In order to acquire funding for their passion project, a group of pretentious film students must survive the night in a haunted house.
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In order to acquire funding for their passion project, a group of pretentious film students must survive the night in a haunted house.
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The worst thing in a horror film is where it just seems characters are in the film for no other reason than to be killed off one by one.
Monsters don’t scare an audience. What scares an audience is that a character they like and are emotionally?invested in, might die
Why should the audience care if any of these pretentious characters live or die?
Agreed with Richiev – there seems to be very little for the audience to root for.
I’ll add that this particular genre (monster in the house, if you read Blake Snyder…) lives and dies (pun intended) on the nature of the monsters. In other words, how the characters got to be in the haunted house is irrelevant what makes these types of horror movies work is the unique type of beast the character need to face. Cabin in the Woods is a great example of a relatively modern horror of this type that had a great twist, what does your story bring to the genre that makes it stand out?
Why does it fund their project? Plus it does read a bit like a Scooby Doo episode.
They’re film students — and they aren’t going to shoot any film as the plot unfolds in the haunted house?? If so, that’s a waste of characterization.? That they are film students is a throw away.
Use the characterization. Such as: to raise the $$$ for their passion project, they accept an assignment to shoot a video about spending a night in a house that is supposed to be haunted.? Shoot the entire film from the pov of whoever is holding the camera,.
Yeah, I know that is similar to the pov camera gimmick was used in the the low budget, high grossing, phenom film “The Blair Witch Project”.? (Shot a short distance from where I live, btw)? But if you can come up with something that’s the same — but different….
Anyway, use the characterization.
fwiw
I don’t think the threat is real enough. At this stage, the students could spend the night in the haunted house, sleep soundly, get up, and have jam and toast for breakfast.? Who is the antagonist, and why should we fear him/her/it?