1. Pitch:
Psychological
horror movie
NOSHIN,
SADIA,
MAHFUZA &
MARIAM

2. Our objective
 A 5 minute (or less) short horror film
 Our film is a psychological horror and we
include elements of gore and the tricks of the
mind.
 We are unsure of the film title, however we
aim to have a pun-like title.
 Our (potential) tagline: Everybody has a good
and bad side. Spencer’s bullies unfortunately
discover both.

3. Treatment
 Title: ?
 Running time: 5 mins
 Format: Film
 Certification: 15+
 Target Audience: 15 and over

4. Target Audience
 Our target Audience is aimed at 15 and over due to
gory scenes
 Active audience
 Demographic: D/E, has income, appropriate age
 Mainstreamer: Wants to know what is in trend and
would simply watch to fit in with a crowd.
 Explorer: Wants to find out about different things and
try out and discover new things

5. Target Audience

7. Research

8. Research

9. Research I asked several people on WhatsApp
the kind of movies they watched and
preferred. Overall, most of the people
I asked mentioned that they preferred
psychological horror as they believe
psychological horror seems realistic
and most of the time the movies that
they watched that were psychological
horror were smart and allowed the
audience to piece a puzzle together
and it involves the audience in
figuring out the ending.
Although some preferred
supernatural horror as it portrayed a
type of horror that can be brought to
life through imagination.

10. Research
 Through the research we added elements to our
short film idea according to the research
conducted.
 Most people preferred psychological horror films,
therefore in our short film we will aim to include
elements of a twisted mind and a pseudo-
identity.
 Moreover, people who preferred supernatural
films, prefer movies that brought the
unimaginable to life. Our short film allowed us to
bring an idea to life that doesn’t really exist, but
still includes jumps and scares that brings a
sudden jumpy fear.

11. What has inspired us to do
psychological horror
 Personally we feel that with
psychological horror it explores a
type horror beyond imagination
but something that frequently
happens in reality, terrifying stuff
we hear about in the news. For
example, when we hear about serial
killers, we cannot fathom how a
person could do something so
horrifying and inhumane.
 We understand that although these
serial killers have a serial killer
label attached to them, they must
have a tormented past that causes
them to commit such atrocious
acts.

12. Psychological horror
 Most horror films rely on sudden scares to startle the
audience, which sometimes doesn’t even correlate with
the plot.
 With a psychological horror film, the suspense can be
built through a successful and gruesome plot. This
allows the viewers to feel terrified and kept on their
toes throughout the moment rather than a few jump-
scares that startles them from time to time.

14. Film Moodboard

15. Poster Moodboard

16. Radio Moodboard

17. The general idea
 It’s a psychological
short horror about a
teenage girl who has
been bullied in the
past and has a
dangerous pseudo-
identity that murders
her tormentors.

18. Overview of our psychological
horror film
 A young woman who has been
harshly bullied as a little girl is
tormented by her past, this
makes her view the world
differently. She has an
avenging pseudo-identity and
kills her enemies, she realizes
what she has done through
flashbacks and the film ends
with her as the killer who is
afraid of herself and talks to
her other personality blaming
it.

19. Character
 A timid girl called Spencer who
mercilessly kills her bullies from
her past to get revenge to what they
have done to her.
 She has poor eyesight which
sometimes plays into her
forgetfulness of the murders she
has committed.
 Mentally ill, and has a split identity
she is unaware of that wants to get
revenge of her tormented past.
 Also suffers from manic depression
 She cannot fully come to terms
with the things she has done.

20. What is a pseudo-identity?
 Floating is a dissociative phenomenon that is best
described as a sudden switch back to the pseudo-
identity, a regression which is most commonly
triggered by certain sights, sounds, touches, smells, or
tastes in everyday life that were ubiquitous and salient
stimuli in the cultic milieu.
 Credit: www.dreichel.com/Pseudoidentity.htm
 For example: Spencer does this, as she suddenly
remembers the murders she’s committed but her poor
eyesight could play into her forgetfulness as she tries
hard to remember what she did and why she keeps
getting these awful flashbacks.

