I have noticed that recently on Stage32 there has been a very serious tone, yeah sure we like to pick each other's brains once in a while and some might take umbrage to something someone might have said. Well I want to lighten the tone just a little if you will. I write in a lot of Genres, I just enjoy different challenges but I started in Horror and never venture far from the Genre as I love a good scare. I have been developing a short that has just been shot in South Korea and is my ode to Asian Horror. Hey being from Northern Ireland this is a big deal for me as Asian Horror has been a benchmark for supernatural horror in recent years. Anyways while writing "The Hummingbird Effect" it deals with a malevolent entity and there are some very chilling set pieces in the script. There is one in particular that give me chills writing it and caused more then a little paranoia. I was well into the scene tapping away, the house was silent as my wife was out and kiddies away to school. I was in the zone when I heard a strange scratching sound coming from behind me in my office. Okay that got my attention as I turned slowly in classic horror pose....... Nothing. Back to tapping the keys and reaching the high point of the scene and the scary payoff. A louder scratch made me swing around in my chair, still nothing. I go to turn back to my pc and on the screen I see the reflection from behind me and a mouse came running out past me. My heart decided it belonged in my throat. I can safely say I was not amused one little bit! So my next screenplay is going to be a Comedy, maybe this time something funny will happen like three clowns riding a tiny bike......... Hang on that sounds like the setup of another horror!
Screenwriting : Things that go bump....... In the office! by Neville Steenson
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The Ring gave me chills and affected me for a long time, but what still gives me the heebie jeebies is the Grudge. That scene where a face appears over a bed i think freaks me out and sometimes when i'm lying in bed I can almost feel that face appearing over my own bed. Then I HAVE to turn the lights on. and i'm 40 years old! for shame.
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@CJ, sneaky little rodents! lol. If they didn't move so fast it would be fine, but no they can clock up to blur speed and scare the life out of us.
@Kevin, great prank mate. Friends are awesome but when they pull stunts like that there is only one thing for it, payback ;-) @Cherie, no shame as the film is doing its job right when it results in us being freaked out. The scene in the Grudge when the kid is under the bed sheets is true new underwear time. Asian horror is so good at delivering well structured supernatural scares and thats why I am such a fan and wanted to throw my hat into the ring. Trust me there are some pretty damn good scares in there and the footage looks amazing.
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Neville, I was on the way to the supermarket to get some food and this tiny field mouse was just sitting in the middle of pavement eating an apple that had fallen from a tree. It was adorable and I've never seen a mouse brazen. But then I spent my whole journey worrying it would get trodden on or run over.
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You think that's brazen? When I visited London some years a go I was walking through Hyde park when a baby squirrel approached me and when I offered him some of my lemonade icypole he took a bite and then got brain freeze and then ran away. He was just the bees knees.
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1998, camping on a beach in southerly Landsogrotty, dozing off after midnight, I jumped fresh from my skin when something scuttled across my face. As I stood trembling beneath the light of a platinum moon, the eye of my torch skimming over the groundsheet in search of the culprit, I discovered that what I thought must have been a crab was, in fact, a MOUSE! At which point I manned up, flexed my thigh muscles, and ran half a mile down the beach.
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neville I love Asian horror stories as they have a different take on what constitutes horror. They seem to take ordinary things that might make you squirm a little and make them feel so wrong. They really play on the 'wrongness' of things. So in The Grudge there's a scene where a woman is sifting through old dirty water in a sink to find the plug and she starts pulling up handfulls of hair and ...gosh now my memory is failing me i think a head or a cat or something, but it's the hair. You take something ordinary, but people do get funny about it like when they find hair in their food. Then you find something really wrong about it and play on that. They are good at that.
Ha ha ha I love these stories, little nuggets and gems. From apple eating, brain freezing, face hugging rodents to running down a beach fleeing the not so mega beast! How could this not put a smile on your face. Thank you for sharing guys. I agree Cherie the Asian style is so simple in turning small events into extreme terror. Almost primal fear and they took a Banshee type of myth and made it their own. Long dirty hair flowing over a sorrow ridden face. Cue the chills! lol
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I write a lot in the paranormal genre but no matter how hard I try to keep it dramatic, it almost always turns toward comedy. I can’t help it; I don’t take anybody/anything very seriously – especially myself or my writing.
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Neville, you've given me hope. As a new screenwriter, I keep hearing you have to have a brand; one genre. I write comedy, but also have a thriller, and an adaptation of a book my husband is currently marketing which is paranormal. On a side note, I have to laugh. The first thought I had after reading about your mouse was the famous statement about Walt Disney "It all started with one mouse" :) Happy Writing!
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A gazillion years ago, leaving work after a long day, dark streets in an industrial city, no trees, hoping to get home in time to watch the latest brain-warping episode of Twin Peaks -- and an OWL hoots right above my head and flies along the street in front of me. Goodness me that was an interesting moment.
Alle thank you very much. I am very excited about this project as I got to work with a Director who is an amazing talent. The project is part of a bigger picture which will be revealed more in time but it looks beyond anything I could have wished for. You are so right that the feel of the Asian film gives it that bit more than say if we had of shot it in England with Asian actors, it is the enviroment and authentic feel. As you say its unique like Bollywood.
Dawn, hi there and great to meet you. I think as a writer you write in any genre that you love, as long as you have the passion and understanding of what your given genre is then who's to say don't do it. Write if it makes you happy and the love you put in will always show. And as for hope, well thats something as a writer always needs in their toolbox. Never give that up and use it as an important tool to drive you forward. Geoff, well that kind of kicks the ass of my pesky mouse tale, or tail as the case may be! lol
Ha ha ha, greedy damn possums! Clasic.