For anyone thinking of writing in the horror genre, there are certain situations that, over the years, have been done so frequently that audiences know exactly what to expect. Using any of these is fine if you’re being postmodern and ironic like in the Scream series, because you can make the audience laugh while jumping. But if you’re trying to make a big scare, here are some situations to avoid and alternative scenarios to consider.
The lonely woman in the old dark house
She is usually blonde, with big breasts and not very shiny. She yells things like “Who is there?” or “Is that you Joe?” Then go into dark rooms to see what’s in them. Tippi Hedren sets a good example in The Birds, as does Jamie Lee Curtis on Halloween. This scene has been so successfully satirized by the Scream series that it will be difficult for anyone to do it again; But if necessary, you will have to find a new way to increase the tension. The woman has been made blind, just like making a woman stalk a man. But what if the stalker exists inside the mirrors and can only reach out with outstretched arms? What if you give him a knife?
The child who is a mother is no longer a mother
The child says, “That’s not my mom.” A cocky doctor says, “It’s all in your mind, boy: Mom takes the child and the next day both mom and child watch the doctors from afar. A staple in 1950s paranoia movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Invaders from Mars, and it was given a new life in Dark Skies. It takes some serious thinking to give it a new slant. What if it’s pets that are being controlled and only children realize? ?
The experiment went wrong
They say things like “Morality is for lesser mortals” and “The end justifies the means” Then their creation jumps out and bites them. Think of all the movie versions of Frankenstein or Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde and you can’t go far wrong. A more recent example was Beau Bridges in Sandkings, the pilot of the modern outer limits. Anyone thinking of using this scenario should know a few scientists. Many of them are weirder than their fictional counterparts and provide great material for stories.
The mob of villagers
Sometimes there is a ringleader, like an old woman whose grandson has been murdered. Other times there is just an angry crowd yelling “Rhubarb” and waving torches. Perhaps the best example is actually a parody, young Frankenstein. How about trying a quiet mob? I can’t think of a scary new way to do this, but maybe you can do better?
The priest who lost faith
There are two ways to do it. The creature says “Your weak god means nothing to me” and kills the priest in a particularly bloody way. Or the creature says “Your weak god means nothing to me” and the priest approaches the base and drives the creature away. There are good examples of the former in Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot and John Carpenter’s The Fog. Could you try to get the creature to banish the priest to hell? I haven’t seen that … yet.
Running through the woods in the dark
People run in the dark, yelling things like “Mulder, where are you?” and waving lanterns, followed all the time by a malevolent presence in the trees. This is also known as The Blair Witch Project. The idea was pushed to the extreme at Pitch Black, where there was not even hope for dawn. A variation would be to do it in daylight, but Big Arnie covered that in Predator. How about having the monster as an urban creature that is actually afraid of the forest when it chases it? Maybe it’s time to go back to that angry mob?
Playing with dark forces
Someone says “Let’s play with Grannie’s Ouija board.” The next thing you know, a planchette is flying across the room on its own. This idea has been featured a lot on television, and typically involves scantily clad girls, on shows like Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The way to use this scenario without looking tired is to find a new way to summon evil. How about a character who utters the words while reading them, calling the beast that by accident?
The love of a good woman
The monster dies an inglorious death and someone says “T ‘was the beauty that killed the beast” Our cavemen ancestors probably said it around campfires. In the movie, it dates back to at least 1933 and King Kong. More recently, there was a variation on the TV series Beauty and the Beast and even the Disney movie of the same name. Why not try to make the beauty fall in love first while the beast never succumbs? You would need to find a clear resolution for the story, but again, you are a writer so it will be easy ๐
Let’s divide
Everyone knows the monster is somewhere, but someone says, “We are going to explore that dark place. Go the other way and we’ll see you later.” Why does everyone always think this is a great idea? Just watch Buffy TVS and count how often the gang gets lost. Or go back to the original Scooby gang and watch Shaggy and Scooby break up in each episode. Why not keep them together for a change? Or maybe they keep in touch via cell phones to thwart the bad guys. Or better yet, what about a monster that can split up and be in two places at once?
I am free
The monster has been defeated, the victor turns to the other survivors to receive applause, and the suddenly resurgent monster bites him to pieces. There are good examples in Starship Troopers and Deep Rising. Would one way to subvert this be to have another monster save your victim? Or how about doing something brave and making your monster die the first time?
conclusion
I’m going to write my new script “Chomp!” It begins when a mob of angry villagers storm the laboratory of a mad scientist who has been dabbling in powers man must not understand. The priest with the mob is killed by a “creature” that escapes into the forest.
A year later, 10 nubile teenagers are shipwrecked on the island. They split up to search the area and find themselves being hunted by a mutated, half-man, half-Komodo dragon-man-beast. Soon there is a lot of running through the woods at night and a tense scene in which a blonde is trapped in the ruins of the laboratory.
The big climax comes when the last two teenagers confront the monster. The boy believes he has killed him and becomes triumphant, only for the beast to rise up and dismember him.
In a moving final scene, the last girl cradles the monster’s head in her lap and cries as it dies.
Do you think it will sell? If your answer is “No”, what would you do to make it work?