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Lesson 1
Reply to post your assignment.
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18 Replies
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Good Afternoon:
Should we post our pre-course work with the four elements?
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Horror concept: Every 30 years, each family has to sacrifice a member. Some children are born specifically to be the sacrifice.
A. Monster: Family members
B. Terror: Being killed by your own family/loved ones
C. Environment: A creepy small town
D. Victims: Teenagers who decide to rebel against the tradition.
Primal fears:
Fear of death
Fear of pain or torture
Fear that something terrible will happen
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Horror Concept: Dream first home in a remote desert outpost becomes a nightmare when a pregnant woman and her young son are tormented by elemental forces and conjured spirits.
A. monster/villain – The Mojave desert and the spirits within
B Broad daylight terror related to mirages during the day and wicked desert winds at night. As well as black eyed children, who may or may not be there, elemental spirits, and whatever was conjured by Satanic rituals performed in the house.
C Location is the only completed house in the El Mirage subdivision located 10 miles from California City and 7 miles from the closest known neighbor.
D Victims: Maria, twenty-five, 5 months pregnant; her 20-200/visually impaired 5 year old son Jesus; .Bonita, a fat incontinent teenaged Chihuahua; and Lolita, a potty- mouth Conjure parrot.
Primal Fears:
Fear of the dark.
Fear of the light (mirages or real?)
Fear something terrible will happen.
Fear she’ll lose her baby.
Fear of the unseen.
Fear of the desert creatures.
Fear of death.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Stephanie O'Leary.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Stephanie O'Leary. Reason: FULLY DELETED - This Was My Pre-Class Assignment That Should Have Been Posted on the Introduce Yourself Page - Sorry!
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This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by
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A QUIET PLACE Horror Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment is that using these horror conventions will help me develop a fresh and SMART script with high concept genre appeal.
Title / Concept: A QUIET PLACE
In a post-apocalyptic world, mankind’s survivors must not make a sound, lest they alert these blind but instantly deadly predators who have super sensitive hearing.
Terrorize The Characters: If you make the slightest noise, these creatures will attack and kill you.Isolation: The family we’re following appear to be amongst the last survivors of an apocalypseDeath: The family’s small boy finds a toy car in an abandoned store. It is harmless without batteries, but Dad prohibits him from taking it. Big sister finds batteries and gives them to the boy, who turns the toy on. He dies in first ten minutes of the story.<div>
Monster/Villain: We seldom get a good look at them, which makes them scarier. Clicking and wing flutter sounds. Look like enormous bat-like creatures with hideous faces redolent of inner ears. They find prey by by echolocation. And kill instantly.
<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>High Tension: Sister guilt-stricken over contributing to little brother’s death. Crazy farmer with dead wife. As Dad and son approach, Farmer screams bringing sudden death to himself. Mother in family is pregnant. Her water breaks as monster explore the house she’s in alone. When she gives birth, and baby is born, how will they keep it quiet? Dad returns. They use fireworks to distract monsters. House is flooding. Creature repelled by Dad’s hearing aid invention. Kids almost drown in corn silo. Dad sacrifices himself for family. Story ends on cliffhanger.
Departure from Reality: They’re always barefoot. No humans seem capable of helping them. They must find noiseless ways to communicate.
Moral Statement: Cherish your freedom!
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Title / Concept: SUBHUMAN. A shape-shifting parasite invades the USS Barack Obama, a top-secret state-of-the-art stealth nuclear submarine patrolling North Korean waters and begins devouring the crew. The captain must capture and destroy the creature before the screams of the crew reveals the sub’s location to the enemy.
Terrorize The Characters: It can assume any shape, including humans. The DRPK are after them with a sub-hunting destroyer loaded with depth charges.</div>
Isolation: Deep in the sea near the North Pole, restricted by Naval Command to mandatory communication silence.
Death: The parasite’s insatiable appetite for adrenal fluids forces it to feed continuously. Monster/Villain: It feeds and thrives on consuming human adrenal glands which it acquires by sucking out its host’s eyes. It can assume any shape.
