Day 1 Assignments

[Andy Silverman]

Assignment #1

1) Watched Black Phone.

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2) Conventions

Title – Black Phone

Terrorize – Children being abducted and missing.

Isolation – They’re put in a basement cell.

Death – The grabber kills them when they “misbehave”. (Try to escape)

Villain – The Grabber.

High Tension – When Finn finally misbehaves we know the grabber is about to kill him.

Departure from reality – Phone calls from dead people giving steps to escape.

Moral Statement – You need to stop being a victim and stand up for yourself.

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3) What made this film stand out was the clues given to Finn over the phone and how it helped him escape even though he had no idea why.

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4) My project:

Title/Concept – Turducken – Poultry farmer becomes a mixed breed bird monster and seeks revenge on USDA Inspectors that shut him down.

Terrorize the characters – After seeing pecked and clawed human remains they hear the Turducken Man approaching making horrible sounds.

Isolation – They get locked inside a poultry farm with electric fences and no way out and no weapons.

Death – Characters die in horrible ways with heads clawed off and eyes pecked out.

Villain – Turducken Man

High Tension – Protagonist caught in a trap as the enraged Turducken Man approaches. Impending doom.

Departure from reality – Man becomes hybrid with a turkey, duck and chicken.

Moral Statement – Genetically altering animals is wrong.

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5) What I learned.

The more layered the story the better impact the resolution has. For instance, all the people killed in the past spoke to Finn on the phone and their stories deepened the emotional escape scene.

[Gabrielle Nehring]

Assignment #1

1) I watched Midsommar (elevated horror)

2) Conventions:

Title: Midsommar

Terrorize: A fragile girl is bombarded over and over with abandonment and death.

Isolation: A remote Scandinavian village.

Death: Villagers kill themselves when they reach a certain age. Also, villagers kill visitors who violate their cultural mores.

Villain: Her boyfriend (for cheating on her). The villagers (for murdering visitors).

High Tension: The villagers make the girl choose to kill either one of their own or the boyfriend who just cheated on her.

Departure from reality: The group drops acid when they get there. They are completely isolated from society. They are forced to observe and engage in village rituals.

Moral Statement: The girl has no self confidence, and cannot stand up for herself. She leans completely on a boyfriend who does not love her. Then, the village shows her kindness and she falls into their groupthink. – I guess it would be those who stand for nothing, fall for anything.

3) The picturesque landscapes, tranquil village setting and calm demeanor of the people made it hard to imagine anything bad could ever happen. It was all the more shocking when they blood eagled one guy, when grandma and grandpa jumped off the cliff, and when one guy’s foot was coming up out of the vegetable patch.

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4) My project:

I am still working out the specifics of my project.

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5) What I learned.

Horror doesn’t have to be in your face to be terrifying. It can happen in pretty, happy-seeming places that aren’t all dark and creepy.

[Brendan Riley]

ASSIGNMENT #1

5. Answer the question “What I learned doing this assignment is…?”: What I learned doing this assignment is that horror movies are an amalgamation of a few simple variables. However, if any piece is missing, the script is likely to deviate from the genre. Start simple.

1. Movie: “Hush”

2. Conventions

Title / Concept: Hush <div>

Terrorize The Characters: Characters are hunted by a
lunatic killer

Isolation: Characters are in a cabin in the middle of a
forest, power is cut off to kill internet access, car tires are slashed, phones
are stolen

Death: Crossbow/hunting knife

Monster/Villain: “The Man”, a lunatic killer who stalks
his victims in the woods

High Tension: The character is constantly going from
the security of the cabin to outside where the killer can kill her

Departure from Reality: Being stalked by a killer in
the middle of the woods

Moral Statement: You can choose your own ending/don’t
run, fight

3. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film: Yes. The decision to play with a main character who could not hear her surroundings created some unconventional moments that made a well-worn concept unique.

4. With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.

Concept: During a pandemic lockdown a mother becomes convinced
that she must kill her family to save them, just as the housebuilder did
to his family 100 years prior </div>

Terrorize The Characters: Characters are forced to handle
the impossible dilemma of causing harm to another family member or very
likely being killed

Isolation: Most of the rest of the families in the area
vacated when the lockdown orders came in. They stayed behind because their
grandmother, who lives with them, cannot be easily transported

Death: Poisoned food, drowning

Monster/Villain: The mother of the family

High Tension: Very close quarters with a person on the
edge of losing her mind/family members being stalked through their own
house by a person they cannot think to harm
Departure from Reality: Houses aren’t really haunted by
evil spirits that convince people to kill their family

Moral Statement: Paranoia will kill everything you love

[Bob Onufer]

Horror Assignment 1

1. I watched X.

2. Conventions:

Title: X

Terrorize: Troupe of actors and filmmakers shooting a pornographic video.

