![]() ![]() Not that her crewmates aren’t smart they’re space truckers. The dead meat teenagers that Freddy and Jason hack to bits make bad, immoral, or illogical decisions.Įllen Ripley in ALIEN (1979) is a smart character. So our survivors should make smart decisions. This has a lot to do with making your protagonist interesting and likable. The characters should make the most logical choice. Imagine all the possible ways your character could escape any deadly situation, because the audience most assuredly will. The world of magic is unexplainable and not based in science, meaning the writer can get away with a more open-ended (or no) explanation.Īnd sometimes you get both worlds, like when the powers of hell take over a spaceship like in EVENT HORIZON (1997) (We’re still waiting on that unrated director's cut, PAUL.) 7. Just look at how many things the powers of hell has possessed over the years: people, dolls, vehicles, videotapes, beds, and Ash’s hand. Magic could mean many terror elements like ghosts, cosmic creatures, or the powers of hell. Yet magical horrors have unfathomable powers. ![]() The science element makes us crave a logical, sometimes manmade explanation for the creature(s) haunting us. If the horror is magical in origin, they will give you much more leeway.Īudiences are more picky when it comes to sci-fi movies like ALIEN (1979), THE FLY (1986), or CLOVERFIELD (2008) because their horrors are based in science fiction. If it’s science fiction, the audience will expect everything to make logical sense. The audience will try to be ahead of you use that against them.” 6. Make them think they are watching something familiar, THEN bring in the changeup. Use your knowledge of how stories unfold against the audience. But what happens when a character DOESN’T change to the horrific force? Quite the misdirection in character.Īnother bit of misdirection advice from Cargill: “The key to narrative surprise is misdirection. And horror films introduce a deadly or supernatural element to the characters, so their very survival depends on them changing their status quo. We are told that characters are meant to arc or change. If the characters aren’t changed by their exposure to scary shit, that should be the whole point of the character. It’s simply the payoff that’s different (Comedy: “Haha!” Horror: “AAAAH!” )Ĭargill describes how using humor between characters in SINISTER is a great buffer for scares: Character humor often works best here.Ĭomedy doesn’t necessarily mean slapstick, unless it’s done really well like in EVIL DEAD II (1987) or ARMY OF DARKNESS (1992). Not so much that it is a comedy, but used as a tension release, the audience will reset and be ready to be scared again. While Cargill gives leeway to the first act while we’re establishing characters, a horror film needs to have scares or the audience gets bored. ![]() A “cat jump scare” is startling and only effective upon first viewing, so your horror needs to be authentic and memorable and not simply jump scares. Make sure something scary happens every ten pages or so.Īny longer and the audience forgets they’re in a horror film.Įvery scare beat needs to feel genuine. Your authentic fear feels genuine to an audience.Ĭargill describes his inspiration for writing Sinister based on a nightmare:ģ. Whether it’s spiders, cults, dolls, or cosmic terrors, if something genuinely scares you, your fear will bleed onto the page. This shouldn’t come as a surprise that if you’re writing a horror film, you should write what scares the hell out of you. If losing your child scares you, write about that. The more we dislike a character, the more cathartic the horror will feel, as if it is a well deserved karmic punishment.” 2. The more we care about and like our protagonists, the more scared we will be for both them and ourselves. And it won't be scary - which is often why some of those films lean into realistic gore to affect the audience. Write interesting and likable characters preferably both.Īnother way of looking at this comes straight from Cargill: “Give us unlikable characters and a cool monster and the audience will root for the killer instead. If we care about them, we’ll get scared for them. The characters are the most important part. And he spoke with ScreenCraft’s Tom Dever in a ScreenCraft AMA via Facebook Live, in which he revealed enlightening pointers and anecdotes.īefore we dive in, a fair disclaimer from Cargill himself: “As with all writing advice, your mileage will vary.” 1. Along with writing THE BLACK PHONE, SINISTER, SINISTER 2, and Marvel's DOCTOR STRANGE, he has appeared on horror panels for ScreenCraft at the Austin Film Festival, he co-hosts the “Write Along with David and Cargill” podcast, and he’s very open to sharing the tricks of his trade on his Twitter.Ĭargill recently posted an eight tip crash course on how to write a horror movie. Robert Cargill is a screenwriter’s screenwriter. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |