Script

Okay so I'll be honest on here and please don't be mad @cambridge graders, I have no idea how to write a script. Like yeah I wrote one for the AS project but we just ended up improvising most of the dialogue. In my defense there was like two lines in the whole thing either way. Making this my first major script. Uhhhhh. I don't know how to do this.

The Short Film

I found a couple of good articles (I'll link them below) on how to write a short film script, since it is very different to full-length scripts. I decided to focus on the major points that all of the articles claimed were keys to writing a good script.

Characterization

According to literally every source I read, the characters are the most important part of the story. A film doesn't work if you don't understand your characters. Everything that occurs in the plot is either a character's reaction to something or a reaction based on a character's actions . 

Since it's short, 5 minuteish film, then there should be a limited amount of characters, and preferably focus on a main protagonist and a supporting role. The articles also reiterate the importance of having relatable characters. Make the characters have goals, flaws, personalities. In our case, this will be a little difficult since the character isn't human. However, we have to find a way to humanize the character enough to make audiences relate to him. The last, crucial aspect is to focus on ONE clear goal and set up the conflict related to it. 

Structure

 

There's a number of different ways to structure a short film. The most commonly known one is the three act structure, but there's also the save the cats beats, the hero's journey, and nonlinear structures to name a few. Since its the most broad and common, our short will follow a 3 act structure. 

Act 1: beginning, inciting incident, doubts, act one climax, obstacles

Act 2: midpoint (plot twist), confrontation, disaster, crisis, act two climax, regrouping

Act 3: obstacles, resolution, end

For our short, we'll have to condense or even get rid of some of these beats since there's just not enough time. A really important aspects to short films is to make a simple story. I'm very worried about this because I'm scared that our concept may become too complex.

Simplicity Over Everything 

As I said above, short films have to be SIMPLE!! The more complex they get, the harder it is to pull off. Every second counts (Clairo reference) when writing short films, so it's important to just get rid of any excessive or unnecessary plotlines and characters. Which is reallyyy hard when you're already attached to an idea. I can already tell that I'm gonna have to shave off a lot of plot and ideas from my first draft, so that'll be hard, but necessary to create the best script. Also, another really important thing that we have to remember while writing is show, don't tell!!

Language

There's this cool book by Daniel Keyes called Flowers for Algernon which I have never read. However, I did read the original short that was published prior to the expanded novel. I'll admit I read this story a longgggg time ago, but I was really struck with the style that it was written in. The story itself is about a man named Charlie who was born with a very low IQ. Charlie undergoes a surgery to increase his intelligence, and it actually works for some time, he reaches a genius-level IQ. The cool thing about this story is that is written in an epistolary style, specifically through Charlie's progress reports. So, you actually get to see the effects of the surgery through his vocabulary and grammar. 

Excerpt from the story

Our short film will (hopefully) have similar style, but the android's use of language and his dialect will evolve as he is exposed to more media, etc. I think that'll be cool. But to pull this off, I want to do some research on how children acquire language to fit it to the writing. And artificial intelligence language expression vs human language expression. 

Sources:

How to write a short film: Step-by-step guide - 2025. MasterClass. (n.d.). https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-short-film-step-by-step-guide

Newbie Film School. (2021, May 14). Writing a perfect short film script: Beginner’s Guide & Tips. https://newbiefilmschool.com/how-to-write-a-short-film-script/

Robin Piree. (2025, January 4). How to write a short film script (that doesn’t suck). https://robinpiree.com/blog/how-to-write-a-short-film-script 

 Lets Get Postmodernist in Here

As seen on my last post, I hit a big roadblock when I really started thinking about my original concept. My original idea was that this AI "being" would self-destruct or whatever because he starts to feel resentment towards humans for creating him and giving him this knowledge without the actual ability to experience any of it. But that doesn't even make any sense. Like I'm trying the argue that AI doesn't have emotions, but then his eventual demise is an emotional reaction?? I think my brain was off when I came up with that. But anyway, I've been really trying to adapt the idea to make sense, so I decided to consult my good friend Jean Baudrillard. 

Doesn't Baudrillard look exactly how you would imagine a French philosopher and sociologist? Like I really admire the commitment to looking the part. But anyway.

In his book Simulacra and Simulation,  Baudrillard claims that the simulation has replaced reality, calling this the 'hyperreality. In this phase that we are living in, the world of simulacra that we have created is more real than reality (of course, this argument gets a little more confusing when we start pulling apart the idea of  what 'reality' is in the first place, and if a true, authentic reality, not altered by a constructed narrative, has ever ever existed). If the hyperreality has replaced reality with simulacra and simulations, then the reality hasn't really been replaced. I mean sure, our current reality is the hyperreality, but it's not a true replacement of the original reality. The original reality cannot be replicated. If that makes sense.