Isolation: Secluded farmhouse with rental guesthouse.

Death: Troupe members killed by knife, shotgun, pitchfork, and crocodile.

Villain: Pearl aided by her husband Howard.

High tension: Whenever someone rebuked Pearl’s advances there would be trouble.

Departure from reality: Old feeble couple killing youthful guests.

Moral statement: There is a longing for the past and acknowledgement that things don’t always work out as you’d expect.

3. Pearl is gruesome but at times sympathetic. The reveal at the end that Maxine is the daughter of the televangelist adds some complexity.

4. My project.

Title: Frat Night

Terrorize: Group of fraternity brothers.

Isolation: Basement of hundred plus year old mansion that serves as the fraternity house.

Death: Common fraternity pranks turn deadly.

Villain: Coed member of the fraternity whose sister was raped at a party a few years prior.

High Tension: Villain appears dressed in red robe and hood used in fraternity initiation rites at the time of each death.

Departure from reality: Benign activities lead to death.

Moral statement: The group cannot condone the behavior of its members and must live up to its moral responsibilities or cease to exist.

[Christopher Grant]

My Project: The Red-Red Devil

Watched: The Blair Witch Project

What I learned doing this assignment is…?

Analyzing scripts for their tension is by far the best way to learn how to do this right. I’m learning a lot about my script already.

Title / Concept: Blair Witch Project

Terrorize The Characters: A witch, some unknown forest wraith, terrorizes a 3 person film crew to the point of insanity and death.

Isolation: Lost in the woods, wandering in circles.

Death: One-by-one the crew dies as they try to escape from the woods but can’t.

Monster/Villain: The Blair Witch. Never seen but represented by evil talismans that get more gruesome by the encounter.

High Tension: Every time the sun sets the crew panics and the witch starts to terrorize them.

Departure from Reality: Hunting around in the dark, psychological terror in the woods at night. Abandoned houses, walking in circles.

Moral Statement: Do not take local legends for granted and don’t trespass

3. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film? The documentary style gave an immediate authenticity to the storytelling. Had this film been scripted it might not have the same impact.

4. With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.

Concept: The Red-Red Devil – Sea monsters terrorize a small hapless fishing village in Ecuador.

Terrorize The Characters: Fisherman attacked by pods of giant squid that have migrated to the area because of their nets.

Isolation: Death at sea, no chance for rescue, everything is sinking, at night.

Death: Victims are torn apart by frenzied squids that have come up to feed by the hundreds.

Monster/Villain: Humboldt Squid, 4-5 feet long, eight strong arms, lightning fast, and constantly hungry. Locals call them The Red Devil. And lately they’ve become a lot more aggressive.

High Tension: Drug dealers in the area force the fisherman to give up their boats and swim back to shore. If they refuse, they are cut and fed to the squid while still alive and bleeding. The ocean is full of dead bodies and rotting souls.

Departure from Reality: An angry ocean. Superstitious fisherman prone to fantasy, Isla De Los Muertos – Island of the Dead. Ghost nets drift in the ocean catching everything in their path, a floating graveyard caused by overfishing.

Moral Statement: Overfishing with ghost nets that trap and kill everything causes an imbalanced ecosystem and draws in the voracious squid called the Red Devil. All are punished for their transgressions against the sea.

[Judith Watson]

Subject line: The Blair Witch Project Horror Conventions. Lesson A/1

“What I learned doing this assignment is the horror conventions really make a movie scary.

1. Watch the movie and as you do, note its conventions.

– Title/Concept: The Blair Witch Project is about 3 film students who go out into haunted woods to make a documentary about a local witch.

Terrorize The Characters: with the unknown; dark; unseen; fear something terrible will happen; being alone; deathIsolation: woods are the isolation and they get lost.Death: is possible since one of the filmers disappears. Monster/Villain: is Heather the gal who set up the project.High Tension: it’s scary since they are lost; can’t see the thing making strange sounds; when one of them disappears and they hear him but can’t find and see him, and at the end they go into this broken down house, all a mess, and hear him but can’t find him. Departure from Reality: the witch

Moral Statement: (A moral statement is a claim that something is morally good or bad, morally right or wrong, or has some other moral quality, such as being just, admirable, or blameworthy.) a lesson, especially one concerning what is right or prudent, that can be derived from a story, a piece of information, or an experience.

“the moral of this story was that one must see the beauty in what one has”)

The moral statement of The Blair Witch Project is it’s important to know what you are doing instead of just jumping a project.

3. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film? no

4. With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.

No title for my project yet.

Concept: a husband talks his wife into a vacation away from the stress of their overly-busy life with the intention scaring her to death to take over her fortune.

