The document outlines a movie pitch for a horror film trailer within the supernatural and "Horror of the Demonic" subgenres. It describes the target audience, inspirations taken from director William Brent Bell, the film title "Darkness Within" and its narrative focusing on a daughter bringing her mentally ill mother home from the hospital. Locations discussed include a house where a family murder occurred and converting a hallway to look like a mental hospital. Costumes will include modern winter wear and an old-fashioned nightgown for the antagonist.

1. Movie Pitch
Sonia Sharma, Dania Jawzaa and Maddy Scott

2. Sub-genre
Within the horror genre there are many different
styles with their own codes and conventions that
separate them. These are called sub-genres and
there are 4 main sub-genres: supernatural,
psychological, gothic and slasher.
Mainly unknown, there are actually 3 sub-genres
that are disregarded, and they generalise all
horror movies and categorise those that span
across the 4 previously mentioned. These ‘master
sub-genres’ are ‘Horror of Armageddon’, ‘Horror
of Personality’, and ‘Horror of the Demonic’.
All horror movies can be categorised into two of
(Example of supernatural film poster)
these sub-genres, at least one of the first set and
one of the latter.

3. After taking into consideration our target audience
questionnaires and the guidance and feedback that
they provided, we have decided to choose supernatural
and ‘Horror of the Demonic’ for our advertising package.
Both of these classifications describe similar movies
that contain forces that are
supernatural/paranormal and of the “unknown” and
consist of four main themes: vengeance, corruption of
innocence, mystic phenomena (possession, curses (Example of supernatural film posters)
etc.), and religious symbology. Our movie will take
elements of each of these aspects and combine them
to create a successful horror trailer that will frighten
the audience. As well as this, the chosen sub-genres
are the most challenging due to their many
complexities that come with the codes and
conventions. Some examples of these genres are
shown to the right.

4. Target audience
• 15-30
• Primarily male
• Like to socialise, play xbox, sports.
• Students or full time professionals in an office
• Study creative subjects or has a graduate
degree
• Enjoy comedy, action and horror movies

5. Inspirations
Our main inspiration is William Brent Bell who is the
creator of the movie “The Devil Inside”. He has had a
lot of experience with horror movies which of course
means he is a professional at what he does. We
have taken into account how his narratives are put
together, the way they are filmed, the location and
also the mise-en-scene that he produces in his movies.
Our horror movie trailer was inspired by these elements and
especially by the way he delivers the suspense and thrilling horror,
which makes the audience want to go watch his movies.
Since he is a great success, we have decided to take inspiration from
his work and style and will therefore hopefully achieve a successful
horror movie that will not only fulfil all of the codes and
conventions, but be enjoyed by the target audience.

6. Film title
When researching films within this sub-genre, several elements
were seen to reoccur. Exorcisms are common, as is religious
imagery, the presence of children, and body disfigurement.
When debating a title for this film, we found a commonality of
this genre and that is movies with single or two main word titles.
“The Possession”, “The Last Exorcism”, and “The Devil Inside”
are several examples.
Taking this into account, we have decided to use this same
format for our film title. And after taking the plot into
consideration, we have decided upon “Darkness Within.” The
element of darkness is common in horror movies, and the
connotations pertaining to “within” reinforce the idea of
possession.

7. ‘Darkness Within’ Trailer Narrative
The trailer begins with an establishing shot that tilts
upwards to a dominating view of a house with crime
scene tape outside it. The scene cuts to a news report of
a reporter outside of the house detailing how a mother
tried to murder her entire family but was intervened
before she killed her youngest daughter. The woman in
question is led out of the house to the police car and the
camera follows the action as she drives away. The scene
cuts to television static briefly to show the transition of
the news report to actual real life. The static cuts to black
with the words “15 years later”.
The daughter is being led through the hospital ward to
her mother’s room whilst being told of her restored
mental health. They look into the room as the doctor
advises that she stay in her daughters care to aid her
transition out of the asylum.
The daughter takes her mother home to live with her husband and children, but quickly
they realise that she isn’t healed, like the doctor had said, and that they are all in severe
trouble because of it. Events soon begin to replay themselves and the family must fight
to survive.

8. Location
Our film trailer is to be filmed primarily within a house, but
several other locations will also be used.
The house at the beginning and for the latter half of the trailer
will each be an average seeming terraced or semi-detached
house. This choice has been made to make the events seem
even more horrific as they occur in an ‘every day’ setting that the
audience would be acquainted with.
The mental hospital will be a much more difficult location to film
in as we wouldn’t have access to one. To resolve this problem,
we will convert a normal hallway into that of an asylum and the
hospital bedroom will be filmed within a house.

9. Costume & Make-up
The costume we will be using for our media production includes
very modern wear, to appeal to our target audience. A lot of the
costume will be everyday wear, most likely winter clothing, due
to the fact horror movies tend to keep a very dull weather
pattern. The main character, the antagonist will be dressed old
fashioned, for the majority she will be dressed in a white night
gown, to add to the effect of her age.
The make up technique we plan to use, is mainly to age our
main character, she must look very drained, and almost ill in
order for her character to potentially scare our audience.