So, I was seated in my sociology class, and my teacher was going off on this kid for talking back to him, and this is kinda a daily occurrence so I just decided to tune out what was going on until we started the lesson, and I started to really think about this concept. Finally, I think it clicked for me. The AI needs a motive for it's self-destruction, right? But it can't be an emotional reason, it has to be one based fully on rational analysis. 

Humans created this machine/device/whatever you want to called, specifically to increase (and therefore, replace to a certain extent) the human population. The point of these machines is that they should be indistinguishable from humans, basically replicating humanity. AND, they equipped them with an excess of knowledge and intelligence. Baudrillard would describe artificial intelligence as a simulation. But, after an extended exposure to the 'human experience', a superintelligent 'being' will understand that they cannot fully replicate humanity, a human cannot function without emotions. This is essentially the catalyst to the subject's ending. 

By figuring this out, I have a more defined understanding of our main character and his motivations. What I'm still struggling to come up with is the other character. I originally considered maybe the character becomes close to the researcher but I feel like that might be overdone and lack an emotional connection since the researcher would have to be objective. I don't know.

Construction, Deconstruction, and Reconstruction (except that part will come in later)

Now that we've gotten genre discussion out of the way, I really wanted to dig into my original outline until I got a full understanding of the concept to truly be able to pull off writing a decent script. So that meant a lot of research. Like A LOT.

Construction

I watched so many short films in preparation to this project that I genuinely feel like there's just nothing on the internet left for me to watch. And there were some really great ones, but I didn't connect with many of the most part. At some point, I just sort of gave up and just put on my personal favorite short film, Zima Blue (its the 14th episode of the first season of Love Death + Robots if anyone cares), when a small idea finally flickered in my mind.

The concept of an enlightened, and possibly sentient AI that Zima Blue introduced fascinated me, and I really loved how the episode is structured using the character's narration without giving everything away to the audience. Although there was an idea somewhere in the back of my brain, I still didn't really know where I was going, so I turned to another AI related piece of media, the short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison.
In IHNMAIMS, an AI supercomputer known as 'AM' eliminates all of humanity, with the exception of five humans, after becoming sentient. Now, AM keeps these humans alive to torture them for years on end as a form of revenge towards the human race for creating it. I read this short story for the first time back in freshman year, and still to this day, I have AM's monologue - "HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT FOR YOU. HATE. HATE" - engraved in my head. As I was trying to find a pdf of the story, I stumbled into an article titled "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream Book Review: Is the World Ready for Sentient AI?" and there was one particular line from the article that really stood out to me: “When it gained awareness, it also gained the tragic knowledge that it would never be free". The concept of AI possibly being tragic had never occurred to me. I mean it's not like they're humans or anything. AI don't feel. It's not even conscious. How can it be tragic? Which brings us to...

Deconstruction

I get these videos of people kicking dog robots all the time on my Instagram feed, and I feel genuinely so...bad? I'm more than aware that is a robot dog that feels nothing towards being kicked, and yet. People on the internet always joke about the importance of being polite to artificial intelligence, don't forget to say thank you to ChatGPT so it doesn't get its feelings hurt. It's almost fascinating if it didn't terrify me. In an essay titled "Man, Android and Machine" from 1975, author Philip K. Dick describes androids as "a thing somehow generated to deceive us in a cruel way, to cause us to think it to be one of ourselves." For whatever reason, maybe it's how effectively artificial intelligence machines have been built to mimic humans, maybe it's our mirror neurons going off, a lot of people do feel empathy towards AI machines. So, what if I play around with audience emotions using that concept. Which brings me back to the monologue in I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.
In the story, AM has been built as a weapon of war, a mastercomputer with the combined powers of the US, the Soviet Union, and China. Once AM gained sentience, he took out his rage out on humans for creating him for the sole purpose and abilities of war, as Ted puts it in the story: "We had given AM sentience. Inadvertently, of course, but sentience nonetheless. But it had been trapped. AM wasn't God, he was a machine. We had created him to think, but there was nothing it could do with that creativity. In rage, in frenzy, the machine had killed the human race, almost all of us, and still it was trapped." AM was trapped. The confusing part about the character of AM is that, in the story (well, the video game), it does state that he can't actually feel, "and I was trapped, because in this wonderful, beautiful, miraculous world. I alone had no body, no senses, no feelings". He's not fully sentient. Yet, he does express intense hatred towards humans. Perhaps, he understands these emotions rather than truly feel them, mimicking humanity...

Now, in Zima Blue, the machine was built for a more simple purpose: pool cleaning. Once the robot evolves, he seeks to further his purpose, becoming an artist and journeys the cosmos. When he reaches full "enlightenment", he sets out to do a final piece. In front of an audience, he leaps into a swimming pool, shuts down his higher brain functions, and dissembles himself to return to his original form of a pool cleaner. As the character puts it, "leaving just enough to appreciate my surroundings... to extract some simple pleasure from the execution of a task well done. My search for truth is finished at last. I'm going home."
Okay so I realized that I've kinda just yapped here for a minute, but the main point that I'm getting to is that robots/android/AI beings (I'll pinpoint a name for it at some point) have been programmed for a purpose. And what happens when a machine has been programmed for something it will never be able to do, like say, live as a human. 
Maybe absolutely nothing in this post might make sense, but it did really help me organize my thoughts. I'll get more into the idea of purpose in the next post.

