Rhea MacCallum
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What I learned doing this assignment is… to identify the groups, characters and dying patterns that are typically present in horror films.
Tell us your Concept and the Group you have chosen.
Three friends seek shelter in a rural southwestern farmhouse that only appears when living trespassers cross the property line. My Group is a SOCIAL GROUP comprised of two sisters and their friends/classmates.
Tell us the Dying Pattern of this movie.
The characters experience the terror and survive together, but one or two die.
Give us an Identity and a sentence for each character that makes up your group.
LEADER: Lori – older sister; college senior; planned the road trip; used to having a leadership role thrust upon her.
RESCUER: Kyle – Lori’s younger sister; college sophomore; is more astute than her carefree spirit would seem to suggest; willing to do anything to save her sister and friends.
OUT OF CONTROL/OBNOXIOUS – Kimmy – Lori’s friend who dropped out of school and engages in more self-destructive than Lori realizes; is oblivious to the perils the group is facing
INTROVERT: Faye – Kyle’s best friend; college sophomore; studious and moral; the first to fully realize the danger they are all in but not assertive enough to articulate it well.
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Rhea’s Terrifying Monster
What I learned doing this assignment is… necessary elements to create a compelling monster.
Tell us what or who your monster is.
The ghostly occupants of a dilapidated southwestern farmhouse.
Give us a few sentences for each of the following for your monster:
Their Terror: Trap the living on the property. Force a union between one of the ghosts and a living person.
Their Mystery: The ghosts were expecting visitors and have rooms already prepared to receive guests for a celebration/wedding.
Their Fear Provoking Appearance: The ghosts are attired in outdated clothing but otherwise appear physically normal, unless their image is caught in a mirror or reflective surface. Then, the ghosts appear as the decomposing corpses that they are.
Their Rules: The farmhouse only appears when trespassers cross the property line and are on the property. The ghosts must keep a living person on the property or be sent back to hell.
Their Mythology: The ghosts themselves are trespassers. They and their home only appear when a living trespasser crosses the property line. The only way to rid the land of the ghostly occupants is to dig up their buried bones and remove them from the property.
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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
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Rhea MacCallum
I’ve penned over 100 stage plays and about a dozen screenplays.
A kick ass scary and completed screenplay.
Named my dachshund, Xander, after the character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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Rhea MacCallum
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