Planning/Research- Evoking feeling from the audience

In this blog post, I will focus specifically on the feeling that my audience should feel in the first 4 minutes of my film. I’m not exactly sure how many minutes that my film's opening actually needs to be, but for the plan of my film, it would probably have to be at least 4 minutes.

I discovered that in the first minute, you don’t want to shock the audience, but you want to make them curious and slightly uncomfortable. This could be done with normal everyday actions that feel off, strange backgrounds, subtle camera movement, or odd sounds.

For example, many horror openings start with normal people in normal places, but the little touches- weird lighting, silent sounds, or unsettling camera movement- make you feel something isn’t quite right yet. These kinds of tricks are talked about in filmmaking guides, which explain how lighting and framing can make viewers feel “on edge” before anything scary happens.

This early tension works because it makes the audience’s imagination start filling in the blanks and the imagination is one of the scariest tools in a slasher movie. 

Despite this fact, I might want to challenge this convention simply because I want my film's opening to transition from scary right off the bat, to what seems like a " day in the life" kind of film- building tension and keeping the audience puzzled on how the initial scary scene's foreshadowing will be revealed in the rest of the film. My mindset for this brief is to think about if I were making a full film, even thought im not. This helps me to make meaningful decisions on how to start my film.

Increasing Anxiety Without Full Scares

By the end of the first four minutes, the audience should feel anxiety and suspense, even if they haven’t seen anything truly terrifying yet.

A lot of the best psychological horror films build up tension through pacing, slow, quiet moments that make viewers wait for something to happen. That stretch between “nothing scary yet” and “something scary might happen any second” builds fear in the audience. Websites that discuss horror filming techniques explain that filmmakers use lighting, sound, and camera angles to play with the audience’s nervous system and make them feel tension without showing grotesque images right away.

Also, movie discussions and fan threads show that part of what makes an intro feel scary isn’t the monster, but it’s the suspense, silence, and the feeling of not knowing what’s going on. Viewers often say that the best intro scenes are ones that just make them tense and on edge.

Sources

https://raindance.org/crafting-fear-filming-techniques-to-evoke-emotion-in-horror-movies/

https://raindance.org/crafting-fear-filming-techniques-to-evoke-emotion-in-horror-movies/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagged_Mind?utm_source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagged_Mind?utm_source

Planning/Research- Title Cards

For this blog, I will be planning out the title bit of my film opening. First, I started with the basic traits of a horror film title.

 Typography

 Most horror title cards lean on fonts that feel off, distorted, or eerie to set the vibe right away. Fonts that look old-fashioned, narrow, or weirdly spaced immediately feel spooky. Even in newer films like Barbarian, designers chose narrow, slightly stretched letterforms to make the title feel strange and uneasy; horror audiences expect something unusual right from the text itself. You also see this in horror like Skinamarink: its title uses a retro, blocky style that seems harmless at first but feels unsettling because it reminds viewers of kids’ toys or old VHS tapes, which, in horror, suddenly feels creepy. 

Color & Background 

Black, deep red, and washed-out tones are basically the go-to palette because they hit your brain with danger and darkness fast. That’s not just a design myth; color psychology in horror design is all about red=warning, black=unknown, unsettling tones=sickness/decay. For example, big recent horror movies often drop their title on solid dark backgrounds with high-contrast text. That sharp black vs red or white popping on screen immediately signals we’re not in a feel-good genre. It’s simple but effective, and it can be seen in titles like Smile 2, Longlegs, and First Omen.

Representaion 

Letters that look scratched or unstable can suggest violence or mental breakdown. In Smile, the title looks clean at first glance — but the bright, almost playful font feels wrong compared to the creepy tone. That contrast foreshadows the movie’s theme: something that looks normal (a smile) is actually disturbing. In Barbarian, the narrow, stretched letters feel tight and uncomfortable. That design quietly mirrors the claustrophobic setting of the house and basement. Even if you don’t consciously notice it, your brain identifies that cramped feeling early on. 

This kind of representation is what I want to be featured in my film opening. I want my film to focus on how the older brothers overprotection of his sister spirals into something thats no longer innocent. I want to somehow incorporate this idea into my title card.

Because of this, I want my film to 

Planning Proposal

For my film, I will only be working with myself and outside actors. I've settled on a Psychological Slasher film as my subgenre. I think I'm going to use a professional camera to film because filming off a phone will never give the same effects as a real professional camera. Though I've had experience with such cameras, I need a better understanding of how to use settings like ISO and different filters to ensure my visuals are at least near-perfect. I want to edit in Premiere Pro because that's what I'm most familiar with. To execute this film correctly, however, I will have to do a lot of editing and research on how to do certain things. This includes: smoothly adding title cards, using color correction, and getting an overall understanding of the editing software itself.

