CONJURING UP A BAD SEQUEL WRITING A GOOD HORROR FILM

 

CONJURING UP A BAD SEQUEL

I am writing this after seeing an early screening of the third Conjuring film, The Devil Made Me Do it. There were two factors that had me worried before accepting my screening pass. The first one was that the writer/ director, James Wan, had not come back for the third film. There are only a handful of Hollywood filmmakers who should be allowed near the horror genre and he is one of them. He decided not be in command of this project and instead selected the director of La Llorona, a man who has never met a loud noise that he did not believe could be improved by raising the volume.

The second thing that worried me was the trailer. If you were to watch the trailers for the first two conjuring films and were able to shorten a few clips these two films could have appeared to be dramas about families in distress. While the only way that you could cut the trailer for the third film is as a horror film.

I know that you are not here for a movie review but screenwriting advice and I am going to give it to you. Now please allow to say before I do this that this third film in the series is going to make money. Nothing could stop that from happening and if this was a generic horror film I would say that there is nothing wrong with that. Actors got to eat and bad directors need to get rehired.

Now let us look at what is wrong with this film.

What?

What did you say?

You do not have that much time?

Calm down, I can sum it up with one word.

Reality.

This movie does not occupy the real world or what we call reality.

Scene after scene after scene could only exist in a horror film.

From the first minute of the film we are clearly in a horror movie and it never takes time away from the jump scares to establish reality. The art of the great horror film is to establish a world that we all recognize and feel comfortable in. To ground us in normal life and then to flip it on its head. To have something dark and unknown attack what is normal. The problem with most horror films is that those worlds and the people in them do not exist in our world. They react in ways that poorly written characters do. We can do better. We have to do better because the number one horror franchise is headed toward a sad end.

Okay, this is the lesson for today.

If there is going to be a demon, a ghost, a vampire or a killer doll, the audience will respect what you have done and reward you handsomely if you first ground your story in the real world.  The Conjuring showed us a glimpse into the lives of a real family. The second film a real working class British family. They have real life problems before the supernatural elements arrive. My ultimate advice is to write your screenplay. Write a complete screenplay about the characters who occupy this world that you have built but leave out the horror elements in the first draft. If that first draft reads like a quality psychological thriller then during the second draft feel free to layer in the supernatural elements. Add the evil spirit, add the killer doll, add the vampire, the curse, the demon, the supernatural element.

 

Now let us look at the trailers for each film starting with the first one. The trailer is more effective the entire third film. 

 

Now the second film. I believe that the movie is better than the trailer. The first thirty minutes of this film is the most effective that I have seen in a horror film since the Exorcist. 

 

Now let’s look at the trailer for the third film. This is truly another universe that we are visiting. 

 

 

Before I leave you I want to offer a video that explains how James Wan sets up a horror scene.

 

Thanks for visiting the blog. Check out my book on screenwriting. Available on Audible.

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THE CHANGING SCREENWRITING WORLD

THE CHANGING SCREENWRITING WORLD 
Years ago when I started this blog I took a lot of heat from writers who did not understand what I was trying to tell them.
 Five years ago I suspected that no budget screenwriting would be the future of the industry and those who had dreams of million dollar options hated everything that I had to say. 
 How can you write a screenplay for a movie that cost less than fifty thousand dollars to produce? Who would even make such a movie? 
Who would watch such a movie? 
And how would I get paid a living wage?
 I saw the Dslr revolution coming to the low budget film world. I was part of it. I understood that film could be shoot in 4K on consumer cameras and edited on laptops. I understood that the days of the big screen premiere were coming to an end and the days of streaming content had arrived. 
 Netflix started it and now there are half a dozen giant screaming services and dozens of smaller ones. To be a working screenwriter you have to think like a working middle class film maker. These filmmakers need to produce massive amounts of content. 
This means that they need screenplays. 
This means that we are in a golden age for writers who care about seeing their work produced. Writers who are willing to enter into partnerships with filmmakers and gamble on playing the long term game of profit sharing. If you are willing to learn the basics of micro budget filmmaking then you can and will see your work produced. From films to online series, the sky's the limit. There is a need for content out there and this is now the golden age for the content producer as long as he or she is willing to understand that the fifty million dollar star-driven suspense thriller has been replaced by the fifty thousand dollar indie horror film.

  Please do not panic. The road to fame, fortune and glory do not end there, it can begin there. Many writers of micro budget films have gone on to work at the major studios. To achieve that goal all that I believe that you have to do is to write a few micro budget films and get not only paid but the experience along the way.

Start with a Horror Screenplay

 Every screenwriter knows it is notoriously difficult to break into Hollywood. However, there is a way that is proven worthwhile if it is done right. Low budget horror screenplays are a great way to break into the industry, and they don't have to be bad B-movie's either.