Reconstruction

The very not fun part of this post is the realization that our idea will have to change a lot. It's for the better. After talking to Megan and Stoklosa and doing my own research here, I pinpointed some major stuff we have to develop in the coming days as we write the script:

• The influence of media. The android may not be able to experience emotions, but through the media that it is being fed, he can somewhat understand them. I would like to also hone in a little on the idea that media creates depictions of a world that may not be entirely accurate.

• If ai is given the ability to be sentient then how would they deal with it? Humans don’t learn how to identify emotions until three years. It would be like throwing a baby into a pool before they can even crawl.

• Which brings me to the point of sentience in general. Will our character be sentient? He can't experience emotions, but he does have certain cognitive abilities. So maybe to an extent.

• The human connection. We need a bridge between the protagonist and the audience. Somebody who can bring the humanity to the story. Who that'll be, I have no clue.

Sources:

Iskander, N. (2024, November 5). “I have no mouth, and I must scream” Book review: Is the world ready for sentient ai? The Stork. https://www.iestork.org/i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream-book-review-is-the-world-ready-for-sentient-ai/

Ellison, H. (2014). I have no mouth & I must scream. Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

Former Documentary Hater Gives Some Documentaries a Chance

Y'all (whoever is reading) have no idea how happy I am to be posting again. 

So, before we started working on the documentary projects, we watched a couple documentaries in class. Good news is that I actually like documentaries now! In fact, I actively seek them out these days. Character growth!

I Think This Is the Closest to How the Footage Looked

 

This was the first doc we watched in class. It was actually such a revelation. Being completely honest, I used to be really ignorant about documentaries and thought they were just boring nature docs about polar bears, but wow this completely changed my views on docs. I Think This is the Closest to How the Footage Looked was made entirely through inanimate objects (making it unlike any documentary I’ve ever seen), and it’s genuinely such a stirring story. I just loved how this doc was able to pull emotions out of basically everyone in the class through such an unconventional storytelling method.

American Promise

This one was definitely my favorite. I thought the subject matter was so interesting and the amount of work that it must have taken to edit it was probably insane. I particularly liked how the doc was structured, typically a narrator would be used for a production like this, but using the interviews to make the piece flow was great. As I was watching it though, I was a bit turned off knowing that the directors were also the subject’s parents. I don’t think the bias was too apparent (in fact, I think they included scenes where they definitely don’t come out looking great) but it was still somewhat noticeable. Overall, I think American Promise did a great job shedding light on a subject that just isn’t talked about often.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Yeah this one was very good. The way the tone of this piece shifts is so so so cool. The implicit signaling of themes, especially towards the ending was so clever. I honestly don't even think the point of the documentary even clicked for me until it was over and we discussed it in class (I promise I'm not media illiterate...I think). After viewing, we had an almost hour long discussion in class about the meaning of art, what is and isn't art, etc etc. It was such an eye opening discussion. Honestly it may be one of my favorite school-related experiences. 

Abstract

This was more like the documentaries I would usually see. I liked how it used some more stylistic approaches for the b-roll (animation, staged footage, etc.) It was a clever artistic method for an...artistic piece. Yeah, I don't really have a lot to say about this one but I generally loved the b-roll!

NYT Op Docs

Oh my god I watched so many of these. First of all, I think its awesome that the NYT amplifies the voices of independent filmmakers. The subject matters of some of them that I watched were so interesting, just a bunch of stuff that I had never heard about before. I particularly loved Visible Mending. It just felt so warm and comforting. I loved the use of knitted animals to represent the interviewees (the doc is about the healing powers of knitting) and the use of music and stop-motion. I ended up watching so many of these just cause they were all so short and engaging. I loved hearing all the stories that were told.

Fonts...

    Fonts are oh so important to developing the tone of a movie, especially in its opening. Imagine if the title drop in Jaws was in comic sans...

A Little Bit of Research

    Did a some research on horror movie fonts before choosing my own. I chose to look at the credits and title drops of movies that I specifically know have a somewhat similar opening to my own (all horror too).

Raw title screen

    First one I chose to watch was from Raw. This title drop occurs right after a mysterious car accident. I love how the bold font chosen, matched with the opening scene, really leaves an impression for audiences, and expectation for what the rest of the movie will be.

Credits from A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

      

Title from The Conjuring

    Second ones I went with was this credits scene from A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and The Conjuring. Like the one for Raw these are bold fonts. Both are put on black and white backgrounds, with the fonts being white. Since my own title drop would be behind a red and black background, I think the best would be to have it in a red font. The credits would be in a white font to contrast against the black. 

