Initial Story Plot

It is a great taboo for there to be a murder of a child and this is not even a very common convention in horror films, we decided to include a taboo subject in our own project as it makes the plot much more interesting in our opinion.
From initial research we looked at films with children in, with more dark storylines included such as murder and sexualised scenes. Examples of these include: Orphan(2009), The Omen(2006),  Case 39(2009). With the focus of children in mind another idea we came up with was the idea of a murder of a child, an example of a film that includes this element are Baby Blues(2008), and also the children turning on their parents The Children(2008).

Website Comparisons

When designing our website we decided to research existing horror film websites that we have taken inspiration from. When designing the website we were concentrating on stereotypical conventions such as the colour scheme, continuity regarding colours, pictures and typography, etc. 

The Devil Inside website was a useful one to look at, as we realised the teaser trailer opening up as soon as the viewer clicks on the website is a good feature to use as it pops out at them and allows them to watch it without clicking on a further link. The colour scheme for this website is also similar to our own, classic colours with horror connotations are used, black, red and white. We also knew that critics reviews were pivotal on a website and like the positioning of the text on the page, as it is in a prime position so it draws the audience's attention to it. 

The Possession website was useful to look at also, on our own website we decided we wanted to include tabs to other pages to add authenticity and make the website more interesting for the audience. Here, tabs are used and it looks very professional and the website is very engaging for the audience with a lot to do on it. 'The True Story' is also a page which tells of the story the film is based on, we thought this was a good feature and considered including it on our own website. Social networking links are also used on the website which we planned to use on our own website, here you can see millions of people have interacted with the website using the social networking links, which is a very good form of advertising. 

The Case 39 website follows a very dark theme, with a black background and a picture blurred into it, we thought this was effective as it focuses on the picture and typography more. The teaser trailer also starts automatically on this page which again is a good feature to include as it allows the audience to watch it without clicking on a link. The DVD of the film being advertised on the website is a very good form of advertising, as the audience know it's available on DVD or Blu-Ray and know what the front of the box looks like. 

All 3 websites provide different important features we wish to include on our own website, some conventions such as the classic horror colour scheme we wish to conform to, but we want to subvert the stereotype by having a basic and more simplistic website so the focus is more on the teaser trailer and the picture rather than on the background and when a website has too much going on, it is hard for the viewer to focus on single things. 

Initial Storyline Ideas

Witch Children

A 2008 article in the Los Angeles Times from Associated Press reports that thousands of African children have been abandoned, tortured and murdered because they are believed to be witches. While in the West the belief in witchcraft has largely died out, the burning and murdering of “witches” was common practice in Europe and North America. The infamous Salem witch trials are a well-known example of this witchcraft belief induced hysteria. Another worrisome trend in Africa is that children have not only been victimized by believers in witchcraft, but that they are also used as witch-finders resulting in people being convicted and punished on the basis of children's testimonies.
By the start of the seventeenth century many children were being punished and put in prison for taking part in witchcraft, usually because of their alleged participation in Sabbats.It was a common belief that witches' children inherited witchcraft from their parents. Witches were thought to pass on their power and knowledge to their children. It was often the practice when charging a person with witchcraft to charge the whole family. Witches who confessed often claimed that they learned witchcraft from a parent.

Poster Inspiration Research

When planning on how to design our poster we researched exisiting horror film posters, from observing existing posters we decided to make our poster portrait as this seemed to be a typical convention of posters of this genre.

The Devil Inside poster was quite captivating as the eyes are quite a prominent feature of the picture which we decided was a good element to have, and as a re-occuring theme in our own project is eyes we decided to use this in our own poster.
The line 'Inspired By True Events' is also common in horror film posters/ websites/ trailers as it adds authenticity and a real life slant on a story to make it more interesting for the audience, we decided we also wanted to include this element in our own poster.

The Possession poster is quite simple in terms of colour scheme which we thought draws extra attention to the picture and makes it more effective, as a result of this we decided to keep a simple colour scheme on our own poster. Again the words 'Based On A True Story' is present on the poster which adds authenticity to the plot.
We also liked the way the credits are set out on the poster, they are at the bottom and more insignifcant in comparison to the picture so they dont draw away attention, so we decided to
include this in our own poster.



The Insidious poster has the main focus of the eyes in the poster, which we thought again is very effective. The colours of the typography stand out quite prominently which is important to make the name of the film more memorable. Another feature of the poster we liked was to have the release date of the film in the middle of the credits, but in a bigger and bolder font, we thought it was an effective feature and would also use this in our own poster.

Makeup Research

When creating a character profile we wanted to finalise more intimate detail such as the makeup we would use on our main character, we decided as the theme is supernatural and the child has been murdered she would need to look more un-worldy. 

We researched girls makeup in films such as the Exorcist and The Ring, we found that the skin normally looked distorted which gives the character an un-human complexion, which is what we were aiming to achieve. We also planned to make the face dis-coloured to make the character look ill, we thought a blue tinge to the skin would give a cold and un-nerving feel. 