High Tension: The sub’s Commander is guilt-stricken over the overdose death of his only son, and is now powerless to stop this shape-shifting predator. To top it all, because of the crews’ screams, the sub is discovered, in direct violation of a treaty with DPRK and China, it is likely to trigger nuclear war. The captain tries to kill the creature by depriving it of oxegen until crew’s mask and tanks begin to fail. The subhunter locates the Obama, drops deadly depth charges.
Departure from Reality: This class of subs doesn’t exist yet. The creature doesn’t exist (I hope) The MD aboard traces the origin of the creature to a crashed UAP.
Moral Statement: Cherish your freedom!
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A. The monster/villain: The resurrected evil spirit of a serial killer, who plagued the town decades back, now unintentionally released by a spell game by innocent teens.
B. The interesting terror: Just like in his live days, the spirit kills the teens by crucifying them upside down. The spirit lies silent in the teen, then suddenly comes alive displaying demonic activity, kills them and silently moves to the next teen.
C. An isolated and horrific environment: The little town of Davisville lies locked down due to fears of the demonic and possessed killings. The few teen bearing families that try to escape meet a fatal end in the forests around the town.
D. The people who will be terrorized: Primarily the teens of the town. However, as the town folk descend into paranoia, they turn on each other as well.
PRIMAL FEARS:
Fear of the dark / Fear death / Fear of being alone / Fear of the dead underworld
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Horror Conventions
Movie: Interview with a Vampire
Written by: Ann Rice
Concept: A vampire tells his epic life story: love, betrayal, loneliness and hunger.
Terrorize the characters: Vampires terrorized each other, but nothing compares to the terrorizing of their victims. There’s no honor among thieves, less among vampires.
Isolation: They did not isolate as in a haunted house jangling chains. They traveled to different places: New Orleans, San Francisco, etc. but in many ways, they were isolated, lonely, needing companionship that brought with it danger, cause everyone leaves, no one stays indefinitely, and none can be trusted.
Death: This issue was huge among vampires because they keep coming back, unless a stake was driven into their heart or they were burned with fire. Vampires live indefinitely on rats, vermin, or anything with blood. In many ways, they are already dead.
Monster/Villain: There were several, Louis was the main one. Lestat inducted him into vampire hell and indoctrinated him into what it takes to be a knowledgeable vampire. They found Claudia, a little girl, and turned her into a vampire. She ended up killing Lestat but pays for it in the end, cause there are laws and you do not cross them. I never saw her again, so maybe she finally died. They believe they are children of Satan, so that made it even worse with no chance of salvation. There were many vampires, and they all seemed a sad lot…
High tension: When one worries if he/she is being forced into the land of the living dead, that’s tense. The vampires themselves, their interactions, their violence, their living/dead existence, their nonchalance in living among humans knowing at any time any human may become supper, was a bit much. The interviewer himself becomes a vampire in the end.
Departure from reality: Being a vampire is a departure from reality. To go around sucking blood from humans is gross. Even the grossness is a departure from reality. But the story itself seems credible. That must be a hallmark of horror, and of writing itself. There is a threshold. There is a time to hide your eyes, and even a time to run. To some degree we internalize what we fear. I believe this is the basis of horror–to ingrain one’s being with something that goes against the grain, until it feels almost normal.
Moral Statement: Vampires live indefinitely, but is that really living? Also the greed for immortality carries a price. Something the interviewer found out…
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Subject line: THE NUN Horror Conventions
5. What I learned doing this assignment is that repeated horror sequences – The Nun popping into virtually every scene in the second half of the movie – become comical rather than scary. The myriad of demon nuns and Satan’s minions at the end of the movie were confusing, in that most marched around and presented no real danger to the main characters. .
2/4 Concepts –
Terrorize the Characters – Father Burke’s failed fatal exorcism of young Daniel . Sister Irene shut trapped the Abbey walls. Father Burke buried alive. Frenchie faced to fight demons and possessed nuns inside the abbey.