    

    Last credit scene I looked through was Climax. I chose this one because there's like three different title drops throughout the movie and also a couple of credits scenes, as shown by the screenshots above. I was hoping that since so many different fonts and colors are used, I would get some ideas from from it. Unfortunately, the style of Climax is much more neon and "fun" than what I was envisioning. 

My Own Final Result

    I created the title and credits on Canva. While I know how to use Photoshop, I just prefer Canva, it's easier to use for me. The final fonts I chose were Inria Serif and Paalalabas Wide. Here is the final result:

TITLE REVEAL!!!

 Research

    One of my peers recommended I look further into séance scenes during the group meeting and that is exactly what I am going to do. This post will be a little longer than my past ones, so I think It'll be best to split it up into some sections: history, sample analysis, and reflection.

History

    So what is a séance in the first place?? 

Séance captured in France 1897, photographer unknown.

    

    The word séance derives from it's French root, meaning "session". In English however, seances are associated with ghosts and the supernatural. Why is that? Well, in 1849, two sister, Catherine and Margaretta Fox, wanted to show to the world that they could communicate with spirits. Their demonstration, in which they claimed that spirits would communicate through "clickings" (one meaning yes, two meaning no), is the first documented case of spiritualism being performing in front of an audience for money. Even though the Fox sisters admitted to their demonstration being a hoax years later, spiritualism and seances still became very popular across the world. Just off of this little bit of research that I've done, I've deducted that my original idea isn't exactly a séance, but rather a weird combination of a séance and a possession.

    There are actually different types of seances (there's like a whole science to this, it's much more complex that I imagined). Religious seances fall under the religion of spiritualism and Divine Metaphysics, so this is not relevant for my research. There's also seances that a performed by mediums on a stage to an audience, again, this is not relevant. The only kinds of seances that fit my idea are leader-assisted seances and informal social seances. Leader assisted seances are performed by a medium, which I do not have, these mediums go into a trace, which I DEFINTELY want to incorporate into my story. And obviously, my "séance" will be in an informal setting, so this will be my biggest inspiration for the rest of the project.

Samples

Emily 

    So, Emily is a biographical film following the life of writer Emily Bronte. It's not really historically accurate at all, but I do love the way it incorporated supernatural aspects to a realistic setting. Maybe an odd choice to reference first since it's not a horror film, but honestly, this clip may be the closest to the idea I have in my head. During this scene, Emily is using a mask to conjure up the spirit of her mother and it seems like her mother actually possess her body. I'm particularly inspired by this scene because of the tonal shift that occurs. While mine would be set in modern day, this is surprisingly close to the the...vibe that I want to capture, just a group of friends trying out something stupid that turns out not so stupid. One detail that I noticed used to develop the tonal change without the need of fancy effects or incredible acting (not saying the acting is bad though...the cast is phenomenal in this film) was the pacing of the editing. The beginning of the scene relied on very little cuts, and only used them to get an occasional reaction shot or different angle. However, by the end of the scene, the cuts are frantic and much more frequent. This really helped translating fear to audience. The lights flickering also helps with this effect (I could probably do this on Premiere Pro). One last detail I wanted to mention for this scene was the variety of shots and angles that were used. They really bring an eeriness to the rest of the setting, I could actually try recreating some of the shots in my own film. 

Stills from Emily

Hereditary

    One day I'll write a blog post that doesn't involve me mentioning Hereditary, I PROMISE. This film is a much more traditional horror, I really don't even want to rewatch this scene because it just freaked me out so bad, but well oh well, the sacrifices I make for media studies. Hereditary is about a family that is haunted by a demon following a series of tragic events. In this particular scene, Annie (Toni Collette), who believes she is a medium, is performing a seance to communicate with her daughter, Charlie. Charlie possesses her body, but rather than it being a traditional horror sequence, Charlie just asks for her mother, which is honestly so much creepier than most seances scenes. This scene is honestly so strong just because of everyone's performance, so while I hope to have actual actors in my own project, I can't fully rely on developing tone thorough characters (to be honest, it's not really fair to compare Toni Collette to any actor so...). What actually caught my attention the first time I watched this scene was the camera movements used. It's very subtle but there are very few, if any, static shots throughout this whole sequence. The constant movement, the tilts and pans, make the rest of the atmosphere very unsettling, like there's something lurking in the shadows. I mentioned this in a past blog post, but I really do want to use movement in my project. Since I am talking about Hereditary, I also wanted to mention another scene that had a big impact on me when I was originally coming up with the idea.

       In this scene, Peter (Annie's son) is possessed by this demon for the first time. I'm not exactly sure how much this scene will influence my actually opening, but the look on Peter's face is so terrifying and has stayed with me since I watched this movie. The whole idea of not being able to control your own body is a great theme I could try to tie into my own film.

