This document discusses ideas for a psychological horror film short focusing on a character with dementia. It begins by listing 5 psychological horror films and their conventions, such as reflecting a character's fears or illnesses like dementia. For the short film, it is proposed that the viewer sees what the dementia patient sees through distorted and non-linear video clips. There would be close-ups showing distortions of reality and increasing tension through unnatural sounds and motions. The creative enigmas left for the viewer would be the fate of the patient's family and the cause of his self-inflicted injuries. Costume/makeup and editing would be key focuses to realistically portray the patient's confused perspective.

2. HORROR SUB-GENRE CHOSEN:
PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR- MADNESS

3. 5 PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR FILMS:
1.Silence of the
Lambs
2.Se7en 3.The Uninvited
4.The sixth
sense
I See
Dead
People!
5.The Blair Witch Project

4. CONVENTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL MADNESS
HORRORS
Conventions of Psychological Horror films include:
• Reflects on a characters fears or beliefs (Se7en, a character is religious
and so the seven deadly sins are involved)
• Fear is the common source of danger (The Sixth Sense, the young boy
is scared of the ghosts and so danger is real)
• Eerie music and sounds that increase in a build up of tension (Every
Psychological horror other than films similar to the Blair Witch Project)
• Often revolves around a mental illness such as dementia or amnesia
(Shutter island)
• The idea that horror and evil comes from within (The Shining)

5. WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
• Non-Linear order of OTS
• Close ups of characters, who then are revealed to be monsters or demons (What the main
character actually sees
• Full 360 rotation, around the dementia patients head, highlighting the illness and focus around
this character
• Play on the speed of odd, unrealistic motions made by the surrounding characters
• Tracking shot of a knife being brushed along a surface, highlighting why the main character is
in the asylum
• Reaction shot of a new character (wife) with half a distorted face (makeup) and half normal face
• Close up of a lock turning
• Then to an enclosed room with the main character jerking about frantically, jump cuts, to show
distortion
• POV shot of the wife walking towards the dementia patient with her hand reaching out
• A close up shot of the dementia patient looking up at the wife, with eyes and face bleeding from
self harm (essentially trying to blind himself from seeing his fears)

6. MEETING CONVENTIONS?
I am meeting conventions with the following:
• A constant eerie music and frequent uncomfortable and unnatural
noises made by surrounding performers
• The characters fears are clear to be a mixture of what he sees and
hurting the ones he loves or both as dementia can cause visual
perception
• The idea that he is ill and it is all in his head
• His fear is the source of danger but more to others than himself
My Idea will be unique as I’ve not seen an idea where you will visually see what
the dementia patient is seeing and the confusion that the character feels also
applies to you.

7. CREATIVE ENIGMAS
The creative enigmas that my OTS would contain are:
• The outcome of the ill man’s family, although we see a knife shown with
the wife in shot, we are unsure if the patient did kill her or if she is still
alive
• The Causes and outcome of the character to have injured himself
around his own face
• The Location, the audience need to figure out that the patient is in a
mental hospital but is reminiscing of his outburst with his wide

8. MAIN TARGETS
• Costume and Make up are key focuses for this OTS, there would need to
be extensive research done into that profession (I'm just going to ask
my mum). It needs to be realistic
• Editing, will be incredibly important to this OTS as videos will need to
be edited, the speed, the appearance and the order of the videos will all
need to be a main focus when editing the piece