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~START WITH WHAT GETS YOU SCARED~ • If you, the writer, are not experiencing any type of fear with the horror concept that you are writing, how can you possibly convey the fear of the characters within the story? Writing horror screenplays should be about exploring your own fears. The fact that millions of others likely share that fear is merely an added bonus.
~Test Your Concepts to Friends and Peers~ • Whatever the horror concept may be, test it out on those you know and observe their reactions. You will immediately know if you’re tapping into a primal fear that we all have and perhaps have yet to explore in movies. Try bouncing the idea off of your friends and peers and observing their reactions. While this could work for any genre, it’s especially applicable for the horror concepts because you are tapping into a very personal and emotional subject fear.
~Internalize All Structures of Your Favourite Horror Movies~ • The fact is that this isn’t about copying horror movies that have come before; rather, it’s all about making note of how great horror movies have succeeded in scaring the living daylights out of audiences. Because that is the primary goal of any horror movie, you want to know all of the tricks of the trade. Then, your job as a screenwriter is to take those tricks and put your own spin on them, making them your own.
~Check out the Type of Horror Movies to Shoot For~ • We all have those favourites that we admire and aspire to emulate in our own way. The best directors screen their favourite movies for their cast and crew to give them an idea of what they are trying to shoot for in any given element that the director is honing in on. It’s not about remaking what you love. It’s about taking certain elements of what you love and placing them within the context of your own horror concepts. • It’s key to find movies to shoot for in your development and writing process. It betters your writing, especially when you’re tasked with the creative challenge of doing so while making it your own.
~Keep the Empathy in Place~ • The key to successful horror movies is the empathy we feel towards the characters in these dire scenarios. Audiences want to feel as if they are experiencing these fears through the eyes of the character. • The notion of pairing intelligence and emotions is odd because emotions often supersede intellectual thought processes at first. However, as a screenwriter, it’s your job to pluck those emotional chords of the audience.
~Create an Atmosphere~ • Maximum number of horror movies are all about atmosphere, whether it be a secluded hotel, a dark mansion, or a within the haunting room of a possessed child. Atmosphere is everything. It is what creates that foreboding feeling before, during, and after the scares. Horror writers need to set the stage as such, because then the audience will be waiting in anticipation for each and every scare. Look no further than the effect of waiting in line to visit The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland or Disney World.
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