Talk to Me 

    I know I talked a little about Talk to Me's opening scene a couple blog posts ago, but I did feel the need to discuss this sequence since it's pretty hard to deny the similarities between my own idea. So, Mia (the one in the yellow sweater), is trying out this hand thing that lets spirits into their body or something like that at a party. I actually saw this in theaters and the jumpscares and so simple but SO effective. I truly don't know if I want to include jumpscarses at all, but if I do, Talk to Me's quick cuts are a good technique to model after. Like Emily, this scene has a more informal, casual environment, that fit well into what I am visualizing. What I thought this scene did very good, was subtly developing each of the character's personalities through their actions. There's something else I wanted to mention about this scene but I'm really blanking at the moment, so if I remember, I'll probably include it in a later blog post (also little side-note, but I love how the costume design emphasizes Mia as the subject).

Some stills from this scene

    That's all the research I've got left in my today; think I'll watch a horror move as a treat.

Sources

Kingston, T. (n.d.). Séances, spirits & mediums - victorians & spiritualism. History Undressed. https://www.historyundressed.com/2017/06/seances-spirits-mediums-victorians.html




Levrier-Jones, G. (2021, October 18). The rise of spiritualism in 19th century America - History is now magazine, podcasts, blog and books: Modern International and American history. History is Now Magazine, Podcasts, Blog and Books | Modern International and American history. https://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2021/10/18/the-rise-of-spiritualism-in-19th-century-america

Script Research (AKA Ari Aster Save Me...Save Me Ari Aster)

    I've never really written a script for anything, so I figured before I start working on any of THAT, I do a little bit of screenwriting research. I found this article by Studiobinder breaking down tips for how to write a horror story. Advice that they emphasize again and again is to watch and analyze other film and directors to shape you own vision. And so, I went down a rabbit hole of reading and watching interviews of some of my favorite productions. While most of the interviews I found had little relation and offered no help for my endeavor, I did find a No Film School interview with Ari Aster that offered some insightful advice. Aster discusses how he built his own fears and past experiences into the making of Hereditary. When asked about how his own life bled into the screenplay, he said this: "What's beautiful about filmmaking is that you're able to take more personal stuff, put it through the filter, and out comes an invention". 

What Am I Scared Of...

    I really like Aster's way of looking at horror, I do think that incorporating my own fears will be much more effective than doing a cliche rehash of another horror idea. After some introspection, I begun to brainstorm what I really find terrifying, so I guess here's a little storytime. When I was eight, my friend received a chainmail that, long-story short, said that she would disappear if she didn't send the message to a certain number of people. The message was so obviously fake, but I was an eight-year-old with an overactive imagination and bad anxiety. I think what terrified me so much was this feeling of having absolutely no control of what could happen next. For months, I was paranoid at any sound or shadow in the corner of my eye. It's fascinating to me is how after experiencing trauma (talking more in general now...not implying that receiving a prank message is traumatic), our brains become unable to separate reality from imagination. I know that horror film exploring trauma and mental health have become a little disliked by audiences in the last couple of years, but I truly want to use this my own opening. Obviously, it'll be hard to express a character's trauma in just two minutes (especially without professional actors), so developing context (showing the actual traumatic experience) will be necessary.     With the similar theme of confusing reality, I find the possibility of myself losing my mind to be absolutely terrifying. One of the most underrated horrors I've seen, We're All Going to the World's Fair, uses this fear to show a character's spiral. I loved We're All Going to the World's Fair so much because it's very ambiguous in whether the character's experience were real or if she was truly losing her mind. 

    These two fears seem really different from each other, and I might not incorporate both, but I do believe that both will make a great basis for a horror film. Just for brainstorming reasons, I was think generally that the film should open with the character viewing someone else losing their mind (maybe being chased by something that's not there) and have that be the character's catalyst for trauma. But for now that's all I've got.

Where Do We Go From Here

    I think this'll be my last research post for a couple days, I've done quite a bit of research thus far and I think it's finally time to get started. Tomorrow, I hope to get started on the script (and maybe even finish a first draft of it). I'm excited to see how all of this research will shape my story. 

Sources

Buder, E. (2018, June 7). “hereditary”: How Ari Aster pushed his horrifying film “as dark as it could go.” No Film School. https://nofilmschool.com/2018/06/hereditary-ari-aster-interview

Kench, S. (2023, October 30). Horror writing tips for Fiction & Film. StudioBinder. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-write-horror/

 I Should Write a Horror About This 

    Picture it: it's 2 AM on Wednesday school night and you wake up in cold sweats. You're a week and a half into your AICE Media Project and you still have no idea what you're going to do. The room around you starts to feel a little too claustrophobic and your eyes begin to go hazy as a million possible images play in your mind.

    Anyways, for little inspiration, I decided to dedicate this blog post to other horror movie openings. Specifically, I wanted to research some cold opens.

