Horror Movie Pitch

QUESTIONNAIRE
To begin my research I created a questionnaire to figure out the target
audience for the movie. I asked questions to get a general idea about the
subgenre and plot of the movie. The questions I asked were:
 ‘What is your gender?’
‘How old are you?’
‘What was the last horror film you watched? Did you find it scary?’
 ‘What do you expect from a good horror film?’
 ‘What do you like about horror films?’
‘What do you dislike about horror films?’
 ‘Do you enjoy a film that follows the conventions/stereotypes of a horror or
one that breaks them?’
 ‘What do you think is the most important aspect of a horror film?’
‘What do you think is the best kind of horror?’
‘How do you usually find out about new horror film releases?’

QUESTIONS
As the aim of theses questions
was to find out my target
audience and the things they
want I started the survey with
this question. The result was
half and half, this was good
because it meant that I got
equal answers from both guys
and girls.

QUESTIONS
This next question was to get an
idea of the age of the target
audience. The majority of the
answers were to the option ‘17
and under’. If people this age are
the target audience for my movie
then the age rating of the movie
would have to be at most a 15.

QUESTIONS
The films that are brought up here
are very well known and largely
advertised horrors, ‘The woman in
black’, ‘Paranormal Activity’ and
‘Insidious’ therefore it is probably
best to go for a more high concept
idea rather than something niche and
arty. Younger people tend to want to
watch the overly advertised films that
are very popular rather than
something that would focus on
character development and
cinematography.

QUESTIONS
The keywords I took from
these answers were:
Scary
Jump
Tense
Suspense
Eerie
Psychological
Surprise
Nightmares
These words
are what I will
use as the
baseline of my
plot.

QUESTIONS
The main words that I noticed from
these answers are:
Psychological
Adrenaline
Unexpected
Sudden
Ghosts

QUESTIONS
The answer that stood out to me
here was ‘I dislike poor acting
when female characters are scared
or being victimised and the
uselessness of some characters
because it is unrealistic’. This
points out the stereotypes of
female characters in horror films,
in my film I would like to go
against the stereotype of the
woman being the weak victim
because not a lot of conventional
horror films do this and I believe it
would provide a unique selling

QUESTIONS
The majority of the people
answered this question saying
that they prefer a film that breaks
the conventions/stereotypes of a
horror film. Due to this I will
attempt to create my trailer in a
way that goes against conventions
through the use of the storyline
and characters.

QUESTIONS
Here the most popular answer was
plot, this further adds to the idea
that the target audience of the
movie would be more focussed on
something high concept and
popular rather than niche, with no
one answering with ‘sound’ or
‘lighting’.

QUESTIONS
From this question it is obvious that
the subgenre for the movie will be
‘Psychological’. This will also be an
easier subgenre to film as there is no
need for any slasher gore or any kind
of special effects or makeup because
it can all be about fear of the
unknown.

QUESTIONS
Social media sites such as Twitter
and Facebook are very large
nowadays and this makes them
the best media platform to
promote the movie on. This also
shows that because younger
people are the more prominent
users of such social media sites
that the target audience is going
to be reached easily.

CONVENTIONS OF HORROR
Setting:
Isolated places and small
communities. These places
often come with a dark history,
(something terrible happened
there a long time ago)
Camera work:
Unnatural, shaky,
off angle. High
and low angles.
Extreme close
ups for dramatic
effect.
Iconography:
Dark colours red colours,
low key lighting,
shadows, unnatural,
unfamiliar shapes in the
darkness, fire, sharp
weapons
Characters:
The villain (often a monster, outcast, serial killer or ‘freak’, little
emotion or wears a mask so audience doesn’t empathise and has
no connection)
Female victim (weak, annoying, needs to be saved)
Non believer (often male, convinces everyone they are
overreacting, cocky and at ease, first to be killed)
Hero (predominantly male, strong, show little emotion, brave)
Hysterical character (predominantly female, often breaks down,
always killed)
Loved up couple (usually all over each other up until the point that
they are killed, predominantly heterosexual)
The trailer is
going to be
for a
psychological
horror film, I
chose this
because it
was the most
popular
subgenre in
my survey.

CHALLENGING/STICKING TO
CONVENTIONS AND STEREOTYPES
Due to the results of my survey I have decided to challenge certain
conventions of the horror trailer.
Female characters, it is conventional in a horror to have a female
character who is portrayed as the weak victim not always the first to
be killed but when they die it is gruesome. They are portrayed as
being vulnerable and in need of being protected. Often young and
attractive to appeal to the male audience (male gaze).
Ethnic minority characters are often underrepresented in horror films
and, although it hasn’t happened on a few occasions, are usually
killed of before the end of the film.

PLOT OVERVIEW
A group of young students move into a creepy house that they are
going to be living it while they are at Uni. When looking around they
find lots of strange things like weird knives and creepy dolls, most of
which is in the attic. What they don’t know is that the previous owner
of the house was a serial killer who had just recently been convicted.
They find out somehow that the killer has escaped and think that he
is going to come back to the house. The killer returns at night and
cuts the electricity of house. People start getting killed one by one
but they are yet to have actually seen the killers face.

STORYBOARD
The trailer would start with
the group being shown
around the new house with
a voice over of someone
telling them who owned it
previously with flashes to
the past with the serial
killer and people
screaming. People are freaking out,
flashes to people being
killed one by one and
them trying to escape
the house everything
goes black.
Says the name of the
movie and there is
silence.
Final scene of man
turning on the torch of
his phone to see a dark
figure in the doorway,
with a weapon, that
comes towards him,
screams.
Shots of the empty attic
to flashes of what it
looked like when the
killer lived there, him
standing in the room,
red light and lots of
shadow
On the radio in the
morning they hear that
he’s escaped prison.
Its night time nothing
has happened the non-
believer character goes
for a shower and the
electricity is cut off.
Everything goes black
and silent again.

CHARACTERS
The antagonist: A serial killer, a man, emotionless, seen face to face
very little, hides in the shadows, silent
The protagonist: The hero, female, strong willed and brave
Victim: Annoying, winey, needs to be saved, slightly useless, a man
Non-believer: Male, tries to convince everyone that nothing is going
to happen and that its ok, cocky, first person to die
Loved up couple: Perhaps a gay couple rather than heterosexual

LOCATIONS
An old, creepy house but looks like students live there
A dark and dusty attic
A shower

Horror Movie Pitch

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