Isolation – Remote cloistered abbey in 1952 Romania.
Death – Father Burke buried alive, bitten by poisonous snakes, propelled against the stone walls and floors of the abbey.
Sister Irene nearly strangled, drowned, thrown against the abbey walls and floor,
Frenchie: Terrorized by vipers, thrown against the stone walls and floors of the abbey, gets the shit beat out of him.
All the nuns are dead at the end of the movie.
Monster/Villain: Demom Valak “The Nun” character; assorted demons, vipers,
High Tension: Father Burke, Sister Irene, and Frenchy are trapped in the abbey and leaving is very difficult, if not impossible.
Departure from Reality: Just about everything in the last third of the movie. Generally starts out rooted in reality but high budget special effects at the end tended to detract from the story.
Moral Statement: Finish what you started. Sister Irene is constantly reminded that she hasn’t taken her vows, and Father Burke has guilt over the failed exorcism of Daniel. Frenchie remains in the nearby village for no real reason other than life doesn’t require much from him there.
3. The Nun isn’t a great horror film. It’s entertaining but the plot is muddy, sloppy, and at times, the characters are forced to explain rather than show the how and why.
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(A Nightmare on Elm Street) Horror Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment is…?
I learned that it’s easier to analyze completed movies rather than one that’s only a concept. The other is the constant pressure on the characters to survive, maybe considering why they even want to, why it matters, or just an instinctual reaction to that pressure. What does being afraid tell them about themselves? Their worldviews? Will life be better knowing what they know?
Well, it seems I’m looking at this from some philosophical angles but not pushing it too much, just giving them more reasons to act the way the act or in ways they want to but don’t.
I also learned how simple yet layered horrors can be. About scaring an audience with no guarantee of ever escaping.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Freddy Krueger’s origin story revealed when his young victims, now teens, remember their connection to his predatory past. Remake of ‘80s slasher.
Terrorize the Characters:
Characters see the same disfigured man with a glove of razor claws haunting them while they sleep.
Isolation:
Each character tries to fight off sleep until they drop into micro naps that continues advanced stages of sleep deprivation causing them to be trapped in their nightmare, where Freddy can kill them. Krueger attacks one victim at a time while preparing the others.
Death:
Freddy uses a glove with sharp blades attached to each finger. He slices Dean’s throat in a café, Kris gets thrown about her room then sliced open, Jesse gets gutted in prison while on the hook for Kris’s murder, Nancy and Quentin meet the blades a few times themselves but manage to survive but with the trauma of all that has happened to them.
Monster/Villian:
Deceased child predator, Freddy Krueger, once a gardener at an elementary school. Parents of the victimized children went vigilante, trapped Krueger in a building and set it and him on fire. He has a fetish with cutting kids, and continues his deplorable aspirations in a “dream” world where he can’t be killed.
High Tension:
Fear of falling asleep and being terrorized by Freddy with high-stakes of actually dying in the real world if killed in the dream world.
Departure From Reality:
People have nightmares but don’t end up trapped in them and pursued by a real predator from a past trauma.
Moral Statement:
Pretty murky. The parents of the victimized children conducted their own justice by killing the child predator, Freddy, but he returns to continue his predation of the children that are now teens. The children are the true victims, reacting to events as they remember what happened to them and they take action to put an end to their nightmares by bringing Freddy back into their world so they can kill him. Trauma can, perhaps, be overcome, but in the end, Freddy appears to be indestructible and now able to appear in both worlds (as Nancy well knows when Freddy comes through a mirror and obliterates Nancy’s mother, Dr. Gwen, one of the parents that originally killed and disfigured him). So, maybe, trauma can never fully heal.
This remake tried bringing a little less fun and little more scare than the original with a slightly different origin story. I think it muddied the logic that in the original, Freddy Krueger is a character of incarnate evil shown over the course of the franchise, and here he’s just a predator, not punishing the teens because of what their parents did to him, but punishing them because of his own obsession with them as kids. That, and I’m reading way too much into it. Some scary moments but just okay with an ending somewhat dissatisfying.
