurting the person.
Isolation: An abandoned church.
Monster: A murdered bride who was killed on her wedding day is chasing the victims while they work through someones else’s ssues.
High tension. They have until sunrise to unlock themselves from each other’s personified demons and overcome them before the light of the morning sun shows them for who and what they really are and they are sorted into the afterlife…and damnation. When the demons are sent back to hell the victims will join them if they are still chained to them and haven’t been freed through someone’s work.
Departure from reality: They are all dead. The demons they wound hurt the people they represent.
Moral statement: We are responsible for each other.
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Subject line: Heretic – Horror Conventions (place in first line)
Lesson 1 – Horror (1/21/25)
What I learned from this assignment – truth can be scary as hell. Breaking it down though and seeing the elements one at a time makes it seem less scary to write.Title / Concept: Heretic – two Mormon girl missionaries are coerced to go into a man’s home hoping to convert him, when he promises to show them what the real religion is.
Terrorize The Characters: Yes.
Isolation: yes.
Death: yes.
Monster/Villain: The villain is the monster who poses to be the good guy.
High Tension: yes.
Departure from Reality: yes.
Moral Statement: Blind faith and fanaticism can lead to death – or dangerous consequences3. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film?
Having just finished co-writing a memoir about a woman who left the Mormon church, I was fascinated to see the truths this film captured about the religion. The unpredictability of where the psychopath was leading the two young women was fascinating. Everything was questioned, which had the girls doubting themselves, and instead of standing together were divided, which added to the tension of the movie. With all the jump scares, the symbolism used, and the use of weather and timing all added to the “horror” as well as finding yourself asking what truth is, made it all the more terrifying.4. With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.
Concept: A severely burnt woman transforms into a vengeful, monstrous figure following betrayal and tragedy, executing revenge upon her elite circle
Terrorize The Characters: yes – unknowing to the audience who the killer is, an elite circle of 7 die off one by one in horrific ways
Isolation: a secluded, mysterious mansion once used for secret meetings by this elite group of “friends”
Death: all of them except for 1
Monster/Villain: the burnt woman who exacts her revenge – but we don’t know that until the end
High Tension: yes – lots of misdirects too
Departure from Reality: once in the mansion, no one has a sense of time
Moral Statement: like Heretic, it would be the dehumanizing effects of unchecked power – or it could also be the consequences of betrayal (hell hath no fury like a woman scorned – only the audience won’t know until the end that it is a woman committing the atrocious murders). Also, the cycle of destruction – the woman was wronged before she was burned, and continues to do wrong in the name of vengeance. But things were wrong even before she was killed as in the secluded mansion, a lot of things were done for blackmail, etc. to gain power. -
Bobby’s Horror Concept and Conventions:
What I learned doing this assignment is…just how much tension and horror can be created with just a few early hints at malevolence, and quick glimpses of spirits watching (all from Hereditary). Also, I need a title!!
LESSON 1: HORROR CONVENTIONS – HEREDITARY
TITLE/CONCEPT: Hereditary/A grieving mother is haunted by her mother’s malevolent spirit, and desperately tries to protect what is left of her family.
TERRORIZE CHARACTERS: Visions of ghost of Leigh (Gramma); Annie’s horrifying nightmares; ants from Charly’s head; Peter sees his own smiling face in reflection; Peter smashes his face into desk; Peter strangled in bed (by Annie? Or by Charly’s ghost?); Annie finds Leigh’s headless corpse in attic; Steve burned to death when Annie tosses drawing pad in fire; Peter chased by Annie’s possessed body, sees all dead people naked in attic.
ISOLATION: Family house isolated in woods; everyone in family isolated from each other – no one trusts anyone else; Annie isolated – sleepwalks, has visions – is anything she sees real?
DEATH: Charly beheaded; Steve set on fire; Annie self-decapitates
MONSTER/VILLAIN: Leigh’s spirit, Charly’s spirit, and Janie, who worship PAIMON, Demon God of Mischief; visible watching from corners of rooms in dark; Charly’s “tongue-clicking” torments Annie and Peter; giving Annie visions no one else sees, to isolate her further.
HIGH TENSION: Annie obsessed with guilt from sleepwalking incident; Peter guilty of Charly’s death; visions of spirits in corners; is any of this real, or just in Annie’s mind?
DEPARTURE FROM REALITY: Evil spirits; demon-worship; possession; Annie crawling the ceiling; Steve bursts into flames
MORAL STATEMENT: You cannot escape your past?
MY SCRIPT
TITLE/CONCEPT: SHADOW TOWN (this stinks)/ A murdered teen finds herself in a shadowy version of her small hometown, populated by the dozen or so inhabitants that died on the same day – including her killer, who is out to finish the job and destroy her soul forever, before she can be spun out into a new life.
TERRORIZE CHARACTERS: Hannah murdered the night of her prom; Hannah waking in empty copy of her own house…wandering empty, darkened streets of her “Shadow Town”; killer destroying souls waiting for rebirth – leaving behind empty, flattened husks. Having to venture into the darkness beyond the town, maybe? The darkness intruding on the town, tightening the “noose”, as the killer uses his power (?) to corner Hannah
ISOLATION: Hannah isolated in shadowy version of her small hometown, locked in perpetual twilight; individuals waiting – some with no idea where they are, what is happening
DEATH: Hannah stabbed to death by murderer; kills her killer with high-heel to the eye; spirit drained in shadow town…
MONSTER/VILLAIN: Hannah’s killer – a soulless creature who feeds on souls of those waiting to be reborn
HIGH TENSION: Hannah trying to hide from killer; trying to evade killer in after-life…
DEPARTURE FROM REALITY: Shadow-town; spirits drained of life; darkness surrounding Shadow-Town filled with monsters? Soulless Killer (need a name)
MORAL STATEMENT: each life we live is an opportunity to learn something, and grow stronger, and one step closer to Nirvana
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Karyn L. – Lesson 1 Assignment 1: Horror Concepts and Conventions
“What I learned doing this assignment is…?” I learned that my mind usually doesn’t go to the dark side horror when it comes to movies. This is a real learning experience and a stretch for me outside my comfort zone. I’m hoping that this will help me elevate the stakes and my writing.
2. Watch the movie and as you do, note its conventions.
• Title / Concept: A Quiet Place/A community is invaded by mammal eating aliens with hypersensitive hearing but blind.
• Terrorize The Characters: The aliens appear out of nowhere attracted to any sound.
• Isolation: Everyone has been killed. Find a safe, insulated, hideout, basement, etc.
• Death: Everyone is getting killed, even the family’s youngest son.
• Monster/Villain: The Monster Aliens
• High Tension: Any sound will attract the aliens; the birthing scene was incredible.
• Departure from Reality: Invaded by alien monsters. Not sure how much of a departure that is.
• Moral Statement: Do anything to protect family
3. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film? It’s an incredible film. It delivers on the conventions of a great horror film.
4. With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.
Title: DO NOT ENTER!
• Concept: Four explorers enter a cave to retrieve the body of the twin sister of the lead explorer, only to discover perfectly preserved remains of ancient human & alien civilizations.
• Terrorize The Characters: Die or become part of the experiment.
• Isolation: Labyrinth cave; A threat with each turn and each tunnel.
• Death: Tunnels become death chambers – physical and mental attacks.
• Monster/Villain: Aliens shapeshift, vanish, torment
• —who, what, where is the threat?
• High Tension: Discovering more isn’t a comfort!
• Departure from Reality: Shapeshifting, body snatching aliens-really?
• Moral Statement: Who is really the enemy? Existential threat to humanity.
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