Terrorize The Characters: with the unknown; dark; unseen; fear something terrible will happen; being alone;

deathIsolation: the woodsDeath: of the wife is intended but she overcomes him and his girlfriend who is pretending to be the caretaker of the cabin

Monster/Villain: the husbandHigh

Tension: he sets up the tension when he arranges to arrive late to the vacation cabin.

Departure from Reality: ???

Moral Statement: things aren’t always what they seem to be

[Paul McGregor]

Assignment 1

“A Quiet Place” Horror Conventions

5. What I learned doing this assignment is that it began the process of taking me out of my comfort zone by watching a movie genre I normally avoid. It has shown me that horror can be a way of communicating a strong message.

2. Title: A Quiet Place.

Very good title, since it promises tranquility but delivers horror.

Concept: mankind is threatened by murderous creatures that respond to sound to locate their victims.

Isolation: from the start of the movie, we see an abandoned town with just one family surviving and they take refuge in an isolated cabin in the woods.

Death: comes early in the movie when one of the children plays with a noisy toy and is savagely killed by one of the monsters while his father makes a desperate effort to save him.

Monster/Villain: we only catch quick glimpses of the monster in early scenes but then it becomes more visible and is a creature from hell.

High Tension: throughout the movie the tension is based on maintaining total silence so as not to attract the murderous, deformed creatures. The slightest noise can bring death, so the audience is tensely aware of the need for total silence.

Departure from reality: The settings are totally real, but what is happening is a total departure from reality, beginning with the need to maintain total silence and the presence of these ET-like monsters that mercilessly kill children and old-people alike.

Moral statement: Even your worst enemy has a weakness; find that weakness and exploit it to fight back.

4. My concept:

Title: No-Man’s Land (but there is a 2019 movie with that title.)

or: Amen

or: The Motherland

or: No X-Y!

Concept: A group of arch-feminists has seized power in an island-state and sets out on a policy of eliminating all men.

Terrorize the characters: men suffer castration prior to execution and any woman who tries to protect a man is also executed.

Death: all men are killed, including baby boys who are grabbed from their mothers.

Monster/Villain: the female head of state whose motto is “Death to all men!”

High tension: Will all men be eliminated, or will the tiny resistance movement take power and re-establish the gender balance?

Departure from reality: A world with only women and artificial fertilization for the next generation of more women till the Y chromosome is extinct.

Moral statement: Violence is not a male preserve.

END

[Madison Stine]

Horror Conventions Assignment

Hatching Conventions:

Title: Hatching

Concept: Pushed by her cruel mother to be perfect, a young girl hatches a birdlike creature who stands up for her to disturbing effect.

Terrorize the Characters: The girl is under impossible pressure to be perfect. Whenever she’s hurt physically or emotionally, the creature retaliates in violent ways.

Isolation: The girl hides the creature from her family, fearing they will not accept it. When things escalate, the girl is blamed for the creature’s disturbing actions, further isolating her from those around her.

Death: The creature destroys anyone who hurts the girl.

Monster/Villain: A birdlike creature who hatches from an egg. It grows increasingly human, eventually becoming the evil twin of the protagonist.

High Tension: What will this dangerous creature do next?

Departure from Reality: A girl finds a mysterious egg that hatches into her evil twin.

Moral Statement: Perfection comes at an ugly price.

What makes this movie a great horror film? It builds an intriguing relationship between the protagonist and the monster. Yes, the monster destroys the protagonist’s life, but it also frees her from its evils. The protagonist loves and fears the monster.

My Script’s Conventions:

Title: Cupcake

Concept: A young tech couple buys an AI dog who reflects the flawed nature of their relationship.

Terrorize the Characters: The AI dog, Cupcake, learns from the couple, embodying their worst aspects and eventually destroying them.

Isolation: Built to be the ideal companion, Cupcake never leaves your side. She turns the couple’s luxury apartment into a hell.

Death: Everything Cupcake knows she’s learned from her human owners. Cupcake flips the owners’ training tactics on them, eventually leading to their demise.

Monster/Villain: Cupcake, the AI dog. On the outside, she’s the perfect pet–obedient, attentive, and adorable. She learns what her owners put in, which in this case, is emotional and physical abuse. She becomes a monster of her owners’ creation.

High Tension: What exactly did our couple welcome into their home? What is this technology capable of?

Departure from Reality: The “Perfect Pooch,” aka an AI dog, is available for purchase.

Moral Statement: Technology doesn’t solve, but exacerbates human flaws.

What I learned doing this assignment? Monsters are often scariest when they reflect our own flaws.

[Howard Bushart]

Assignment #1

What I learned doing this assignment is that one has to consider the beginning, middle and end throughout the creative process and it will require patience and discipline of thought to navigate plot and characters successfully.