My Concept:
Shade Among Trees
A group of young adults stumble into Bigfoot territory and a secret that can ruin the aspirations of an underground society.
Terrorize the Characters:
Characters stumble upon an abandoned cottage in the forest with evidence of bizarre rituals of a secret order, near a massive cave, and a lone Sasquatch. They are afraid to leave. Neither seasoned hikers nor experienced campers, they must survive the night.
Isolation:
In a forest with a creature not believed to exist. A cave where the creature “hunts” them, and a cottage no one wants to hang out in. The characters feel trapped and unprepared.
Death:
One character gets mauled by the Sasquatch, one dies while fleeing Sasquatch, another couple sacrificed by the secret order, another dies in own trap.
Monster/Villain:
Bigfoot is a red-herring (and just an animal fearing intrusion of territory) from the real monster/villain: the secret order seeks to trap the Sasquatch for it’s own terrorizing agenda.
High Tension:
Fear of dark, possibility of death, fear of the creature, terror that comes with an unfamiliar environment.
Departure From Reality:
Speculations about how a Sasquatch would really behave (since none have been studied, nor are they popularly believed to exist), a secret order that would kill rather than just scare off the characters. Or, being caught between the two monsters.
Moral Statement:
A threat to things others want secret can be deadly. Is it worth it?
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(THE PRE-CLASS ASSIGNMENT that was posted in error above has now been moved – my apologies!)
SUBJECT: MANDY – Action/Horror – Horror Conventions
WHAT I LEARNED: Simple plots can be surprisingly powerful. A man loses the woman he loves to violent psychopaths and sets out to kill those who destroyed his world. The pain is both emotional and physical. Similar to the original MAD MAX.
ISOLATION: Red Miller, a logger and recovering alcoholic, lives in a house in the woods with his artist girlfriend, Mandy. Both are reclusive and damaged but have created a loving home together, far from neighbors and the outside world.
TERRORIZE THE CHARACTERS/MONSTER/VILLAIN/DEATH: Mandy works part-time as a gas station cashier and is targeted for abduction as she walks to work by the demented leader of a van-traveling religious cult. Red and Mandy’s peaceful life is shattered when they are brutally attacked in their home by the sect’s sadistic motorcycle members strung out on drugs. Red, stabbed and gagged with barbed wire, helplessly watches as Mandy is burned alive when she rejects the cult leaders’ advances.
HIGH TENSION/DEPARTURE FROM REALITY: Red emotionally and psychologically breaks when he finally manages to free himself, mourning the woman he loved and the life he’s lost. After an alcohol-enraged night and a visit to a friend who gives him a crossbow and background on the biker gang, he sets off on a mission of bloody revenge. Throughout, Mandy’s otherworldly fantasy art chronicles Red’s odyssey as he dispatches bikers, encounters The Chemist, a drug manufacturer who helps him locate the religious cult, and the final killings and beheadings.
The Sad Denouement: Red has avenged Mandy’s death but now faces a world without her and the rebirth of his addictions.
MORAL STATEMENT: Love can heal broken people but the tether that keeps them functioning is often tenuous. And Evil is insidious and will find innocents to feed on in the most remote of places.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Stephanie O'Leary.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by Stephanie O'Leary.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by
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“Trick ‘r Treat” Horror Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment is how to better understand the makeup of a horror film by analyzing its conventions, which in turn helps to develop new ideas by isolating weaknesses and putting a spotlight on missing elements.
Concept: Trick ‘r Treat is a horror anthology that follows a mysterious creature named Sam who stalks a town and punishes those who fail to follow his special rules for Halloween night.
Terrorize the Characters: On Halloween, characters face the brutal consequences of not following Sam’s rules.
Isolation: Emma is alone in her front yard late at night. A woman is assaulted and killed in the middle of a crowded street, but because it’s a Halloween celebration, no one believes she’s in real jeopardy. Steven and other victims of werewolves are taken deep into the woods. A group of children are trapped at the bottom of a basin outside of town. Mr. Kreeg is alone in his home.
