Research Statement:
In terms of establishing a concept for my story, one of the big influences was Emma Seligman’s ‘Shiva Baby’ (2020). Like many other films, this story follows the time frame of a single time and location, in this case, the film primarily takes place at a Shiva. The use of a secluded space opens the opportunity to focus on characters point of views and establishing tension. Following an article written by Stephen Lambros, he states that Seligman utilizes the limited space of a house in order to make it easier for the consequences of protagonist Danielle’s lies to unravel around her, since she has no where to run. I wanted to use the concept of a family reunion as a horror plot because to some people, they’re weird and uncomfortable. In a way, this adds a realistic lens towards the horror element of my short film.
Situating the story at a house,
not only isolates characters psychically, but metaphorically. This can be seen through the films cinematography. For example, the movie uses raw close ups and “claustrophobic still-frame shots” to isolate Danielle as she gradually becomes interrogated by her family members and becomes disorientated.
Whilst horror films that are set in one location are traditionally set in an environment that is heavily secluded and visually unnerving, (Misery (1990) and The Witch (2015)), David Church’s chapter on ‘Landscape in Post-Horror’, specifically, ‘Dread and the Natural Sublime’, argues that this is not always the case. Some environments may not immediately disgust viewers, but rather be a vault that withholds a combination of post-horror elements that are represented through characters, themes etc, that causes said disgust and fear.
I wanted my story’s location to be set in an old suburban home, to portray the notion that it is what inhabits the house that audiences should be of concern. Not only this, but it also adds to the realism of the story as one would typically have a family gathering at someones home and not an isolated location.
In terms of body horror, most of my inspiration came from the extreme use of practical gore in 80’s horror films, specifically Society (1989),Phantasm 2 (1988), and even The Cat In The Hat (2003) 
. The implementation of goo, reinforces the post-horror thematic of overbearing elders. While I don’t intend to make my film as graphic as some of my inspirations depict, I believe the use of practical effects as opposed to digital effects adds to the realistic aspect, even if the premise of gooey people doesn’t make logical sense. I also believe this would add to the uncomfortable tonality of the film as audiences never really find out what the substance is.
Bibliography:
Lambros S ( 9 April 2021) ‘The unsettling black comedy Of Shiva Baby’, University Wire, accessed 20 August 2023. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2510482995/citation/192CEF6FD7054BEFPQ/1?accountid=13552
Church D (2021) Post Horror: Art, Genre and Cultural Elevation, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.
Reflection:
When I was thinking about an idea for our scene exercises in Week two, I wanted to take a realistic approach towards the ‘horror aspect’ of the story. My aim was to think of an idea that people can easily relate back to in terms of feeling a sense of discomfort. With that in mind, the idea of having some form of family reunion came into fruition. I decided to stick with this plot device when it came to writing our official scripts as I believed this was a simple idea that can be twisted in whichever way I wanted. The notion of the older people being the ‘monsters’ is fitting in terms of expressing the overall theme of the story (pressure to appease the expectations of elders). I wanted to use the element of body horror (gooey skin) to represent this idea of suffocation and entrapment whilst also maintaining the weirdness that is old people emitting goo all around a house. I didn’t want to write something too serious, simply because I cannot write that tonality as well as I’d like to, however I think the existence of a dark comedy leans into the weirdness of the whole ideal. Full disclosure, I was not expecting my story to be picked, but I believe in a way that allowed me to push myself into thinking more about what this story is and what it is trying to do. I think one of the biggest challenges when it came down to writing the script was pacing. Because my script is dialogue driven, I found it difficult to find the balance between ambiguity and not revealing too much detail, which caused the pacing of the script to be jagged, though, I believe this was due to me struggling on where I wanted the script to go. Overall, I think this was a great opportunity to develop a short horror script and I am somewhat happy with what I had written despite the challenges.