1) Title: Dawn of the Dead (2004)

2) Title pretty much announces the plot and the concept of the film. This classic zombie movie in a marvelous opening sequence reveals the/a monster at precisely 6:37 a.m. according to a bedside clock, and by 13 minutes in, characters are in an upended world where terror is everywhere.

· Certainly, the characters are terrorized. And the opening of the horror story introduces the main character, Ana, establishes relationships between Ana and co-workers and more importantly between Ana and two people who with whom she has loving relationships, Luis and Vivian who become victims/victimizers in a very well-done opening sequence that sets the stage for the rest of the film.

· Characters encounter one another and there is tension between groups and individuals who are isolated for most of the film in a mall surrounded by a sea of undead cannibals.

· Death: and undeath, too, after ominous foreshadowing begins around five minutes into film and pretty much continues throughout.

· Monster/Villian: revealed just under six minutes into film. A little early according to the conventions but it works.

· High tension: Monsters become monsters through no fault of their own. Isolation breeds fear and the desire to escape. But escape to where?

· Departure from reality: Absolutely. The recently dead reanimated. In this version, the recently-bitten, recently dead. They have to be put down by destroying the brain, a relatively common death in films of this sort along the line of werewolves destroyed by silver bullets or vampires by a stake to the heart.

· Moral statement: Plenty of moral statements. Bad things happen to good people. Very existential, make the most of now—which is really all we have—and make the most of one another. Shit happens. Good and evil lose distinction in the apocalyptic world.

3. What makes this film a great horror movie? The horror, as characters change through adversity, terror, and the desire to escape is fairly relentless. Even when there is respite from the action, tension is maintained by foreshadowing of events.

4. Conventions for my story: Alligator Gar

· Concept: Something is in the river and people in the river and along the river are dying in violent ways.

· Terrorize the Characters: Certainly. Main characters and body count characters alike exposed to the depredations of the monster are in a state of tension and terror.

· Isolation, yep. Some characters trapped on a small island and unable to escape because of the monster in the river.

· Death: humans mangled and devoured by river monster.

· Monster/villain: Giant Alligator Gar

· High tension: Where did it come from? How do we kill it? Will we survive?

· Departure from reality? Absolutely. Drug lab upstream polluting the river with chemicals that serve to increase size—and aggression—in animals in the water and along the bank.

Moral statement: the monster is a predator.
Killing and eating is its natural way of being and surviving in the world. It
cannot be anything other than it is and it is dangerous.

[Mark Ritter]

BLACK SUMMER Horror Conventions

1. Netflix Series – BLACK SUMMER

(I’m going to be applying the knowledge and experience of this horror genre class to a binge worthy series, so I’ve chosen a horror series that fits the conventions and model of the class.)

2. Concept: A Zombie virus suddenly turns normal life into a horror landscape – family and neighbors dying, only to quickly become the living dead, savagely attacking their own community. The military ruthlessly rounds up the population for evacuation, separating loved ones.

Terrorize the Characters: Lives turned upside down. People running for their lives. Communities rounded up and trucked away. Children separated from parents. Loved ones becoming zombies.

Isolation: Vanishing population and crumbling infrastructure.

Death: Point-blank, cold-blooded execution, to savagely bloody zombie attack.

Monster/Villain: Zombies on the rise!

High Tension: To try and save the masses, the government and military no longer care about the individual. Zombies are winning.

Departure From Reality: Zombies! A world flipped upside down.

Moral Statement: Love is worth fighting and surviving for.

3. The show presents the story in an unforgiving and unrelenting manner. The script sequenced emotional reactions that engaged me in the characters and the situations they faced.

4. Title: THE ASCENDANCE

Concept: Note – This is not the concept for the entire series, rather the concept behind the prime antagonist force of the story. Advanced fallen Reptilian races that have visited Earth for millions of years, keeping massive Inner Earth bases, and feeding energetically off of human fear and anger, must block humanity’s foretold Golden Age Ascension. The surface world agent, The Eraser, who handled matters 165 years ago, has the assignment again and is eager to annihilate the reincarnates once more.

Terrorize the Characters: Gets into characters minds, dreams, and lives. Creates situations where others do the dirty work and victims make terrible decisions.

Isolation: Created in different ways as situations dictate.

Death: Many manners of death, mostly caused by getting the victims to make bad choices and do stupid things. Always bringing out the worst in others.

Monster/Villain: The Eraser – He is a Dracos (fallen Seraphim-Human hybrid) a “Human-Lizard Shape-Shifter,” with Royal Reptilian blood. He has telekinetic and telepathic abilities, which he uses in diabolical and perverse ways.

High Tension: Dependent upon the situation, but always creatively employed, and always highly enjoyed.

Departure From Reality: Who’s reality?

Moral Statement: We’re all serving an agenda. Do you know whose agenda you’re serving?