Death: Emma is killed by a jagged Jack-o-Lantern lollipop. One child dies after eating candy laced with cyanide. Woman is torn up by vampire teeth. Group is killed by werewolves. Children are murdered by zombies.
Monster: Sam is a supernatural creature who wears a Halloween costume and roams the town to make sure that everyone celebrates Halloween respectfully. If they don’t… they die.
High Tension: Even though Sam’s rules are known only to him, the film does a good job of showing the audience when someone has just broken a rule and will soon be getting their comeuppance.
Departure from Reality: Most of the kills are executed by supernatural beings for which there is no defense, such as Sam, Werewolves, and Zombies.
Moral Statement: If you break the rules, there are consequences.
The film did a great job of balancing tongue-in—cheek horror with legitimate scares and even made you feel genuinely sad for the children in the school bus accident. It’s not easy in the horror genre to have a scary story that includes comedy and heart without coming off as campy or cheesy. The costume wearing pumpkin monster, Sam, was clever and perfectly fit the theme.
“Intermission” Horror Conventions
Concept: A high school student with a secret seeks fame by creating a podcast to showcase her experiences at a haunted drive-in which has secrets of its own.
Terrorize the Characters: The characters try to escape brutal deaths that lead to their spirits being trapped in the nightmarish intermission ads that play on the drive-in screens.
Isolation: Various private residences. The drive-in theater on the outskirts of town.
Death: Butterfly switchblade, sledgehammer, nacho cheese, fireworks
Monsters:
Buck Kilgore, a psychopath who doesn’t like trespassers on “his family property.”
Muse, a masked killer out for revenge
Ghost of the first victim
High Tension: Countdown to a deadly main attraction. Being stalked by three different faces of evil.
Departure from Reality: Supernatural elements. No way to call for help. Can’t use a vehicle to escape. Multiple crazies trying to kill kids whose only crime is selling stale popcorn.
Moral Statement: Be careful what you wish for, especially when chasing self-glory.
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You’re Next Horror conventions
What I learned doing this assignment is a new way to break down horror films, the elements of a horror film, and that you can use the same scare twice if you’re smart about it.
Title: You’re Next
Concept: Killers in animal masks attack a family reunion. <div>
</div><div>Terrorize The Characters: Shoot crossbow at them during dinner. Kill their loved ones. Introduce a second killer just when it looks like Kelly escaped. Create false hope for characters/audience. Shock them with surprises (killer under the bed TWICE!, killer busting through window unexpectedly, Erin brutally killing one of the killers).</div><div>
</div><div> Isolation: A house in the woods with no nearby neighbors. </div><div>
</div><div> Death: Tariq being shot in the head by an arrow/bolt. Amy’s throat slit by wire. Aubrey stabbed by killer hiding under bed. Kelly stabbed in head after she thinks she’s found help. Paul’s throat slit after he starts to piece things together. Drake stabbed by his own brother after finding out Kelly is dead. Felix killed with a blender. Crispin stabbed. Cop killed by booby trap meant for the killers. </div><div>
</div><div>Monster/Villain: Mysterious killers in creepy animal masks. Felix who plots his family’s deaths. Crispin who is secretly in on it. </div><div>
</div><div>High Tension: being shot at from an unseen assailant, being trapped in your own house with no communication with the outside world, being killed by your own family members, Erin being hunted by killers.</div><div>
</div><div>Departure from Reality: Being trapped/hunted by killers. </div><div>
</div><div> Moral Statement: The brothers are punished for plotting to kill their family for their inheritance.What made this a great horror film: Mostly set in one location. It’s emotionally shocking as well as scary. It’s also cathartic. (The fantasy of trading your family for money.) Erin is a great character/role.
