Despite the fact that I haven't watched horror movies much in the last few decades, I find them interesting from a safe distance. I haven't seen the movie Sinister by C. Robert Cargill, but I have seen his Doctor Strange.
I read the article because I was curious what it's like inside the head of someone who does Horror Films.
Cargill does not disappoint. He's completely engaging.
I liked that his most firm point is, make us care about the characters. If we like them, if we care what happens to them, we will be scared right along with those characters. We want them to survive. We'll be right there with them the entire film.
Writing characters we don't like veers us towards sharing the role of the villain, and often makes the writer do the sort of gross out horror that gets reaction, but not true fright.
https://screencraft.org/2020/05/18/8-horror-screenwriting-tips-from-the-writer-of-sinister/
The horror starts with that beard.
ReplyDeleteIt is an interesting shape.
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