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Lesson 1
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I watched a horror film on Prime that I had never heard of before named BROTHEL. I am not sure how to write this assessment so I will just give my views about it. I found it weird for horror, it was more creepy than scary. It was very moody and almost porno. Lots of nudity and death during sex. It was a modern day ghost story about a woman who buys a former brothel to turn into a B&B and ends up socializing with the dead murdered whores from the 1870’s. It has the 3 main emotional elements – Panic, Terror and lead to Hysteria. I kept me guessing. I was not sure if the main character was dead and a ghost herself. There were around 9 characters who met grizzly deaths, by a male character who at the end turns out to be Death. So, it was definitely departed from reality into the world of dreams, ghosts, and murders. The main character had the FEAR OF BEING ALONE after her husband was murdered, so she moves into an old empty house in a ghost town in the middle of the desert. I found that a bit weird to believe, but it fit the horror tropes of one set, in an isolated part of the desert with 9 dead ghosts. If there was a moral statement I didn’t get it, unless it was “If your afraid of being alone don’t move to a ghost town to open a B&B where no tourist will ever visit. ”
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It Comes At Night Horror Conventions
Title / Concept: It Comes At Night
Terrorize The Characters: Characters are under constant threat from a worldwide virus, as well as the living things that could bring it to their doorstep.
Isolation: The family has retreated to a house deep in the woods and has barricaded itself inside, with only one way in and out. They have cut off contact with anyone outside their family unit.
Death: Death by violence (other people) or through suffering with the plague.
Monster/Villain: Other humans who might be infected or who might be violent because they’re looking to stay alive or protect their own families.
High Tension: How do you keep your family safe from a plague, from others who might wish to do you harm? Do you allow others into your sphere? What does it take to trust?
Departure from Reality: We recently experienced a pandemic, but what makes this a departure from reality is that the virus depicted in the film was much more infectious and deadly, and as a result civilization had collapsed
Moral Statement: By the end of the film, the viewer is left to consider to what lengths they might go to protect their family, and do ethics and trust mean anything in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
What makes this a great horror film? I’m not sure it’s a great horror film. I remember liking it back in 2017 when I first saw it, and I was surprised upon this re-watch to see it was an A24 film, made before I knew what an “A24” type film was. It was much more nuanced than most horror films I had seen before that date and I loved the way it made me think about what trust is, and how trust can get eroded when the stakes are high. Also, the protagonist was not just an anti-hero, they might have actually been a villain. But by the end of the film, I think what made it *not* a great film was that the ending renders the entire film almost pointless as far as messaging goes.
Forest for the Trees Horror Conventions
Concept: A real estate developer buys a centuries-old game reserve with the intent to turn it into an “active lifestyle community,” in spite of an increasing awareness that supernatural creatures are already there.
Terrorize The Characters: Characters find themselves confronting unknown forces in the game reserve, and the real estate developer in particular refuses to give up on his dream but may be forced to do so.
Isolation: The game reserve is unmapped, uncharted, apart from its boundaries. Going inside is like stepping back in time, and hallucinations (?) are common.
Death: By accident or by incident, people sometimes go into the reserve and never come out, except for one attendant whose family has maintained the property for generations.
Monster/Villain: I haven’t figured this out yet – the monster/villain could be supernatural, physical, or even the caretaker.
High Tension: The real estate developer fights the caretaker, the local zoning board, environmentalists, and eventually, the supernatural forces in the game reserve.
Departure from Reality: Inside the game reserve, reality is questionable. The normal, understood rules of nature and the universe don’t always apply.
Moral Statement: What is destruction and what is progress? What does creating something new in tribute for a wife and child tragically lost in an accident mean vs. preserving what exists for others as a tribute?
What I learned doing this assignment is: I need to think about defining more clearly the concepts above for my story. I think if I figure these out more concretely, the script will be easier to write and more entertaining for others to read and (hopefully) eventually watch onscreen.
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‘The Fog’ (1980) Horror Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment is… that the conventions of horror film should be easily identifiable and that all the components listed should have a clear answer that fits in with these conventions or rules.Concept:
A. Monster: Ghosts of an entire crew of a ship bringing gold to Antonio Bay who were murdered by Antonio Bay’s ‘founding fathers’ one hundred years ago.
B. Terror: A fog brings the ghosts on the centenary who kill any inhabitant of Antonio Bay.
C. Environment: Antonio Bay at midnight
D. Victims: anyone, but in particular, the ancestors of the original inhabitants.TERRORIZE THE CHARACTERS: A lighted fog moves quickly through the Bay bringing to life the angry crew of ghosts with swords and hooks who kill off the inhabitants
ISOLATION: The Bay is isolated and the fog destroys all communication and electricity, moving through the night
DEATH: The deaths are horrible and violent, stabbing and using hooks.
MONSTER: Ghosts of an entire crew of a ship bringing gold to Antonio Bay who were murdered by Antonio Bay’s ‘founding fathers’ one hundred years ago.
HIGH TENSION: The main character, a radio presenter who works in the lighthouse, tries to escape the ghosts by climbing to the top of the lighthouse. She is almost killed as the fog envelops everything, eventually entering the church where Rev. Malone has discovered that his grandfather stole the gold. Once the gold is returned, the ghosts stop, but they return to kill Rev. Malone.
DEPARTURE FROM REALITY: Strange things happen on the centenary; a fog that appears from nowhere, ghosts killing people…
MORAL STATEMENT: The sins of one’s ancestors will return for justice. One can never truly escape and should live a pure life, as justice is inescapable. -
Assignment 1Horror Concepts
What I learned doing this assignment is…?
By breaking down the components, it’s easy to create a concept.
I chose to watch 1408 which was based off a Stephen King short story staring John Cuzack and Samual L. Jackson.
Title / Concept: 1408 A writer trying to escape the death of his daughter travels the country writing about haunted hotels and is very cynical, having encountered nothing remotely supernatural, until he arrives at the Dolphin Hotel in New York.
Terrorize The Characters: The entity moves thing within the room to either hurt the hero or scare him. As things escalate, it alters man’s perspective and creates alternate realities.
Isolation: He is locked within a hotel room.
Death: The entity is trying to drive the man crazy so that he will kill himself.
Monster/Villain: The monster is never seen. We only see it’s actions.
High Tension: Right from the beginning, the hotel manager tries everything to stop the hero from entering the room. There is a ticking clock as no one has lasted a full hour without dying. The entity uses a clock radio to show the countdown.
Departure from Reality: Things move on their own. Radio works even when unplugged. His dead daughter appears before him. The room is destroyed with him in it.
Moral Statement: Grief and bad memories are not always a bad thing.
I enjoyed this story, because it had you guessing the whole time. It was one man’s fight with his grief and himself. John Cuzack’s acting was fantastic.My Story
Concept: A team of military privateers breaks into a covert bio-weapons lab, only to find themselves hunted by genetically engineered creatures that can adapt to their tactics and weapons.
Terrorize The Characters: Life and death fight.
Isolation: The group is trapped in a top-secret lab with multiple monsters created by the scientists.
Death: Death by impalement, fire, being eaten, torn into pieces.
Monster/Villain: genetically bio-weapons.
High Tension: jump scare, full out action, horrible deaths, creatures getting stronger.
Departure from Reality: Dealing with unseen before monsters.
Moral Statement: Looks can be deceiving. Never underestimate your opponent.
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