My story:
Concept: Every 30 years, each family has to sacrifice a member. Some children are born specifically to be the sacrifice.</div><div>
</div><div> Terrorize The Characters: The teenagers are hunted/trapped by their own families. </div><div>
</div><div> Isolation: They live in a creepy small town. Death: The teenagers that are caught are sacrificed in disturbing rituals. </div><div>
</div><div>Monster/Villain: Parents and town folk wearing creepy ceremonial masks. </div><div>
</div><div>High Tension: Scary rituals. Human sacrifice. </div><div>
</div><div>Departure from Reality: Families normally don’t attack each other this way. </div><div>
</div><div> Moral Statement: Traditions should change over time. Adults don’t know everything.
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Tasha’s Horror Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment is that the conventions of horror can really start to shape your story even at just the concept phase.
HORROR MOVIE I ANALYZED:
Title: The Hitcher (1986)
Concept: While transporting a car from Chicago to San Diego, Jim Halsey picks up a hitchhiker named John Ryder, who claims to be a serial killer.
Terrorize The Characters: Jim Halsey is doggedly pursued by a disappointed serial killer who continues to kill the people that come into contact with Jim until Jim figures out how to stop him.
Isolation: A long stretch of lonely, desert road in 80s Texas with only a handful of gas stations and diners along the way, half of which are not operational.
Death: Dismemberment, Beheading, Explosions, Shootings, Vehicular Manslaughter, Child Murder
Monster/Villain: John Ryder, The Hitcher, a phantom-like serial killer who relentlessly torments Halsey until Halsey finally stops him.
High Tension: Every place of sanctuary Halsey seeks is visited by Ryder where he racks up a high body count. Halsey’s not even safe at a police station surrounded by cops. Also, Halsey’s realization that there’s no escape from the nightmare until he takes on the Hitcher head on, for better or worse.
Departure from Reality: Ryder pops up to corner Halsey at every impossible turn and Halsey is forced to break the law in order to seek help.
Moral Statement: Stranger Danger! Never pick up a Hitchhiker! Also, driving solo across the country isn’t just dangerous for the driver.
WHY THE MOVIE WAS A GREAT HORROR FILM:
This movie is an excellent horror film. Not only is it very effective in delivering the horror conventions by isolating characters, creating the fear of the unknown with the enigmatic Hitcher that is a lethal, phantom-like serial killer and driving characters to the point of hysteria and fear for their lives as the body count mounts and the kills become more gruesome, but it was written with budget decision in mind; characters and locations are kept to a minimum and it has a trim running time. It is super effective on all fronts.
MY CONCEPT AND CONVENTIONS:
Concept: A vengeful spirit kills off the group of guys that refused to rescue her from the serial killer that tortured her to death.
Terrorize The Characters: The vengeful spirits guides the serial killer to hunt down and pick off her prey.
Isolation: Most of the deaths occur in the abandoned country shack where the killer operates.
Death: Supernatural torture and the serial killer’s MO of bleaching his victims alive and then performing weird body modification “art” that leads to fatality without anesthesia, natch.
Monster/Villain: Vengeful Spirit and the Serial Killer
High Tension: The group is being pursued by a serial killer they can’t fight against and a supernatural force they can’t appeal to.
Departure from Reality: Serial Killers are in normal life, but a serial killer guided/manipulated by a spirit is a departure from reality.
Moral Statement: The person who has the power to save a life, but chooses to sit back and let that person die instead, shouldn’t be surprised when the same thing happens to them.
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Movie: THEM! (1954)
Title / Concept: THEM! refers to mutated ants that develop from residual nuclear testing.
Terrorize The Characters: Giant ants with huge pinchers and a stinger that become carnivorous
Isolation: Ants like dark tunnels so to find them requires entering dark tunnels
Death: Crush by pinchers and stung with stinger then eaten
Monster/Villain: Giant 9′ Ants
High Tension: They are breeding and could take over the world
Departure from Reality: Ants are composed of an exoskeleton of chitin. The size and weight of the ants would cause the chitin to easily collapse. (i.e. if you build a bridge using way to large of steel supports, the bridge would collapse under its own weight.)
Moral Statement: What are the consequences of nuclear bomb testing on our own world.
