Scene

The scene we are filming is that of the first killing. This is a relatively minor character, and one of the Fathers friends (one who does not yet realize the daughter has died), who hears a noise in the Barn, investigates, and is toyed with and killed by the antagonist.

Antagonist

For our antagonist we had the idea of a little girl (much like in the ring and the grudge). The image shows the character Samara Morgan from the film the ring. The idea of a little girl with long black hair, wearing a long, torn dress is an idea that we have chosen to follow. The paleness of her skin and her dress contrast with her hair. With such a contrast we are drawn to her hair, noticing how long it is, this shows how long she has been there. Furthermore the hair covers her face, de-humanizing her and making her face, when revealed, even more shocking. We are following european archetypes in the sense that the girl s portrayed as as much of a victim as those she kills, even more so at times. However we follow american conventions in the sense that we have a protagonist who is innocent and pure, who escapes from the antagonist.

Story

We have decided to focus the story around a very young female antagonist, with a complicated backstory involving her death and her revenge. This follows both european and american horror archetypes. For example Guillermo del Toro's The devils backbone, focuses much backstory around the seemingly antagonistic ghost. Whereas the revengeful aspect of the story will agree with American horror archetypes and japanese archetypes of a young girl taking revenge for a savage death or wrongdoing (e.g.. The grudge, The ring). We follow american horror archetypes in the sense that there is typically only one antagonist, contrasting with British Horror, in which antagonists are regularly numerous (e.g.. 28 days later, Dog soldiers, Eden Lake).

Backstory

The backstory is that of a young girl who was abused by her father and his friends, this drives her to commit suicide by hanging herself in a barn outside the house. The Father chooses not to report this to the police, and so the truth is never uncovered. Justice is left undone. The girl is then brought back to a demonic half life similar to that of the grudge, and takes revenge on the father and his 4 friends, however in her rage she also targets her older brother, who was not present during the abuse, but returned home when she died, not realizing the truth and supporting his father. As a result she taunts and stalks the father, his friends, and her brother throughout the story, killing them off one by one until upon the climax of the film, she takes full form, attacking the Brother and father simultaneously. The Resolution is that the brother escapes after an emotional scene battling the demon, coming to the realization that it is not his sister, merely her last revengeful thoughts given form. He leaves the Farm on which they lived, leaving his fathers screams behind him...

Genre

The genre we have chosen is horror, more specifically european horror, focusing on artful portrayal and backstory as well as horror itself, as well as some aspects of British and American horror conventions. Examples of directors we will be taking ideas from include Guillermo del toro, Danny Boyle, Neil Marshall and others.