Audience and Representation

As explained before, I will have my film target American girls born into the Gen Z demographic. This is easiest to achieve because I meet all of those traits. Also, that is the most common type of person to watch horror films, according to statistics. 

The social issue that I chose to present in my brief is family dynamics and gender roles/representation. I chose these two because in my film opening, I want the main character to be a teen girl who lives in a dysfunctional family where her older brother is the killer of the family. I want the brother to be somewhat overprotective of the MC to a point where it's concerning. This displays the view of men thinking women are less dependent, while also showing how the dysfunction of the family can take a toll on each member's personal life.

Film Outline

  Now that I've pretty much completed my research, I will create a basic outline of things that will take place in my opening. 

So, in the first minute of my film, I want it to show the killer in their room/workspace with there signiture weapon. I think this might be a knife and then a cut to tiltle card. I then want it to cut to the main character doing something basic in their home, like waking up for school and getting ready. I want the elder brother to come out of his room and watch her suspiciously. I want him to continue to remind her to be careful out and mentioning killings happening. All the while, his left hadn isnt shown in the camera, and when she leaves the house, it will show the brother entering his room and locking it with his left hand being shown with the weapon in hand. 

This is a very basic and subject to minor alterations. To make sure I know how to execute this right, I will try to practice filming different camera angles and get examples from movies. I will do little excersizes off my phone going scene by scene, making sure I have a clear view for how I want the scenes to be filmed.

Planning- Representation

     Initially, when brainstorming ideas for my brief, I didn't think much about any social issue or representation that it would have. So I decided to search up some common topics that horror films in my subgenre address. 

Gender Roles & Representation

    One common social issue is gender roles. This is basically the stereotypes revolving around men and women in relation to what's "normal". Films might incorporate some of these gender norms into their films, but also tend to challenge them. The "final girl" trope challenges the stereotype of girls being the weaker gender. The Final Girl is the female character who manages to outsmart the killer and survives. This role gives power and bravery to the female character instead of the male.

Mental Illnesses

    Mental Illnesses are easily one of the most common traits of a killer in psychological films. Pretty much every killer has some kind of mental illness, even if it isn't clearly stated. Even if they're not the killer specifically, it's common to see people who are in psych wards screaming, scratching on the walls, or doing something extremely out of the ordinary. 

    I might be interested in using something like this, but instead of my killer having the mental illness, I would like my protagonist to be the one with the diagnosis. I don't exactly know how I would do that yet, but I'm thinking of making it center around my character having sciztophrania.

    On a side note, I found that there is actually a lot of controversy regarding the representation of mental illnesses in horror films. Critics tend to say that horror films wrongly portray diagnosed people as violent when that's not the case. Barry Katz, a forensic and clinical psychologist at the West Essex Psychology Center, says, "In the movies, people with mental illness are literally seen as monsters and dehumanized.”

Family Dynamics

    Psychological slasher and horror films also often use family dynamics and trauma to make the story feel deeper and scarier because the way a family works can shape a character’s fears and reactions. In many of these movies, families aren’t shown as safe and loving; instead, they might have conflict, secrets, or unresolved pain that becomes part of the horror. 

    For example, characters who grew up with neglect, abuse, or loss might act in extreme ways or be more vulnerable to the frightening events around them, and those troubled relationships often drive the plot forward and motivate violent or scary behavior. 

Wide shot from Hereditary

    In films like Hereditary, hidden family secrets literally explode into supernatural terror, showing how unresolved grief and trauma can tear a family apart and make the horror feel personal and intense for the viewer. These kinds of family themes make the horror more relatable to the viewer because the idea of family conflict is something that many people understand or have seen in real life, and horror filmmakers use that to create both emotional tension and fear onscreen. 

Conclusion

To conclude, I think that I may use a mix of gender roles and family dynamics. Even though I can't specifically use the "Final Girl" trope because I'm only making a film opening, I think I might make the teen girl have an unsafe relationship with the father or older brother. 

Sources:

https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2908&context=jiws&utm_

https://reelmind.ai/blog/horror-movie-slashers-icons-of-terror

https://creepycatalog.com/scary-movies-about-insane-asylums/

Planning- Target Audience

    Now that most of my research is finished, it's time to start planning. I'm excited for this part because I've been brainstorming different outlines for my film. I chose to see a Psychological Slasher film opening for my brief. I did so because I enjoy watching films that mess with the human mind. The concept of technical elements like various camera shots and angles affecting how a person can view things interests me. I chose to work alone because I need things to be done in the EXACT way that I want them. This characteristic of mine would most likely make it very hard to work well with others.

Target Audience

For my target audience, I chose for them to be in the usual demographic of Gen Z. I want to specifically target American women as well. To do this, I will use a teenage girl as the main character. As for who exactly I want to film with, I still haven't figured it out yet. I'm thinking the setting could be filmed in my home because if all else fails, my family will always be willing to become my actors. 