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Horror Conventions:
Concept: Each colonizer dies the way their family killed others on climb to power/wealth
Terrorize: dying because of self & family choices
Isolation: 1920s country house party with esoteric garden
Death: diamond mine ; malaria while building the canal; Spanish inquisition; English witch burning; American sugar cane slavery; Congo. And THEN after escaping to death comes the realization …
Monster: Mot — Hyksos retribution demon who rules the underworld, too
High tension: what triggers it? what IS it? How does it get in?
Departure: even death is no escape
Moral statement: What your ancestors (for generations) did unto others, will be done to you
What I learned? I have a dark mind …
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GREEN ROOM (2016) Horror Conventions
What I learned doing this assignment is what exactly horror conventions entails and how to pinpoint it when I’m feeling / watching the movie.
CONCEPT: A touring punk band finds themselves in a bloody fight for survival after unwittingly playing a gig at a rural venue run by neo-Nazis.
TERRORIZE THE CHARACTERS: The characters endure physical pain fighting their way out of the green room and emotional pain of losing their friends at escape attempts and fearing for their lives.
ISOLATION: The characters are stuck for the most part in the greenroom of a rural venue in a Pacific Northwest forest. They have no cell phones and no way to call for help.
DEATH: The band is held hostage for witnessing the aftermath of a murder. The band kills a neo-Nazi guarding them in the greenroom. Mutilated arm injury by one of the main characters. Multiple deaths by vicious dogs. Multiple deaths by stabbings. Multiple deaths by shotguns. Intense fear by some of the band members at the idea of having to fight and potentially kill to save their lives.
MONSTER: Neo-Nazi leader calling the shots. Neo-Nazi gang members. The dogs.
HIGH TENSION: The band thinking the police / help are on the way and then realizing they are truly in a scary situation. Tension in the band members willing to kill to save themselves. Multiple attempts to escape the green room but trapped. Multiple attempted to escape the venue but met with death. A moment with an escaped dog and whether or not the finally dog is going to attack now that their owner is dead.
DEPARTURE FROM REALITY: Lead character having a hand practically severed off at the beginning and then still being conscious and able to fight.
MORAL STATEMENT: To summarize: “Nazi punks fuck off!!!!” – Dead Kennedys
I really like this movie because the band doesn’t want to fight and it’s going against their own moral codes, but they all do a valiant effort to try to survive and protect each other. I like when characters have to find practical tools in their environment to fight and/or kill. I also like how there were three layers in the isolation to escape, but that they also had to keep going back to the green room to start over.
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Here is the horror concept for my screenplay. I keep bouncing between two ideas but I’ll pitch this one first….
CONCEPT: A gang of teenage boys used a member’s younger brother to lure pedophile into the woods, where they then beat and rob them. One day when this trick goes wrong, they are about to be forced to kill the pedophile, when a demon appears from the woods. The pedophile ends up saving the teenagers, but the demon has stolen the younger brother. The teens are then forced to band together to fight the evil and escape the woods.
TERRORIZE THE CHARACTERS: The demon can appear as different creatures or people in the woods to lure the teenagers and eat their souls and then flesh. Also terrorized by having to work with the pedophile.
ISOLATION: Characters are stuck in the forest, potentially later a cabin and then the demon’s layer in the forest.
DEATH: Teens die by the demon by soul sucking and then flesh eating….one of the tees kills the pedophile who was helping them, causing tension in the group and later death.
MONSTER: Demon based on Lamia (child-eating monster of Greek mythology) and the pedophile
HIGH TENSION: Forced to work with a pedophile to save the younger brother from the monster…fear of the monster picking them off one by one
DEPARTURE FROM REALITY: Mythological monster
MORAL STATEMENT: Protect children or there will be consequences
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The Visit Horror Conventions
I learned how to outline the high points and necessary elements of a horror film.
Title / Concept: The Visit
Terrorize The Characters: Over the course of week the walls slowly close in. “Grandma” asking Becca to get in the oven. Chasing them under the house. Scratching and banging at night. Finding out they aren’t the real grandparents but still trapped in the house with them. Finding the real grandparents dead in the basement.