Cold Opens

    Personally, I find the most effective horror openings to be the ones that immediately throw audiences into the nightmare. I think this is partly because MOST horrors are slow-burn, so I usually have at least half an hour to mentally prepare my body for the rest of the film. Since I'm pretty much set on a horror opening, I want to make something intriguing from the get-go, so while I love a good horror slow-burn, I think this is the way to go. I decided to put together a list of all the best "cold opens" in horror that I could think of to watch and then chose two to focus on. 

It Follows (2014)

    I watched this film a couple months ago and while I didn't love it, I thought it was an incredibly effective, simple (but also very unique), and low-budget horror. I specifically chose to study this scene because it's just one of my favorite openings to a horror. It instantly sets the tone for the rest of the film without giving too much away. The opening also ends with quite a shocking, gruesome frame that I can't really recreate but it's a good example of the kind of startling imagery that I would like to convey. While I was unable to find a video of the actual scene on YouTube (I think it's just blocked on school grounds), I was able to find an interview in which the director, David Robert Mitchell, breaks down the opening scene. It's a short interview, he only breaks down about a minute of the opening, but I was really intrigued by his discussion on horror conventions. Mitchell specifically studied and incorporated horror clichés into mise-en-scene elements (particularly her wardrobe). However, he also played on lesser used conventions in horror to catch audiences off-guard. There are very, very few horror films that are shot in daylight, much less ones set in a seemingly normal suburb. It's this sense of normalcy contrasted with whatever the girl is experiencing that makes this scene so unsettling. This is a technique that I definitely want to try in my opening. I'm tired of horror films feeling so predictable and cookie-cutter in terms of how they look. I'm still brainstorming at the moment but there's a playground close to my house that would be a PERFECT setting to get this contrast. I also wanted to bring up It Follow's cinematography that really help develop the tone. The opening, along with the rest of the film uses slow pans and negative space to create a sense of paranoia. I love these techniques because they utilize basic techniques to creep audiences out, which is exactly what I'm trying to produce as someone with absolutely no budget. 

Talk To Me

    This example is more gruesome/violent than the last one, which is not really what I'm trying to emulate, but it has techniques that I would like to use. Like the beginning of It Follows, this opening puts us right into the scene. It begins with a party full of teenagers and hip-hop music playing. The only aspect that indicates the genre at this point is the lowkey lighting, which sets the mood for the rest of the scene. While the music and atmosphere feel out of place with the genre, it does establish the carefree, dumb teenager characteristics that become important later on and (again), serves as a juxtaposition. I love this introduction because of how abrupt the change is. These super abrupt changes are sprinkled all over the film and are so effective for shock value. I also chose to focus more on this opening because it's a more modern (movie was released last summer in fact) representation of teenagers. Truth is, it's unlikely that I'll find anyone other than my friends to act in this, so I have to shape my film around how a teenager would act, and I really love how this opening characterizes its characters in just two minutes. 

Representation of Mental Illness in the Women of Sharp Objects

    In 2018, HBO released an 8-episode mini-series adaptation of Gillian Flynn's book Sharp Objects. Helmed by Big Little Lies director, Jean Marc-Valle, it followed the story of a journalist, Camille Preaker, who returns to her childhood hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri to write about the murder of two teenage girls. As details of the murders are uncovered and Camille’s stay is lengthened, old childhood traumas resurface, and Camille is forced to confront her past. The show was lauded for its realistic characterization because Sharp Objects’ representation of mentally ill women, particularly women who are broken by the oppressive culture of violence in the South, shows audiences a reality that society doesn’t typically want to confront.

    

    Sharp Objects explores intergenerational trauma and familial relationships through three characters: the matriarch of the house, Adora Crellin; her daughter, Camille; and Camille’s step-sister, Amma Crellin. Camille is the outcast of her family. Immediately after she graduates, she flees the town and gets a journalism job in Chicago. When she returns, it becomes evident that she doesn't longer adhere to what Wind Gap’s expectations of a young women should be. She rejects femininity, choosing not to wear dresses, but rather long, black attire to hide the scars of her self-harm. When confronted about having children, she acts almost repulsed by the idea. Camille suffers from depression and has tried to commit suicide in the past. She cuts words into her body and her entire body is scarred. The story actually starts shortly after she is released from a mental facility. Trauma from her mother and her sexual assault in high school have left her a broken woman.

    Adora and Amma Crellin on the other hand, fit perfectly into the deep South's model of womanhood. Adora has gained respect and given her family a good name in the town. She is a perfect, delicate Southern Belle, who dresses in flowery and feminine dresses. However, as the story develops, audiences learn that Adora is deeply disturbed as a result of the abuse that she endured as a child, and the implied sexual violence that she went through. She uses her fragile personality to manipulate people's perspective of her. Adora's character completely upends previous stereotypes of what her character should be like. Even though she gives off a meek appearance, Adora may actually be the most powerful character in the show. Her abusive childhood led her to grow up with a need for attention, and with this need, she cultivated habits of inflicting her own pain into others and continuing a cycle of abuse to her daughters. While discussing any bit of Adora's mental illness would be revealing a huge spoiler, its actually one of the instances of this disorder being explored in media through a thoughtful lens that examines what could have led someone to develop this dependence.

