Advice for my film script

[adf5142]

Hello to the many members of the indietalk.com forums

I have recently written a script for a short horror film for the Independent Film Club I've been running in my high school. We have been working countless hours on revising, rewriting and collaborating on this movie for the past 2 weeks, trying to make an interesting and captivating plot for our film.

Before I submit it for anyone to read, I'd like to give you a short overview of the plot, and the flaws that I need some help with.

The film takes place with a small group of four high school teenagers on their way to a party where they eventually end up lost in a densley wooded area along the road. Over time, each one of the kids die until the conclusion of the film.

When I originally set out on writing this story, I kept a few principles in mind. I researched the many aspects of horror, with knowledge of it being considered the most difficult type of film to make (you really need to convince the audience).

I researched famous films. Most importantly "The Blair Witch Project" because of its amazing acting, editing and in my opinion one of the scariest horror films ever. Also, considering its budget, I could draw many similarities between it and my film. I tried to stick with a similar idea as the writers of "The Blair Witch Project". I'm not relying on special effects, I don't reveal the "enemy" in the film, I leave it up to the imagination and I've also developed the characters into relatable people that the audience can identify with. By doing this it enables the audience to feel bad for the characters if they are killed or face a conflict.

I've stuck to a few themes and Motifs through the film, and as of now I think I can safely say the script is rough, but complete.

My greatest concern is having a really good plot twist and ending, as well as making sure I really developed likeable characters and of course... most importantly.. that I've successfully made the movie scary

If any of you would like look over my script and give me tips I would appreciate it.

Please email me at adf5142@gmail.com and I will send you the script

Thanks alot!

 

[VPTurner]

You may also want to take a closer look at George Romero for low budget horror. He shot Night of the Living Dead on the cheap. The best thing to me about Blair Witch was its ad campaign. It sucked me in, and then when I saw the film in the theater the first time, I saw right through it. I failed to see the real threat that made it "scary" whereas zombies running around eating people created a real threatening and horrific atmosphere. Granted, I was nine years old when I saw it. It scared the hell out of me and gave me nightmares for years to come. Blair Witch just made me laugh and shake my head. I watch a lot of horror and also like to write horror, so I am probably too desensitized these days.

Death in itself isn't always horrific. It's a fact of life. What makes death or dying scary is whether or not we (the audience) care about the person who died. Your real-life reaction to some poor guy smashed on the side of the road inside his car, flattened by an 18 wheeler that flipped over, could be nonchalant other than, perhaps, sadness. You may even be one of the rubber-neckers craning to get a glimpse as you drove by. Now put your father or a brother in that car. Your reaction and your emotions would be totally different (unless your father was an abusive ass, then you might have a wry smile instead). Therein lies the key to good horror (my opinion only). Make the audience really like and identify with your character, put your character in danger (thriller) and then kill them in an unexpected, horrific way (horror). One of the biggest primal fears aside from death is fear of the unknown, so the longer the mechanism of their death remains a mystery, the better the scare because the audience won't really know what to watch out for. They're put in the same position as the character(s). Point of view (POV) shots are effective in these types of movies. The other structural mechanism is to give the audience a superior position where they know what's coming, but the character doesn't. This works, too, but not as well for me personally.

Many modern horror films fail for me when the creators make characters I'd rather see die because they annoy the hell out of me. Most of the Friday the 13th sequels fall into this category. And Freddie became more of a dark comedy than horror as the Elm Street films progressed in number. Freddy versus Jason? Pure comedy. Nothing scary about it.

Some of my favorite scary/horror movies:

Night of the Living Dead (the original)
Alien
Pet Semetary
The Shining
Hellraiser
Event Horizon (Hellraiser meets Alien)
Poltergeist (for the creation of characters we cared about)

Have fun with this. If you can effectively tap into an audience's primal fears and make them care about your characters, then you've got a winner.