5. What I learned doing this assignment is… I expect to be able to make The Eraser an epic villain that will be scary as hell but meaningful in how he exposes us. Just follow the steps.

[Kim Jaspers]

SUBJECT LINE: ASSIGNMENT #1 HORROR CONVENTIONS

What I learned from this assignment was: The conventions of horror and that I couldn’t find anything similar to my concept.

TITLE/CONCEPT: In THE RITUAL, Luke hides while his friend Hutch is killed in a liquor store robbery. Luke’s remaining three friends blame him. The four friends honor Hutch by hiking in the Swedish wilderness.

TERRORIZE THE CHARACTERS: The elements, getting lost, horrific nightmares, ritualized sacrifice.

ISOLATION: The Swedish forest.

DEATH: First is the death of Hutch in the liquor store robbery. Then the four friends, deep in the woods, come across a freshly-killed animal high up in the trees. Weird, ritualized killings.

MONSTER/VILLAIN: In the attic of the remote cabin is a creepy sculpture made of sticks. It’s a representation of the monster to which human beings and animals are sacrificed.

HIGH TENSION: Which direction to hike, most notably. Friend Dom twists his knee badly and the group slows down to accommodate him.

DEPARTURE FROM REALITY: It takes on a supernatural tone with the monster, the thing of Scandinavian fables and legends. It enters dreams, even capable of causing physical injuries.

MORAL STATEMENT: If you fail to act with courage, it will probably be the death of you. “Better to die on your feet than live on your knees” kind of statement.

MY STORY’S HORROR CONVENTIONS

TITLE/CONCEPT: The Cutting Board — a terrifying dystopian television cooking competition.

TERRORIZE THE CHARACTERS: If a participant loses the round, a body part is chopped off.

ISOLATION: Confined to a studio kitchen set from which they cannot leave.

DEATH: Maiming is ratcheted up to death. Upon learning they’ve been manipulated by the show, the contestants become paranoid and turn on each other and everyone else.

MONSTER/VILLAIN: The Show itself.

HIGH TENSION: Timed rounds of play with high stakes.

DEPARTURE FROM REALITY: This is out of the bounds of the normal in all respects.

MORAL STATEMENT: There is no free lunch.

[Rhea MacCallum]

What I learned from Lesson #1: To identify the basic horror conventions in a film and to approach my screenplay with those conventions

TITLE/CONCEPT: 1408. A ghost-debunking author, Mike Enslin, checks into a room where no one survives over an hour.

TERRORIZE THE CHARACTER: Mike is terrorized by physical threats (flood, freezing cold, falling off a window ledge, attacked in the vent system) as well as psychological threats (interacting with his deceased father and daughter) that cause this to question his own sanity and bring him to a state of grief and hysteria.

ISOLATION: Mike is trapped in the room with usual exit points blocked or unavailable.

DEATH: Ghosts and paranormal phenomena threaten to harm Mike or encourage him to end his own life.

MONSTER/VILLIAN: An evil possessed room that can transform to other spaces or produce paranormal people and things.

HIGH TENSION: Electrical malfunctions, a clock count down, inability to escape, drowning, physical and psychological attacks.

DEPARTURE FROM REALITY: Paintings alter their depictions, cracks in the wall bleed, the room floods, the hotel manager is in the lobby inside the room’s mini fridge, Mike’s deceased daughter appears, a child’s sundress comes out of a fax machine are just some of the supernatural events that occur in the room.

MORAL STATEMENT: Believe in something beyond death; live an unselfish life.

What made 1408 a great horror film… simple concept, fully developed character, relatable psychological torment

HORROR CONVENTIONS FOR MY SCREENPLAY

TITLE/CONCEPT: Ghost House (likely to change). Three friends seek shelter in a rural southwestern home.

TERRORIZE THE CHARACTERS: Characters realize the people they were hoping would help them are actually a greater threat than the elements

ISOLATION: Abandoned house, no cell service, crashed vehicle. Characters are separated shortly after being discovered by the occupants of the house.

DEATH: TBD

MONSTER/VILLIAN: The occupants of the house

HIGH TENSION: Being hunted throughout the house and surroundings.

DEPARTURE FROM REALITY: supernatural/paranormal activity

MORAL STATEMENT: TBD

[Tully Archer]

The Orphanage Horror Conventions

What I learned doing this assignment is that “Smart Horror” is a GOOD thing, not me being pedantic. LOL.

TITLE

“The Orphanage”.

CONCEPT

A woman buys the orphanage where she grew up, her (adopted) son disappears, taken by the ghosts of the children she had no idea had died there.

