Influences Of Our Short Film

Conventions and Concepts

Although we are making a Comedy Horror film our influences aren't all from the same genre, our influnces come from a range of different films. 

The Unknown Villain

The Blair Witch Project is a good example of this as the villain is never revealed, the students who trying to find out about the legend of the Blair Witch experience strange happens but are never met with a solid incarnate of the Witch. All that really seems to happen is the members of the group possibly getting possessed in some which could mean that these themselves are the villain but to be possessed you still need some form of entity to possess the person in question which means there must be some form of greater protagonist.

Psycho is anther great example of the villain not being known, or least not until the end of the film. As murder insues at the Bates Hotel suspion rises and only one character is never scene, this is Mrs Bates, Norman Bates' mother. Although the characters think that Mrs Bates is in fact alive it turns out that she is dead and her decomposing corpse is in the attic. Due to her death and the unnervingly cloise relationship she and her son had Norman develops some sort of split personality that causes him to dress and act as his mother while murdering innocent people. The actual murderer is still argued as whether it is Norman Bates or the part of his personality that is his mother that commits the murders.

 

 Locations

As our short films is all in one locations, which is the female's house Rope shows good influence to the short as the entire film is set in just one room. Although you tend to need multiple locations to create a good story and narrative Rope is proof that minimal locatios can also create a great setting for a film as well.

Another Alfred Hitchcock film is a good influence due to the one main location butalso because Rear Window shows point of view shots out the window to see the neighbouring houses of the wheelchair bound Jefferies who looks out on the neighbours as to pass time. 

 

The Comedy Twist Ending

Given our Genre is Comedy Horror it wouldn't be right not to have a comedy ending to our film. Unlike most horrors that have the last surviving member of a group moving on after the events that have happened, complete culling of the group of the protaginists or some other form of serious ending comedies and especially Comedy Horror tend to have a lighter ending or a rather outragous ending as to fill the film with as many laughs as possible.
One ironic example of this the Shaun Of The Dead when Shaun goes to the shed in the back garden to play video games with hs now zombified best mate Ed who Sahun tells off when he tries to bite his arm.

Evil Aliens also has a great example of a comedy ending when the last surviving member of a Alien Invasion fleet returns home. The end of the film is of the female alien who survived on a chat show with the host not believing her story of these "Evil Aliens" or humans that have managed to slaugher of her entire crew.