Looking at Horror Film examples

The Blair Witch Project

Found video footage tells the tale of three film students who've travelled to a small town to collect documentary footage about the Blair Witch, a legendary local murderer. Over the course of several days, the students interview townspeople and gather clues to support the tale's veracity. But the project takes a frightening turn when the students lose their way in the woods and begin hearing horrific noises. - The plot of the Blair Witch Project

The Blair With Project has an elaborate plot which plays on the fear of the audience. The audience never actually see the 'Blair Witch' as such but because of the effects of sound, camera work and the acting. There is always a hint that the 'Blair Witch' is there and is slowly killing the students. However, another interesting thing about this film is because you do not see the 'Blair Witch' and it appears the students all seem to just be falling apart over nothing just a story that has influenced their fear.

When thinking about my own short film I will think about using fear to play on the emotions of the audience and use that to create a subject for my film. This was an interesting way for the plot to be portrayed and this is what made it especially entertaining and gave it an unusual spin. I also liked the way the film was directed, how the film was shown in first person as this gave the film an unusual twist that I found unique. 

Paranormal Activity

Soon after moving into a suburban tract home, Katie and Micah become increasingly disturbed by what  appears to be a supernatural presence. Hoping to capture evidence of it on film, they set up video camera in the house but are not prepared for the terrifying events that follow.

Paranormal Activity, like The Blair Witch Project gave the audience an interesting perspective in which they were to view to film. In this film everything was shown through camera's whether that was through a camera that a character was holding or through 'security cameras' that were strategically placed around the house in which it was set. This made the film interesting as it gave the audience a view that the characters did not so that they were able to anticipate what was coming up next and this helped to play on the fear and suspicion, similar to the Blair Witch Project.

When thinking about what would be interesting for my short film, I again thought about the perspective of the film and how I could in gage the audience through this. I liked in this film how it was shown through different perspectives and it was used to create different emotions for the audience. Another thing that I liked about this film was that similar to the Blair Witch Project we rarely saw any signs of a 'baddie', in this film it was all about playing on the audiences fears and using sounds and movement to create it which I felt made the film unique.