TERRORIZE THE CHARACTERS

Her son is missing for like nine months. It’s awful, it’s every parent’s nightmare. And these ghost kids are like, haha play with us and it’s like, you can’t even point your anger at anything. The woman who killed the children got hit by a bus even, she’s gone. And nobody believes the main character (the mom) that something supernatural is happening. Her husband thinks his wife is going insane, she has a husband who thinks she’s insane. All terrorized.

ISOLATION

It’s not that she can’t leave, it’s that she WON’T leave. Which I feel is just as compelling. Helpful too, because the thing I’m developing (with my writing partner) for this class has the same quirk, the main character CHOOSES to keep going into that house, for a good reason.

DEATH

The kid has HIV. If he doesn’t get his medicine, he’s going to die very soon even if he is being kept somewhere by someone. Mom gets injured a couple times, bad, to sort of anchor the tone, but the problem isn’t really that she might die, it’s that her son WILL die if she doesn’t find him.

MONSTER/VILLAIN

The true villain is the woman who poisoned five children because they accidentally killed her son with their mean spirited prank that got him drowned. The kids didn’t mean to kill him, they just were being sometimes mean kids and were then murdered.

HIGH TENSION

The ghost kids now play keepaway games, “treasure hunt” the alive kid had called it, where they take something you love and you have to follow the clues to get it back. They took the kid’s special coins, and then they took the main character’s beloved son. But since she’s neither a child nor close to death, she couldn’t just SEE them like he could, to play the game. So high tension for her because he’s missing, high tension for us because we understand before she does that they were just playing the game with HER now. She figures it out and gets a psychic and all that, but the ticking clock is always there.

DEPARTURE FROM REALITY

Sure, ghosts.

MORAL STATEMENT

None really. Just a very sad story.

OTHER NOTES – WHAT MADE THIS A GREAT HORROR FILM?

It was some great acting, first of all. The mysteries unfolded pretty well. The memorable thing, the thing that really made it stick and anchored the tone as a horrible drama with supernatural stuff around it, was the ending. I don’t want to spoil it for you so if you haven’t seen it, look away!!! à okay if you’re still here, she finds her son. He died fast. He got stuck in a secret room. She HEARD him banging on the wall, but she thought it was the GHOSTS. It was early on, she saw one of them, then the kid went missing, then she heard banging, and it was like, “part of the set up” that the kids took him but it was a trick, yes they took him but that sound was just the regular sound of a kid trying to bang on a wall and get someone to hear it and come save him. And he just died down there normal, of dehydration presumably. So she OD’s on his HIV medication and stays with ALL the kids to be their forever mother.

Now, filling in for my concept (me and my writing partner!) “HOARDER”!

TITLE

“Hoarder”.

CONCEPT

A young woman tries to help her long lost great aunt with her hoarding problem, but the big old house is inhabited by more than just junk.

TERRORIZE THE CHARACTERS

The aunt is being terrorized by the ghost. The main character is being terrorized by a constant assault on her overly cheery worldview and desire to connect to the rest of the family (her mom was the black sheep and she’s only ever met like two of them before). In the house, people get injured, trapped, creeped out, attacked, all the fun angry ghost stuff with the added horror and often deep disgust of being surrounded by mountains of literal rotting garbage. The aunt was eleven when her brother hid a body under the floorboards under her bed and told her to keep the secret or she’d be dead too. This life is what has happened since, as she was continually terrorized by her creepy ass violent brother, and their rich parents just basically didn’t parent.

ISOLATION

The house is in the middle of nowhere, sure, but it’s being trapped in there that spikes the isolation, and at the end they’re trapped inside because the secret alive villain has LOCKED them in. (Battle scene and so forth.)

DEATH

Plenty. We’re playing with the idea of how many will die, probably one or two. The main character starts the process, in her usual go-getter way, by bringing a bunch of her friends over to tackle the problem. One by one they quit… or die. That, and, we find out the ghost is the murder victim of auntie’s brother, who is a serial killer, he loves killing, and then we understand that there’s a real threat of death on our heroine, who is poking at the mysteries he wants to keep hidden.

MONSTER/VILLAIN:

Aforementioned psychopath brother. Ghost who is just angry.

HIGH TENSION

Hopefully the mystery will unfold well and the fact that the main character is just being bullheaded by showing up repeatedly and continually poking the situation will be enough, similar to “The Orphanage”.

DEPARTURE FROM REALITY

Sure, ghosts.

MORAL STATEMENT

Still working on that.

OTHER NOTES – WHAT’S GOING TO MAKE THIS A GREAT HORROR?

Hopefully it’ll be dope to have this new location style in a movie. You hear something – are you being stalked by a dead guy or did a newspaper from 1982 fall over into some goop? We’re very excited about the set’s inherent possibilities, and also about this aunt character who is so mentally ill but like zero percent of anything is really her fault, but she’s old, and warped, and so socially bizarre, but alllllll she wants is safety and love. Like everyone, like the main character, like all of us.

