How To Write A Good Horror Movie
This article will discuss how to write a good horror movie. This involves good character development, cool and compelling scenes, an engrossing script and a powerful director.
The horror genre
Before starting with the overall process, let's discuss the specific characteristics of horror movies.
Horror movies: five elements
- Set
- Plot
- Narrative/Tragic Backstory
- Fear
- Conflict/Advantages
1. The execution
The following discussion contains certain "rules of the game" that filmmakers should avoid falling prey to.
1. Storytelling with a bigger mess
Instead of constructing a seamless chain of events, filmmakers tend to write complex backstories and scene-driven narratives.
The latter is a fantastic idea, but how to write them? It would be worthwhile to study old movies and see how they were being made.
Watch Silent Horror Movies
There's a reason why a majority of memorable horror movies had complex plots and backstories and why many lesser films were still well-made.
P. T. Anderson's 1991 "Boogie Nights" was not a masterpiece on every level but it did tell a cool, well-structured story.
A story about a record store clerk in 1970s. The film's opening scene features a crude reproduction of the "Hang 'Em High" poster, but the narrative is more important than its style.
A well-made film would show the world where the main character comes from and how he became a victim of a mob boss. It might involve the bombing of an apartment building.
2. It's about "how" Not "What"
Using a process of "how" to entertain, tell a story and succeed will always work. The difficulty comes from creating movies that offer "what" - a satisfactory experience - is meaningful.
What is the movie's theme? How does it explain "what" the audience is looking forward to?
Think of a movie like "The Blair Witch Project" (1999). It's a really good movie but not a masterful one.
It's worth watching, but it doesn't tell an engaging and captivating story. What makes "The Blair Witch Project" a successful horror movie is the fact that it is visually interesting and offers cool scares.
What "Blair Witch" failed to offer was any sort of engrossing or thrilling script.
A story with a "bigger mess" would tell "what" the audience is looking forward to.
2. More work is better
Another cliché I hear from filmmakers is "more is better." "More dialogue, more action, more pictures" seems like a classic form of filmmaking wisdom.
In reality, the opposite is the case. In order to be compelling and successful, movies with a big picture are more likely to become homogenous and boring.
That said, if a story offers a good amount of answers, a viewer can't help but wonder "what" is the result of this action. Some may wonder how the protagonist's life turned out and that creates a unique and exciting experience.
3. Writing is hard work
Any reasonable person will agree that writing a screenplay is a complicated and difficult task. So what makes it different than other creative forms of art?
Although most people can create a piece of art with their hands, the same cannot be said about writing.
An exceptional screenplay should not only tell a great story, but must also be fun to read and watch. The screenplay should feel like a short story.
Many will point to Steven Soderbergh's 1999 flick "Traffic" as the proof of this statement.
Its screenplay is fairly simple (and not particularly entertaining) but its visual style and a brilliant screenplay transformed it into a great movie.
4. Revisions make a huge difference
When writing a screenplay, a huge portion of the final work is simply waiting for somebody to finish editing.
Editing brings so much more life to a film than a film's plot and it's important to have a filmmaker, like John Stockwell, who has been known to cut films to their very core to get them to their best possible form.
David O. Russell made the fast-paced "American Hustle" into a movie that seemed tighter than it actually was. Russell would often use very simple camera moves and angles to get the perfect shot.
You would be hard-pressed to think this was the same movie with the majority of sequences missing.
On the other hand, there are filmmakers like Joel and Ethan Coen who "hunker down" and "undercut" and "shred" a script to death to make sure it's never found wanting.
In "The Big Lebowski," you never see this effect used on any of the characters but you'd be amazed at how different the film would be if it had.
5. This isn't the first time I've been promoted
Every filmmaker has a history with their chosen medium. Often, people lose their passion for what they do and feel burned out or demoralized before they even make a real film.
With that in mind, just because you've made a few movies, it's not the end of the world.
As more movies are produced on a yearly basis, it becomes harder to stand out as a filmmaker. It's not an easy task, but it doesn't mean that your job is over.
If you can add to the body of work you've made in the past, it increases the odds that you will be considered for future projects.