Isolation: The grandkids are trapped on a farm with their grandparents that they just met who appear to be going through mental health crises.
Death: The real grandparents were murdered as well as the Stacy who was checking on them.
Monster/Villain: The mentally ill “grandparents”
High Tension: The “grandparents” behavior begins to get more erratic and creepier. “Grandma” sundowning every night, scratching the walls every night naked. “Grandpa” hiding dirty diapers, cleaning guns, attacking innocent bystanders in public.
Departure from Reality: Trapped on a farm with demented, mentally ill elderly murderers and only finding out after a week of staying there.
Moral Statement: A woman who didn’t appreciate her parents is now in a situation where she lost her parents and could even lose her kids because of it.
3. Anything else you’d like to say about what made this movie a great horror film?
I thought the film did a great job starting from a normal spot and gradually isolating Becca and Tyler. Slowly the fear and terror were increased with small, strange interactions with their “grandparents”.
4. With your concept, fill in each of these Conventions for your story.
Concept: A Miami detective with a dark history and psychic powers of his own has been investigating missing people. He starts to find links to a secret society, “The Luminous Palms Society”. The society practices an ancient religion called “Mystara” and uses the kidnapped victims as sacrifices so their members can have wealth, power, and long lives. The more similar the victim is to the member, the more effective the sacrifice is. And the younger the victim, the more powerful. But it must be renewed consistently.
Terrorize The Characters: The characters are kidnapped, tortured, and sacrificed in various ways. The detective sees visions but can’t decipher them.
Isolation: Victims are kidnapped and held in the “Sanctum” where they are tortured until their ceremony.
Death: throat cut while hanging inverted to drain blood, decapitation, mutilation.
Monster/Villain: The cult, the high priest, the socialite
High Tension: Disappearing people held in captivity until sacrifices, a missing pregnant woman that will die with her baby when she gives birth. A detective that has visions but can’t piece it all together in time.
Departure from Reality: Being kidnapped and held for sacrifices.
Moral Statement: When society celebrates wealth, fame, and success above all else, people will go to unspeakable lengths to attain them.
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Bent’s horror conventions
what I learned doing this assignment is this ……… you can take a genre that has been done and give it a fresh angle with characters you don’t want dead because it is unethical to kill them like for example a child.
AND the enemy can transfer over to those who are there to save you. Nothing is certain.
- Title / Concept: TRAIN TO BUSAN
- Terrorize The Characters: THEY ARE ON THEIR OWN TRAPPED WITH AN ENEMY THAT WILL KILL THEM WITH NO MERCY. SOME PEOPLE ARE PUTTING THEMSELVES BEFORE OTHERS.
- Isolation: THEY ARE TRAPPED INSIDE A TRAIN THAT ISN’T GOING TO STOP.
- Death: THEY RISK BEING EATEN ALIVE
- Monster/Villain: ZOMBIES, my favorite monster.
- High Tension: THERE IS NO ESCAPE. JUMPING OFF IS DANGEROUS TOO. THERE ARE ZOMBIES THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRYSIDE
- Departure from Reality: THE WORLD THEY LIVE IN IS IN CHAOS WITH NO SECURITY AROUND THEM.
- Moral Statement: WE AS A SOCIETY WILL FIND SOMEONE TO WATCH OUR BACK BUT IT MIGHT BE A JOURNEY TO LOCATE THAT INDIVIDUAL. SOCIETY EATS ITS OWN.
- MY MOVIE
- Concept: A mentally ill author tests out ways to be original in stalking and killing people to help his novel come along.
- Terrorize The Characters: They are followed and slain by this lunatic.
- Isolation: A home no longer is secure because the author can invade it.
- Death: People die in ways that will throw the police off the trail.
- Monster/Villain: He’s cunning and sees people as his experiments to achieve his success.
- High Tension: One of the victims is a fan and catches on.
- Departure from Reality: The ways people die are outlandish. I have to avoid similarities to SAW
- Moral Statement: Those who read books to live in another world may find the line separating it all is blurred.
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