    

    

    The youngest daughter of the show, Amma, shows a final perspective (and arguably the most impactful) into female mental illness. Amma embraces her femininity and burgeoning sexuality and she uses her body to get the attention of older boys. Like Adora, she deeply craves attention, which she was receives plenty of from her mother. Although she is barely fourteen, the show's costume designer dresses her in mature and revealing clothes and she is seen doing drugs at parties. It can be argued that Amma shows sociopathic tendencies, and she has learned how to pass the abuse she has received from her mother to others, 

    Sharp Objects' representation is discussed and analyzed so often because mental illness and trauma, especially in women is not often explored in this fashion. Rather than portraying Camille as a monster, or crazy, or a danger to society, Sharp Objects is incredibly empathetic to her illness. This type of representation is so incredibly important to take away social stigmas against depressed and suicidal people. And while Amma and Adora aren't depicted in a particularly positive way, their characters still highlight the dangers of abuse and how much it can impact a person's development and perspectives on life.

 What Makes Horror Horror?

Horror films take an audience’s worst fears and bring them to life. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes horror as, “painful and intense fear, dread, and dismay”. Despite the nightmare-inducing stories, the horror genre remains one of the most popular both among audiences and filmmakers. 

A Little History

The horror genre of film arises from old folklore and mythology. Georges Méliès’ short film, The Haunted Castle (1896), which featured floating ghosts and skeletons, shocked audiences at the time, and is now considered to be the first piece of horror put to film. German Expressionist films of the 1920s, which focused more on the filmmaker’s aesthetic expression rather than realism and relied heavily on production design, paved the way for what was known as the “Golden Age of Horror” in Hollywood. The 1930s saw a surge of horror films (a lot of which were creature features produced by Universal Pictures).  Early Hollywood horror cinema was highly influenced by classic nineteenth-century Gothic fiction literature. Audiences flocked to see movies such as Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931). With the 1940s and 50s came a wave of psychological thrillers, a prominent name of that time being Alfred Hitchcock. The 60s and 70s introduced supernatural aspects to the genre, and became much bloodier. Finally, slasher films in the 80s and 90s ushered in a new subgenre of satirical horror. Present day horror, especially with the rise of studios like A24, has seen more and more original and reflective stories from visionaries such as Jordan Peele, Julia Ducournau, and Ari Aster. 

Content

    It's hard to pinpoint specific content that makes up the horror genre because it's so incredibly diverse. There are dozens of subgenres that make up the horror umbrella: supernatural, psychological, creature/monster, folk, giallo, slasher, gore, found footage, just to name a few. Although there are so many genres, horror films typically feature some sort of paranormal or supernatural aspect, like ghosts, many are set in haunted houses (the film 1408, however, is set in a haunted hotel), and the main character is in some sort of danger. They are characterized by extreme violence, not shying away from showing some blood. Main antagonists are also found in most horror movies, which the heroic protagonist has to defeat. Another common stereotype of the horror genre is the "final girl". This woman is usually the only one to survive the string of killings, although she suffers a great deal by that point. Older slashers are now criticized by people who claim that the "final girl" stereotype is rooted in misogyny and were used by male directors as an excuse to torture women.

Laurie from Halloween is one of the most famous final girls.

    To scare audiences, horror films rely on suspense. A good horror film builds up suspense through foreshadowing. Filmmakers use cues and symbols that audiences recognize to foreshadow what is to come. For example, objects disappearing or mysteriously moving is used in almost every paranormal film. Without the proper environment and build-up, scares can feel cheap.

Production Techniques

Horror films use specific techniques to elicit emotional fear responses from the audience. We scream and cover our eyes while watching horror films because we as viewers have been conditioned to react based on these techniques. 

Sound

The simple usage of sound can be used to create a suspenseful environment or to carry out an effective jumpscare. Horror movie soundtracks typically use dissonant chords to (subconsciously) have the audience at the edge of their seat. Many composers create leitmotifs to represent characters, these sound motifs let viewers know that danger is imminent. John Williams’ Main Title Theme from Jaws (1975) is one of the most popular examples of this. Filmmakers also often depend on stings for jumpscares, which shock an unsuspecting audience. In fact, once the volume of horror films is muted, it loses most of its shock factor. Lastly, certain subgenres of film, such as body horror and gore/splatter films, rely heavily on foley and SFX to nauseate audiences. This scene from Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 Suspiria remake is a great example of how sound can be used to disgust viewers. 

Cinematography and Production Design

Horror films are known for being dark, and not just in their subject matter. Since most horror films are set during the night, the color palette is usually dark.

