Tips for a horror film?

[sp00k]

Alright, once again, I've been assigned as effects/prop guy for my friend's new film. His sister is coming home from film school to create a horror film worth sending to the cincinnati film festival. It's a haunting/possession flick taking place at a party. It has a lot to do with people being possessed, a lot of decapitation, sex implications, and utter nineties style classic terror.

I was just looking for some general advice on creating a horror film. I'm looking all through this site, so I don't need links to bfx episodes or anything. Just anyone's personal opinions, tips, and any other thing that might pop in your head.

[loosechange]

make sure you get good actors.
horror films with bad actors are horrible, the performance needs to be there.
especially since it deals with posession I mean you really need actors whoa re gonna pull it off.

I think lighting is important too. I dunno you'll figure it out.

[SmiJa]

For decapitations I recommend watching a movie called Hatchet, It's kind of cheesy, but it's good. There is a decapitation scene that is done differently then most and it seems like it'd be easy to do digitally.

Here is a list that I recommend looking over.

LINK:
http://filmmakeriq.com/general/featured/horror-filmmaking-from-script-to-scream.html

[zeddie1]

if you are creating props,make sure that when doing an axe or kife,try to focus on negative colours and also with lighting try and play around until you get a feel for what suits the scene,as lighting is just as important as any special effects in the film

p.s. , do not O.D. on the blood,i give you that from personal expreiance,use lots,but not too much if ya get ma drift.

good luck

[Westcroft]

There's a ton of horror films out there, be different... The horror genre thrives within the B-movie arena, where bad writing and bad acting reside. Horror has become a director's game... be different, get a solid script and find some actors who aren't just chicks who are willing to get naked in front of the camera for the gratuitous partial nudity.

[sp00k]

Hey, thanks for the info! Those are all good tips. And the nudity isn't really gonna be gratuitous in any way. It's not going to be in there for no particular reason. ANd this isn't going to be a bloodfest; lots of gory effects, but not so much blood. We have plenty of good actors too (thank god).

[thtoneguy94]

use sound as an advantage. use it to tell your story. any good horror movie uses sound wisely.

[UndergroundLairProductions]

They say the scariest things are the ones we don't see. This goes right along with thtoneguy94's advice about sound. Using some implied violence as opposed to just going the graphic route the whole way will give the film a lot more credibility.

[zeddie1]

1 more thing,shadows,try doing a whole murder scene in a shadow form:

we see the victim approaching cuatiosly along the corridoor,scary music playing as he/she goes.......

we then see her/him walking by a white wall and the shadow of a man raising a blade up and just as the shadow blade is a bout to penetrate him/her it cuts to a ghostlly wide shot of the house,maybe with fogg,and we hear a terrified scream,then cuts back to our cautios ,now dead friend lying in a pool of blood on the floor

wallah!

[sp00k]

Oh yeah, we're using lots of monster vision on the one (Sam Raimi style stuff)