Interest that I want my audience to have are an interest in films that have subtle foreshadowing. By this, I mean signs of something bad approaching, being shown early on in the film, but not enough information to know exactly when that will take place. My audience should like to be kept on the edge of their seats, waiting for the killer to make their move.

My application

My storyline will be used to show this effectively because in my first few second of my film, I will immediately show a murder weapon without any context, hinting at this being a foreshadow or a scene that you will only understand if you continue to watch the film. 

In 

Research- Narrations (Subjective Narration, and Fragmented / Nonlinear Narration)

 Subjective and Fragmented

Subjective narration is when a story is told from a character’s personal point of view, meaning the audience only experiences events as that character does, with their fears, confusion, and limited understanding of the events taking place. In horror films, this technique is used to increase tension and fear by restricting information and making viewers unsure of what is real. Directors often rely on point-of-view shots, distorted visuals, unsettling sound design, and unreliable narrators to place the audience inside the character’s mind. This creates unease because the audience cannot see danger clearly or trust what they are witnessing. 

    Many recent horror films use subjective narration, such as Smile, where the audience sees reality breaking down alongside the main character, and The Black Phone, which limits the story to what the kidnapped child knows. Films like “Talk to Me” blurs emotional trauma with supernatural events. Overall, subjective narration is effective in horror because it removes a sense of control and forces the audience to share the character’s uncertainty, making the fear feel more intense and personal.

 This technique is common in horror because it makes the audience feel the character’s fear and uncertainty. For example, horror movies often show everything through the character’s camera, so we only know what they know, which can be confusing and scary. Nonlinear or fragmented films, like "Memento", show events out of order to reflect memory loss or mental struggles. Filmmakers also use things like point-of-view shots, strange camera angles, distorted sounds, and quick cuts to make the audience feel what the character is feeling. Subjective and fragmented narration makes stories more immersive and unsettling because the audience experiences the story through the character’s mind instead of seeing a clear, objective version of events.

    With subjective or fragmented narration, the story is mostly told from a character’s perspective or in a broken, non-chronological way, but the character isn’t necessarily lying or deceiving. The audience just experiences events through that character’s eyes, which might be confusing or incomplete, like seeing through someone’s memories or emotions.

Subjective vs. Fragmented Narration

    Fragmented or nonlinear narration is different from subjective narration because it focuses on how the story is structured in time, rather than whose perspective we see. In a fragmented or nonlinear story, events are shown out of order: past, present, and future may be mixed together, so the audience has to piece the story together themselves. The narrator might be objective or subjective, but the main point is that the timeline is broken, which can create suspense, confusion, or reflect a character’s memory or trauma.

     In contrast, subjective narration is about seeing the story through a character’s personal perspective, not necessarily about rearranging time. Fragmented narration can be combined with subjective narration, but you can also have a fragmented story told from a neutral, outside point of view. Essentially, fragmented/nonlinear narration changes the structure of events, while subjective narration changes the lens through which we experience them.

Sources 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreliable_narrator

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/subjective-cinema

 

Research- Narrations

    Narrations in horror film varies vastly. They tell the story to the audience and can play a big role in what the audience can and can't know throughout the story. Three narrations that I chose to research are an Unreliable Narration, First-Person,  Subjective Narration, and Fragmented / Nonlinear Narration.

 

Unreliable Narration

    This narration focuses on using psychological means to distort the audience's view of the film. I does thtis by telling the story through a character whose credibility is compromised. This can be either through deception, mental instability, or limited perception. It makes it so that their version of events can’t be fully trusted and often hides the truth of the story. 

    A recent example is Jagged Mind (2023), a psychological horror film that tells its story almost entirely from the main character Billie’s point of view. Billie experiences blackouts and disturbing visions and finds herself reliving the same moments over and over, as if trapped in a time loop connected to her girlfriend, Alex. Those several details show that the story can’t be fully trusted. The strange behavior of other characters suggests that what we’re seeing isn’t a stable reality. By the end of the film, items like photos and diary entries reveal that earlier scenes were influenced by Alex’s manipulation and Billie’s damaged memory. 

A scene from the movie Jagged Mind.

    Another classic example of unreliable narration is Malignant (2021), directed by James Wan, which is a horror film that uses unreliable narration by showing most of the story through Madison’s point of view. She has frightening visions and memories that at first seem like supernatural events. As the story goes on, it becomes clear that her view of reality is broken, and her mind is hiding troubling secrets about who she really is. The film makes both Madison and the audience unsure about what’s real and what is caused by her mind, mixing hallucinations, trauma, and truth. This unreliable narration builds suspense and fear, keeping viewers guessing until the end.

  This technique forces the reader to reevaluate what they believed to be true in the story playing into the psychological horror subgenre.

sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreliable_narrator

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagged_Mind

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malignant_(2021_film)