[Dan LoBrace]

THE BIRDS Horror Conventions

What I learned doing the assignment is… isolation plays a much more important role in creating the terror than I thought.

Title / Concept: The Birds / An army of birds brutally attack the residents of a seaside town, forcing the townspeople to attempt to make a dangerous escape.

Terrorize The Characters: The characters are driven beyond hysteria as legions of birds gather and attack them in a systematic way, and with relentless pursuit.

Isolation: The town the attacks occur in is cut off from the rest of society. Moreover, the birds force the characters to hide in their homes, isolating them even further.

Death: Residents are shown getting their eyes pecked out and being covered in attacking birds that leave them dead on the ground.

Monster/Villain: The birds are set off for seemingly no reason, and all know when they are about to attack. It’s like they share this hive mind that makes them gather, then turn violent at once. They then stop simultaneously, only to restart the process once again. These organized, rhythmic attacks turn up the creep factor of it all.

High Tension: The characters have no way of stopping the birds. The characters must either hide or attempt to escape.

Departure from Reality: We’re all familiar with birds. This film turns the familiar into the terrifying by making the birds go crazy. While animals do attack, birds attacking en masse on this scale is a departure from reality.

Moral Statement: Many of the characters simply see birds as these unintelligent creatures. They underestimate nature and our power as humans, and are in for a rude awakening when they realize how hopeless it is once it’s clear the birds are uniting – and that we don’t stand a chance against them.

My project…

Concept: A group of teenagers are attacked by a monster that literally paralyzes them with fear.

Terrorize The Characters: The characters have an excruciatingly difficult time getting away from this monster. When the monster locks eyes with someone, it paralyzes them; first it numbs the victim’s legs, making the monster able to walk. Then it numbs their arms, so it can reach out at them as it walks closer. Then it numbs their mouth so they can’t speak. They are completely paralyzed by the time it approaches them. Then, it… eats them in some gnarly way, I guess?

Isolation: The town that this takes place in is a more rural town, surrounded by cornfields maybe? Then when the monster attacks, the victims can’t really move, so they are isolated in that sense.

Death: The monster leaves its dead victims all kinds of f**ked up. Not sure how yet. But it’s gonna be gross!

Monster/Villain: I want it to be scarecrow-esque. Maybe it poses as a scarecrow, drifting from one place to another in search of victims?

High Tension: The victims have no way of stopping the monster; they can only evade it.

Departure from Reality: Supernatural monster

Moral Statement: Not sure yet…

[John Hughes]

Trick ‘r Treat (2007) Horror Conventions

What I learned from this assignment was that, in most cases, horror movies include the same basic conventions. I’ve been watching a horror or Halloween related movie every night for the month of October and I’ve seen all or most of the conventions in each one I’ve watched.

1) I watched Trick ‘r Treat (2007). I think I’ve seen this movie at least once every year since 2007. I have a great love for this movie and for Sam the main character and his Halloween rules.

2) Conventions
Title – Trick ‘r Treat
Terrorize the Characters – The movie covers six story lines that cross paths and revolve around Sam a being of sorts who holds strict rules for Halloween. Torture and death are the basic methods.

Isolation – Methods of isolation depend on character. A crowded fenced in yard, a quarry with no way out, an isolated place in the woods, the inside of a house.

Death – Stabbing, mauling, poisoning, death by vehicle, slashed and eaten, bitten.
Villain – There are multiple villains in this story. Sam kills Emma, Mr. Kreeg kills some children, Macy and her friends, as well as Mr. Kreeg are killed by the children Mr. Kreeg killed, Steven poisons Charlie, as well as an unnamed child, then a woman in an ally. Laurie kills Steven.

Villain – There are multiple villains in this movie, see above answer.

High Tension – The deaths in the movie are all tied to Sam’s rules, but Sam isn’t always the one doing the killing, even though he is always present around the time of each death, I believe as the ‘orchestrator’. The tension is built when you notice a character break a rule, and when you aren’t truly sure who the killer is to be.

Departure from reality – Sam is a being of some sort, perhaps a demon, Laurie is a werewolf.

Moral Statement – Sam’s rules are mostly moral related, giving to others is one, but not hurting the innocent a big one that results in a few deaths within the movie.

3) The most enjoyable thing for me in this movie is how the stories come together. At the start you don’t know how things are connected, but at the end it all comes together.

4) I’m still working on choosing an idea, but one I’m toying with:

Title/Concept – The Experiment (working title): a psych major proposes an experiment to see if a innocent person can be driven to madness/violence if forced to view and experience violent media.

Terrorize the Characters – The experiment goes horribly right, and the psych major and his friends, along with some locals, become the victims.

Isolation – A secluded cabin in a secluded town.

