Research:
When conducting research for my short horror script, I focused on a select few readings from class – and sourced inspiration from films (not particularly horror) I found interesting and which included specific elements aligning within the ‘post-horror’ genre.
An early reading in the subject (Neisewander, 2019) raised the idea that post horror elements have always been present in horror films, and that modern horror films with deeper thematic elements are being misplaced when considered in a new genre. This encouraged me to consider the content of my script – and led me to blend ‘old horror’ visuals and graphic content with ‘post-horror’ pacing and use of metaphors. The films that instantly came to mind where David Cronenberg’s ‘The Fly’ (1986), where similar to most of Cronenberg films, a lot of the horror lies in his creation of disgusting visuals accompanied by the protagonists sense of helplessness. Once Seth emerges from his teleporting machine, we know there is no hope for him – and it becomes quite hard to watch. The other work that came to mind was a particular scene from David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Drive’ (2001), In which a man who had been dreaming of a horrifying face hiding behind a fast-food restaurant goes to the restaurant to inspect if it is real. The sense of dread created by lynch in this scene, and the lead up to the eventual jump scare is perfectly executed. As the audience watches the man approach the back of the store, we know what to expect, but the silence and strange nature of the interaction fills us with uncertainty. This led me to consider creating a script where the looming threat is uncertain and relatively unknown. Neisewanders article informed me that a ‘post-horror’ script does not have to take a solely deep, thematic approach to its content, but rather, can be considered ‘post-horror’ through its unique blend of horror elements – thus leading me to take inspiration from two vastly different films. When considering deeper themes to approach in this script, I looked towards many coming of age horror films such as David Yarovesky’s (Brightburn) (2019), Thomas Alfredsons ‘Let the Right One In’ (2008), and Scott Derricksons ‘The Black Phone’ (2021). All of these films have a coming of age element in which the young protagonist must overcome some sort of adversity largely on their own – when those around them cannot understand what’s going on. ‘Brightburn’ also carries an unforgiving tone, where the young protagonist continuously acts against the authority of the adults around him, similar to my film, where Mac remains dismissive of the imposing adults and officials around him.
Bibliography
Neisewander, J. (2019) ‘“Midsommar” and the phantom genre of elevated horror’, The Observer, 10 September.
Reflection:
I faced numerous challenges when coming up with my script. Originally, I had written three pages of an idea where a man is attacked by the appliances in his house. On reflection, this idea was light on themes and could not really be excel beyond its first scene. I decided to start from scratch and instantly struggled to think of an idea. After a day of not being able to naturally think of an idea, I began to mind map, keeping in mind advice from an earlier tutorial (Marshall, 2023) – I focused on giving my character a single motivation within that, creation tension through high stakes. In this case, it was constructing a character who desired to challenge authority. Luckily enough, I was eating dinner when completing my mind map – so I imagined what it would be like to be forced to eat the same thing every day. This led me through a thought process which resulted in a rough idea for ‘Food for Thought’. My main struggle up to this point had been finding an idea which held its ground long enough to fill a five-to-ten-page script – so I began to write down the different places Mac could be, and characters that could influence him towards breaking the rules.
Knowing I wanted to focus on a coming-of-age type story, I instantly thought of emphasising his mother’s fierce disapproval as a motivating factor of his rebellion. For adolescent boys in particular, I feel that acting against parents advice and order is very common – thus I decided to make it a factor in my script.
In terms of including metaphors, I thought the idea of rectangular black food was perfect – as it can represent all that is known and familiar to somebody seeking to grow and learn as they get older and become more independent. The actual foods represent the unknown and growing curiosity that comes with adolescence; the good and the bad – the safe and the dangerous.
One of the main challenges I came up against whilst writing this script was effectively filling time between my initial ideas for the story. For example, the time between Mac waking up and later being chased by an enforcer. I overcame this struggle by noting down several different ways he could get from one point to the other, and choosing the most effective and plausible route which also gave suitable context and created high stakes for the character. This was achieved by the inclusion of the radio report, and disagreement with his mother.
Bibliography
Marshall T. “Shock: A New Horror”, Class Lecture, Media and Communications, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, City Campus, 2 August, 2023