The Pitch

By Inna Kurakina

Horror In all honesty I am terrified of horror films, stories,

anything that involves the word ‘horror’ in it, I would rather not know. So finding ideas and inspiration for my horror trailer was harder than I thought, but I got a grip of myself and got on the internet and watched trailers! Still working on the ‘watching an actual horror film’ part, but I know I will have to sooner or later. I am pleased with the fact that I am coming up with a lot of ideas for shots, costumes and actors I could use for my trailer, I am using my creative side and really starting to become a little worried with the horrifically creepy ideas that go through my head!

Why I chose to work with this genre?

Because I want to create the most terrifying horror film trailer ever made. I want to make my audience as scared as I get when I watch horror films. I want them to not be able to get to sleep, to have the images from my horror trailer stuck in their heads. I want my audience to not be able to switch the lights off in their house without running up the stairs.

To achieve this I know that I have to use two sub-genres and collide them together, add a psychological twist to it, and make the audience too scared to even think about it. I desperately want my audience to experience the most freighting horror film trailer they have ever seen.

Psychological & Supernatural Horror

I chose what Sub-genre I wanted to work with, and this decision didn’t take me too long. I believe that psychological and supernatural horror films are the most terrifying. And colliding the two sub-genres together makes everything even more interesting. What I find so intriguing is that in both sub-genres there is a victim who is totally defenceless again the supernatural, and if something or someone is playing with their head, it makes matters worse for them. It is impossible to run away or hide from spirits or ghosts, and if there is a twist, finding an answer to something is never easy. Getting rid of a curse or finding out the answer is always the impossible in horror movies. There is just no escape. It excites me knowing that I have to create a supernatural horror trailer with a psychological twist, I feel like I can put all my creative ideas into this course.

The Codes and ConventionsI must make sure that I use the codes and conventions of these two sub-genres correctly so that I do not alienate my audience. My trailer needs to be recognisable as a supernatural horror film with a twist. That would be the psychological part. That way I will attract the right target audience. I have listed all the elements that I will be including…

I will create a plot that involves a woman that is in her early thirties, who will be haunted by her young daughter who has been possessed by a kid that never had the chance to live. Clearly the main character is the woman.I will film the trailer in an eerie atmosphere, as well as inside an old spooky house. When editing my trailer I will ensure to add ‘jumpy’ moments to catch my audience off guard. Sound: I am planning on using classical music for the trailer, sinister laughter, screams and whispers coming from the possessed girl. I am going to make sure that for the lighting I will use the appropriate sort for the right scenes. For example a strobe light to show a chaotic scene, natural light for simple shots and so on.

My Target Audience

Gender: More directed towards women who are more into the supernatural horror with thinking involved, whilst men are more into blood, gore and guts.

Age: A more sophisticated and mature audience, late teens to early thirties.

Personality: Open minded, caring, creative and spiritual beings. Thrill seekers who thrive on fear. Horror story lovers. Most likely in a long term relationship.

Professional Status:Intellectual individuals who fit into the ABC1 bracket, the younger TA are students are college or UNI studying hard to achieve this kind of career.

Music Taste: Alternative rock, pop, indie. E.g. ‘Kings of Leon’, ‘Frank Ocean’, ‘The Temper Trap’ etc.

Favourite Horror films: ‘The Others’, ‘The Unborn’, ‘A Tale of two Sisters’, ‘Orphan’ etc. All include either a psychological twist or the supernatural.

Favourite Books: ‘The Lovely Bones’, ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, ‘The Time Travellers Wife’ etc. A lover for a good story.

The Basic Plotline Introduction:

The main character is a woman in her early thirties, she is a professional woman, with a happy marriage to her husband, she also has a young daughter at the age of 7. She had an abortion when she around 19, and now the soul of the unborn child is in her daughter who ends up haunting the mother. Storyline: Susan (main character) has a very happy life with a beautiful family and a good job, the whole family just moved into a new house that needs some work. Everything is going great until Susan notices weird and paranormal behaviour going on in the house, she notices her daughter acting in a disturbing way, she hears her daughter scream in the night, she becomes anti-sociable and Susan become worried. The little girl becomes very disturbed, so Susan takes her to the doctor but nothing alarming came up in the results. Varies things happen, the family have a family photo taken, in that , her daughter looks very pale and realises she is wearing different clothes in the photo from the clothes she was wearing when the photo was taken. Susan ends up having nightmares about this little girl, the abortion clinic and then realises that her sweet and innocent daughter has been taken over by the soul of her unborn child. She tries to get help, but nothing works. Susan is losing her daughter more and more and the evil soul is taking over. Susan becomes very scared but still have unconditional love for her daughter, she also notices that the dad doesn’t see any difference in their daughter, and she doesn’t know how to explain to him what is going on.

The main character ends up having to also reveal to her husband that she once had an abortion, and the husband is against it. Their relationship becomes very fragile and everything is going wrong. The father ends up spending more time with the daughter, without realising what has happened to her. The little girl convinces the dad that Susan is becoming depressed and delusional, the dad tried to get help for Susan when really the little girl is playing with his mind and Susan doesn’t know how to make the dad realize what is going on. In the end, the daughter becomes very ill, so the soul moves onto the dad, Susan feels very alone and like she has no one to talk to, she is so worried about her daughter being in hospital and notices the dad acting strangely, she realises he is now possessed so she ends up having to fight with her husband (the evil soul) and having to murder the love of her life to get rid of the nightmare that is now her life. The father ends up dead, the soul disappears and the mother has a very hard and sad life ahead of her. Her daughter is taken away from her, she has been taken to a mental institute and in the end of the film, the audience sees that actually, Susan has tried killing the dad, but he is still alive. Susan has lost her mind, gone insane, is now locked up, and the soul of the child is still haunting her in her sleep, whilst her daughter and husband have moved on, the dad re-married, the girl is well, and they move into a new city starting a new life. No one believed Susan what has been going on, and now she is locked up with the soul still there, with her. In the end, the realization of the audience will be that Susan has gone insane. And thinks that that soul is haunting her, when really, she has just gone mad, whilst her family have started a new life without her.

However…This is a rough idea of my plot, obviously I will change some bits and bobs as I can be very indecisive. I am open to any suggestions and ideas, tell me everything you think is good and bad about the storyline and I will edit whatever I think is needed. Please be very honest, as your judgments are very important.

Inspiration…As well as using my own imagination, I used other already excisting films to help me create a story line.

Thank You!