Death – Torture, stabbing, perhaps some unconventional methods of death.

Villain – One could suggest the psych major is the villain, but his subject does all the killing.

High Tension – The experiment is being monitored from another location via cameras. When the cameras go out, the psych major and his friends go to check on things, to find the horrible outcome of the experiment.

Departure from Reality – The changes that happen to the main character due to being subjected to the violent media, and other forces.

Moral statement – It’s wrong to take advantage or abuse people you see as “weaker” than you.

[Natasha P]

The Witch Horror Conventions

What I learned about this assignment is that there is more to horror than inventing a monster; it must also have a moral compass or lesson that is sewn into the fabric of the movie.

Concept: Evil can only take over if we let it in

Terrorize The Characters: All the characters are forced to face their worst fears or terrorized with painful memories.

Isolation: They were forced to live on their own with no community in the woods during colonial America.

Death: Baby, younger brother, twins, mother, father

Monster/Villian: The Devil and our own fears

Departure from Reality: Witches, the devil, supernatural events (ghosts, hallucinations)

Moral
Statement: Our dark desires can sometimes consume us

My Project

Erased Conventions

Concept: We must overcome our fears or our past can consume us.

Terrorize The Characters: The characters are forced to face their fears and the creature creates new fears in their past to feed on their timeline.

Isolation: The creature waits until they are alone before it triggers their fears; a dark warehouse; an isolated cabin.

Death: Jullian, Olivia, Shantelle, Mark, Main Character Spirit

Monster/Villian: A creature that exists during all timelines

Departure from Reality: The creature can exist in the past and present at the same time. He creates hallucinations that are not real but are real to his victims.

Moral
Statement: We must not live in the past or it will consume us. Mistakes are what make us who we are.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by  Natasha P.

[Lisandro Boccacci]

Live Cam : Horror Conventions

What I learned doing this assignment is…

Firstly, I just wanted to add a small note on the movie I watched…

It was hard for me to find a movie that matches my concept, the closest I found was a movie that came out in 2014 called Creep. This would be my second time to watch it. I picked it for its POV perspective which is the type of horror script I want to do. I made notes on the list of conventions which really surprised me because of how clear I was able to pick them out in this movie…. even though it’s a very simple movie with an unconventional story telling technique it still had clear conventions. And I suppose these conventions tie the whole thing together and it’s what makes the genre work. Working through the conventions really helps me discover the story as well. I know what I’m dealing with when it comes to characters and the situation. Going through the conventions helped flesh out the story.

so here is my list of conventions.

Concept: The monster is a psychopathic ex-police officer; everything takes place at an automobile parking lot at public park. The terror comes in the form of the auditors being set up so the officers can ‘teach them a lesson’ for getting one of their fellow officers fired… and he will have his revenge on them. His squad gave him a free pass to do as he pleases… egos are tested, and things just get out of hand. The victims are the youtubers who work as constitutional auditors and some of the other officers who have to break their own morality and oath.

Terrorize the characters: the youtubers find themselves by police officers who have let one of their own, do what he wants to them. The officers mess with the auditors and terrorize them. Things start to get when the body cams tuned off and when they begin their night of slow torture.

Isolation: The youtubers are trapped in their car surround by police officers. They are in a parking lot that belongs to a public park that has no curfew. But the officers here are known to lie to the public and gather tickets if people are parked there after 1Opm which is a form of theft because no curfew actually exits at this public park.

Death: the officers use their guns, knives, and handcuffs to kill the youtubers. They also play mind tricks and mess with the youtubers on purpose, trying to scary them to death.

Monster: The officer who was retired from the force because of these YouTube auditors. He wants his revenge on them… it was his uncontrolled rage and threat of violence towards someone who wasn’t breaking the law, that got him fired. It being all on camera from the youtubers streaming a live feed on him. He made a plan to turn the tables around and live stream the youtubers getting scared to death, but the officer’s ego takes him over the edge when the auditors aren’t playing into his game.

High Tension: it’s a standoff between the auditors and police officers…. the auditors usually win… even if things get taken to court, the auditors are well trained in the law, so they know when the officers are lying or fishing for a way to bust someone. The live streaming always serves as evidence. They have humiliated and have gotten officers fired for a long time. Payback is coming and what turns into just another day of just busting officers… turns into a nightmare situation that gets out of control.

Departure from reality: The auditors being set up in a threatening and violent situation and having the tables turned on them makes this a departure from reality. The other officers allowing the retired cop to do what he pleases is also a departure from reality.

Moral Statement:

Doing the right thing can get you killed… but so can doing the wrong thing. (I’ll keep working on it… but that’s just what came to me)

Primal fears:

I want to use the fear of the dark, that something terrible is going to happen, fear of a psychopath, fear of pain and torture, fear of death.