Her eyes would be the main focus of our research as they are the most prominent features on a face and in horror films, different effects or lenses etc are used in eyes as this is very effective and this is something the audience will notice straight away about the character, and know that something is wrong. We planned to use contact lenses of a white/blue colour to give our character's eyes a supernatural feel. 

We also decided to have heavy dark black makeup as in research that we've done on every female actress used in a role like ours the eye makeup has been very prominent and helps the eyes to stand out a lot.
The dark around the eyes also creates a sense of illness and disturbance in the character themselves.

Costume Research

When creating a profile for our character we researched different horror films and we found that using a girl as a main protagonist is very stereotypical of horror films.
Traditionally, a girl is presented as the victim and has been changed in some way- influenced by possession for example or an evil character. 

As girls are seen as more vulnerable than boys and the more innocent of the sex, young girls in these films are portrayed as innocent looking so their costume is usually plain clothes. 

Particularly among younger characters, the character wears a white night dress at some point in the film. Looking at different films such as the Exorcist we took inspiration from this and decided for our costume for our main character would be a white night dress.

Not only does this give a feel of vulnerability
but also to have an 'evil' child in a nightdress is quite disturbing.

We also took inspiration from these films and took note of the hair and makeup which we also put our own spin on and included similar things in our own piece.

Initial Research- Graveyards

When doing our initial research we decided to shoot scenes in a graveyard as we felt this was a scary scene for us to base the story in as the theme of our project is death and supernatural events. A particular graveyard we found that we thought would be suitable for filming in was Charlton graveyard as it is a really big graveyard and is easily accessible. 

The graveyard has also been there for a long time so has a lot of different types of grave stones, some that have been there for a long time and are of a different style and sometimes more religious in comparison to more modern ones. We felt older ones were more appropriate as the religious element would be good to include in our project as its stereotypically tied in with horror films. 

Initial Research

When researching for our trailer and coming up with ideas and looking for inspiration we watched a range of horror movie teaser trailers to help cultivate ideas.

We watched the Devil Inside trailer, in which there was a 911 call, we felt this made it authentic and also with a horror story when it has an element such as supernatural events it helps to make it authentic so it seems real, we did this to subvert the common sterotype of supernatural happenings being classed as unreal.
We did research into different 911 calls and chose one which we felt was appropriate and fitted in with our story perfectly.

We also watched the Sinister trailer, we drew inspiration from text being inserted as we felt this gives the audience an extra insight into the story which will effectively draw them in and make them want to watch the whole film which is the ideal outcome of a trailer. Short and snappy sentences are ideal for them to flash up to keep the audiences attention. We also thought it was important to have the text stand out against a dark background so we included this in our own media piece. 

We watched the Saw2 trailer, and liked the idea of cameras and being watched as we felt this creates a scary atmosphere for the viewer as "being watched" by someone is a common fear among people. We included this in our own media piece and made a 'night vision' effect my changing the visual effects on the clip, this conforms to stereotypical horror genre as most paranormal or supernatural happenings happen at night when the protagonist is asleep and at their most vulnrable.

We also watched Case 39 when doing research, a common theme in this film and many other horror films is that the child is the main character and it is the one who gets killed/possessed or is evil. We all found this was a scary element and thought it would be good to include it in our own project. In our peiece in particular the child was killed innocently so has been provoked to act in a revengeful manner. We are subverting the common social stereotype of an innocent loving little child being evil however we conform to the common horror stereotype of chosing a girl and not a boy.


We watched a range of horror teaser trailers but felt these were some of the main points that we drew inspiration from. Other elements of research included makeup and costume which we drew from films such as the exorcist but finalising more finite details came later on in our project.

Possessed People Research

Production Company Research

Location Research

As our trailer is about possession and religion is a key element in that genre of film, we thought it appropriate therefore to include it in ours, and use a graveyard for some scenes in our trailer. 


A graveyard is a spooky setting to film in and looks daunting at night, so we decided we can use flashes of clips of the graveyard, and combined with sound it will give the desired scary effect.

However to be respectful, graves wont be touched by any of us or the characters, the head stones will just be shot with the camera and the main protagonist can walk down the paths like the one shown on the left. 
This pathway is effective as it is framed by trees all the way down and we can film our character walking down it.

This is another location we are planning on using for our media trailer, it is the dungeon in our school.


We thought this would be an appropriate location as the floor is dirty the walls are painted brick but the paint is peeling away on some parts so it looks more dingey and gritty. 


Our plan was to have shots of our antagonist down in the dungeon so the theme of the film suited the character and the location.

As you can see from the two pictures, the lighting is quite strong but not good enough for filming, there are lights already kept in here which would aid us in filming once we turned out the lights to film dark and jumpy shots of our characters face.

This is Danson Lake, a third location we want to use in our trailer, we want a character in our trailer to look into the lake and see a different reflection staring back at her. 



We think this location will be effective as trees border the lake and the setting is very scary at night as it is so big.






We feel that now it is coming into autumn and winter the trees are bare which sets the scene even more, and gives the correct vibes that we wanted.