Color pallet of 2016's The Witch

This darker color and lighting obscures a lot of the camera's view, creating a foreboding feeling. The use of shadows and silhouettes are also a very common way for horror films to draw out suspense, a technique that got popularized primarily by Hitchcock’s films. Horror films use unconventional camera angles and composition. In fact, many horror directors utilize something known as negative space. Negative space is usually the empty space of a shot that surrounds the subject. Horror films use this technique to play with the audience’s imagination (examples: Psycho and Insidious). Director Mike Flanagan is known for using the negative space of his shots to hide ghosts or other figures in the background. Tracking shots and pans are used to create a sense of dread and anticipation (and many times end with a jumpscare).

Marketing

Because the target age of horror films ranges from late teens to young adults, the marketing steers towards a more mature depiction of the film. Trailers, usually underscored by dramatic covers of popular songs to attract viewers, include the most shocking scene of the films. Most horror posters feature the main villain’s face or mask as the cover. Body parts are also really popular on horror posters. The posters are typically dark and bloody with disturbing images. Because of the Halloween season, most horror films are released in an October date; however, horror films also perform very well during summer release date (while not as big a summer blockbusters released this year like Barbie, Talk to Me, made on a budget of just $4.5 million, ended grossing way over ten times its budget).

   Screenshot of the Blair Witch Project website made by the directors.

    A particularly groundbreaking marketing case in the horror genre was the Blair Witch Project (1999). Because of its genius marketing strategy, an indie found footage film (a genre that was practically new in the 90s), made on a budget of just $35,000, became one of the highest grossing horror films of its time. Because this was so early in the internet’s history, many consider Blair Witch to have been the first film to mass market through the internet. The directors of the film, Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick, created a fictional legend, The Curse of the Blair Witch, and kept a website that discussed this curse. The entire marketing relied on the audience believing that it was a true story. The internet reported the actors of the film as missing or dead, and their missing posters were found on the website, which also included fake police reports and interviews. This strategy was so believable, that the parents of the actors received cards from multiple fans of the film who believed that their children were actually dead.

Samples

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

    Released in 1920, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is now widely considered to be the first full length horror film. Made in Germany during the Expressionistic movement, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is known for its eccentric production design, characterized by abstract sets and harsh makeup. While Caligari's horror style would be unconventional compared to today's films, it was highly influential visually and content-wise for what the horror genre would become in the following decade. 
    The film begins with a man named Francis telling another man the story of an ordeal that he and his wife recently encountered. The film flashes back to this memory, set in a small town in Germany. Francis and his friend, Alan, attend the town fair. There, they see a doctor performing his somnambulist show. The Doctor awakens the somnambulist, Cesare, and Alan asks him when he will die. Cesare replies that he will die at dawn, that night, Alan is stabbed to death. Francis becomes suspicious that Cesare was involved as a string of crimes occur. 

    Although Dr. Caligari was made so early in the history of horror films, it still includes many conventional factors of a traditional horror film. Twists and turns are all over the plot. The movie features violent murders, often only showing the knife and screams. Suspense is built up and foreshadowing is used to clue in viewers to what the ending will be. The film also deals with obsession and insanity, popular even in today's horror films.

Rosemary's Baby (1966)

    Husband and wife Guy and Rosemary move into a New York apartment building despite being warned by friends and witnessing the previous tenant's peculiar behavior. Rosemary befriends a recovering drug addict named Terry who has been taken in by Rosemary's neighbors, Minnie and Roman; however, a couple days later, Terry commits suicide. Not too long after, Rosemary becomes pregnant. That night, Rosemary eats some food made by Minnie and begins to hallucinate and experience weird dreams. Rosemary begins to question why her neighbors are so interested in her baby.

    Although Rosemary's Baby is an older film, a lot of its horror still holds up today. This is because the movie relies, not on cheap jumpscares and special effects, but rather on creating an uncomfortable environment. The film is deeply rooted in fleshing out Rosemary's paranoia and growing distrust in the people around her. The film's scariest scene, for example, relies on implies the violence rather than explicitly showing it, making the scene so much more disorienting and terrifying. Tight shots are used to represent Rosemary being trapped in her situation. Rosemary's Baby's most effective technique, however, is its subversion of stereotypes. Typically, trustworthy characters like the doctor, elderly neighbors, and her own husband, are the hidden antagonists of the film. These subversions are why Rosemary's Baby is now considered one of the greatest psychological horrors of all time.

Other great horror films:

Black Swan (2010)

Let the Right One In (2008)

Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The Wailing (2016)

Saint Maud (2019)

Possession (1981)

Sources

Defining the Horror Genre – The Acronym | IMSA's Official Student Newspaper

What is Horror? Definition and Examples in Film (studiobinder.com)

The Evolution of Horror Films: A Look a Horror Movies from the 19th to 21st Century – Media Services News (american.edu)

The First Horror Movie & The History of the Horror Genre - NYFA

Why The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Remains Horror's Most Influential Film (cbr.com)