  Consider this: the wildly popular movie Unfriended brought in forty-eight million dollars in the box office, while only having a budget of one million dollars. Horror is a low risk genre with massive potential, because there is already a built in audience. If you stick to a well thought out script without the major computer graphic or special effects, it could be your way in.

  You should be of course concerned with the quality of your screenwriting. Think of originality. There are so many horror movies that viewers don't want to be bored with the same old plots and scares. Try to draw out your own fears because this can inspire you to create even greater plots. It can also make you think of scenes that haven't been done before. Try to stay as close to reality as possible. The fact that it can happen to you is more frightening. Finally, don't overdue it. That makes your screenplay seem more like a parody than something truly scary.

  Think about the movie Seven. It is based off of the seven deadly sins. They used an incredibly low budget with no special effects, but the plot made it so that you could really think it could happen to you. Also movies like It Follows and Get Out have been huge hits as compared to budget.
Offering a low budget movie as your first screenplay makes your script that much more attractive to potential producers. Not only that, it could be a huge hit. If this is your genre, you have a great window of opportunity. If you take advantage of it, you could really prosper.

 This has been a guest post. Thanks to the writer and I invite others to post on screenwriting topics of their choosing. 
 

If you would like a mini masterclass in the art of micro budget screen writing my book on the subject is now available in audio form. You can find it at audible and on Amazon.

 
 

YOU WANT TO BE A HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITER

YOU WANT TO BE A HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITER?

I understand the feeling that comes from the idea of being a successful Hollywood screenwriter. It is like getting a lifetime membership to the country club. Vision of wealth and fame fill the imagination. That is the reality for those who reach the tip top of the food chain. For the average screenwriter you are going to struggle. The hard work that you did to get there is going to double once you get a foot in the door. 

 

This is not the worst thing that can happen if you learn the basic rules of how to write a quality screenplay. If you are doing something that you know how to do and that you love to do then no amount of work will seem too much for you. I love to write once I sit down to do it. I am sure that most of you love the process as well. Here at this blog I hope to share a few lessons that I have learned along the way and to offer you advice that have been posted by others.

I know that some of you are wondering if I have ever sold a screenplay to a Hollywood producer. When I was younger I entered the contest and tried to network my way in, but the game was not for me. Thankfully I decided to walk away from that chase just when the indie micro budget film making revolution was getting started. I found people who could shoot movies for under twenty thousand dollars and since I enjoyed the work more than the idea of wealth I have had the time of my life for the last few years and who knows if I ever write a breakout hit I could get to continue to have fun and freedom doing what I love and make a lot of money too.

Here I an excerpt from my book On Low Budget Screenwriting. You can find it at audible and on Amazon, to do so click image of book cover below.

   


 

AUDIO BOOK ON SCREENWRITING

A few years ago I decided that the best way to tell all that I knew about low budget screenwriting was to write a book. Some of you have read it. Now any more of you can little to it if you have an audible.com account. Please take the time to visit this link and after you have listened to it you could maybe leave a review. 

Below I have decided to post two random chapters from my audio book On Writing a Low Budget Screenplay. 

 







Thank you for visiting my site, please take a moment to share by hitting the share link of the audio clip. 

Good luck with your screenwriting and have a great day.

LOW BUDGET HOLLYWOOD DREAMING

LOW BUDGET HOLLYWOOD DREAMING

Ten years ago the Hollywood idea of a low budget film was ten to twenty million dollars. Now they actually produce films in the million dollar range that turn a huge profit. These films (usually horror or thrillers or faith based) are produced independent of studio involvement. These films can sometimes fool the screenwriter into believing that because of box office success they are Hollywood films and come with the massive up front paydays we have read about.



  Understand that if you are writing a low budget film that you are going to be dealing with a indie director or producer and not a studio. The pay is small, but the opportunity is amazing. Write the next Get Out, War Room, The Witch or Paranormal Activity or It Follows and your future in the industry could be very bright. Just remember that the rules still apply when writing one of these films. Limit the cast, limit the locations and limit the effects that are required to tell the story and you have a low budget film script.

 Even though the M. Night films The Visit (5 million to produce) and Split (9 million) were made by a Hollywood film maker these films are the prototypes to follow as far as crafting the low budget screenplay. If you were to illuminate the High price director and talent both films could have been produced for a forth of those budgets. 







  This post is about Hollywood, but I want you to keep in mind that being able to write a low budget screenplay will be a skill that you will need no matter where you end up working in this industry. To learn more I have a great audio book that will soon be available soon. That you for your time and good luck.

amazon paperback