Assignment 2 – Research Statement

 

RESEARCH

The Crash Assignment 2.pdf

My script was written in the style of recent horror films such as IT Follows, Skinnamarink and other ‘post-horror films’.  Murray Leeder’s article ‘David Robert Mitchell’s IT Follows’ had a lot of points I found useful and interesting when it comes to writing a horror script. Leeder mentions that ‘the foe in It Follows does not neatly fold into the categories of villain or even monster’ which is a pretty popular trend in a lot of horror movies, one which I think separates a lot of modern horror films from more classic ones. The idea that the foe of a horror film isn’t driven by a perceivable motivation makes it so much scarier as it cannot be reasoned with. Films like Nope, It Follows, and Smile are all recent horror movies that have used this trope to great effect. In writing my own script I took some inspiration from these films though my ‘villain’ or foe does have a motive, I left its true meaning and what the ‘foe’ really is up for interpretation.

The horror films that have affected me the most are those that have a constant build of tension throughout, with little to no breaks for breathing. Robert Eggers’ ‘The Lighthouse’ is one film I think does this exceptionally well. The film “consistently slips between reality and dream, and the mounting tension throughout the film culminates in a final haunting vision” (Burrows, 2022) which is something I tried to capture in my script as the idea of nothing being concretely explained is usually much scarier than something that is fully explained to the audience. The Lighthouse’s second to final shot, of Robert Pattinson’s character being distorted by the light was a direct inspiration for my final shot, I think it is important for a horror film to not rap up all its threads as it leaves the audience thinking about the film long after they have seen it rather than moving on as soon it is finished.

Older, Low-budget horror films such as the original Evil Dead were also a direct inspiration for my script. These days a ‘low budget’ for a film tends to still be in the millions, which is a lot more than classic horror films. Low-budget horror films in my opinion tend to be more scary than any bigger-budget film, as the low-budget leads to tighter scripts, and more realistic/relatable scenarios and scares. Alex Pitofsky mentions how Evil Dead was a ‘bunch of young enthusiasts who barely knew what they were doing” which he credits for the success of the film. I think this quote and the idea of less cynical, young creators tackling horror is what leads to successful films. Though bigger budget directors Like Robert Eggers, Jordan Peele and Ari Aster have all proved high budget horror still works, all too frequently horror films become commercialised and the villains become mascots that lose all sense of scariness. When writing my script I didn’t want to have a villain that had a standout look as I think it could make the film feel tacky. Evil Dead stands out as a horror series because it doesn’t have an ‘iconic villain’ and instead features a different force of evil in each instalment, which ties back into the idea of having the foe in a horror film not be driven by a set motivation.

Bacon, S. and Leeder, M. (2019) ‘Pessimism and the Limits of Knowledge—It Follows ’, in Horror: A companion. Peter Lang Ltd, pp. 11–17.

Burrows, K. (2022) Mythos Modernized: Echoes of the Literary Past in Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse (2019), UnderGraduate Research symposium . Available at: https://irl.umsl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1179&context=urs (Accessed: 24 August 2023).

Riekki, R.A., Sartain, J.A. and Pitofsky, A. (2019) ‘The Evil Dead and Punk Rock Cinema’, in The many lives of the evil dead: Essays on the cult film franchise. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., pp. 55–58.

Reflection
The idea for my script was loosely based on a script I had written back in year 12. This script was not good by any means but i liked the idea of 2 friends meeting up for the first time in a while and something being wrong. Initially I found it quite hard to flesh out this idea into a proper script, along with incorporating the elements of post horror into it, all the while trying to make it somewhat scary.
In my opinion horror is one of the hardest genres to write as I feel it is very easy for your supposed ‘scary’ elements to end up being cringe and not have the intended impact you have. I also don’t find much in horror films scary or at the very least the things that creep me out in horror films are often not the main ‘scary’ element of the film, so I struggled to be happy with my scripts horror elements. I took inspiration from scenes from Films like Parasite, IT, It Follows, all films that play with the idea of the characters being watched unknowingly while the audience knows, which I think is pretty effective at generating unsettling atmospheres in films which I wanted to emulate.
While reading over my finished script I came to the realisation that a lot of parts were far too wordy and bloated where in most instances I could have conveyed the same idea with much less words. I tend to struggle with concisely conveying ideas in writing, which especially while writing a script is not a good thing. I tried to cut down segments where I could so the script didn’t look and feel so bloated though I’m sure there was more I could have done and will do next time I write a script.

0 comments