21. Beginning
 The movie begins with low shot of a murder and the
killer running away from the scene and the corpse. The
next morning, Spencer wakes up and does normal
things- morning routine- then looks in the mirror and
puts her glasses on, sees small flashbacks of herself
getting bullied and tormented as a young girl, which has
deeply scarred her.
 Camera: She has poor eyesight therefore the camera will
be in her pov perspective when she looks in mirror
everything is blurry. This is an important aspect of the
film as the glasses is her key to finding the truth.
 Sound: Silence and her heavy breathing; intensifies the
horror of what she has done.

22. Middle
 She receives the monthly newspaper and and sees an
article of her bully dead, and she has flashbacks of the
bully tormenting her, she is unaffected. In the flashback
the camera stops focusing on her killing and focuses again
as a way of her trying to remember and see it for herself.
Through mise-en-scene we would display her normal self
and her serial killer identity with different clothes and
locations.
 Camera: An ECU of her mouth- she’s smiling sadistically-
and then we see that she has a straight face through a mid
shot. This connotes her pseudo-identity enjoys the
struggle her normal-self goes through. Also it could
suggest to the audience that their double personalities
cross-over from time-to-time.
 Sound: music begins to intensify from when she sees the
article and then it stops at its summit as we see her
gradually smirk. During flashbacks we hear slashing of a
body with a knife and a scream of agony from her bully.

23. End
 Spencer looks at herself through the mirror and
sees the personality that she has been trying to
reach all along. She screams towards the
reflection of her serial killer identity. She
understands what happened and faces the harsh
reality of what she has done. During this scene,
the camera is facing towards both Spencer and
her reflection, while she screams at herself her
voice fades out.
 Sound: her voice are dissolving into the dark
screen.
 Editing: dissolve to dark screen and sound
dissolving as she screams

24. Climax
 When she sees the newspaper clippings of the murders
of her enemies, the suspense rises at this point as she
doesn’t know how to feel. During this scene the
audience get to see the pleasure her serial killer feels
after avenging for her past self. This scene is the most
sinister scene in the play as the audience get a glimpse
of her fighting with herself to find pleasure in the
murders. The sinister thing about it is that she wants to
enjoy and revel in the deaths she committed as they
caused her years of suffering.
 Eerie background music
 Flashbacks of the gruesome death and her screaming
with joy of finally getting revenge.
 Camera/editing: Slow motion, handheld camera
movement, zooming in

25. Mise-en-scene
 Spencer: Fearful/timid body language
 Clothing: Normal, this enhances the scary reality of
what normal people are capable of.
 Wes Craven a horror film theorist says ‘murders are
more scary in a safe place’. Therefore the setting of our
film would be in a home, which is a safe for many.
 Her normal clothes and her serial killer clothes are
quite distinct, to show the difference between the
personalities however it is similar to connote that her
identities are not quite so different and have the same
objective which is to get revenge.

26. Editing
 When she walks past a mirror, the mirror reveals
her true self as smiles back at her and it reveals a
true moment of weakness.
 Flashbacks: 2/3 seconds long and very abrupt and
occurring suddenly.
 Slow motion=disorientation
 At the end the sounds and screen dissolves into
darkness this connotes that now she can feel a sense
of peace as her vengeance is over as the dark
connotes closure it could however connote the
darkness that she is forced to live with and the serial
killer identity winning and taking over her body and
mind completely.

27. Camera
 Extreme/mid close-ups allows the audience to view the
tension in her facial expressions and it also gives us a
peak of her pseudo-identity wanting to reach out.
 Handheld camera shot, many horror film use handheld
camera shot to enhance verisimilitude, it also creates the
illusion that someone is being followed.
 POV shot allows the audience to see the perspective of
our character. It gives us an insight to the mind of a
serial killer.
 Low camera angle to portray authority and control of the
serial killer identity that has control over her mind.
 High camera angle to portray the vulnerability of
Spencer’s weaker side.

28. Sound
 Diegetic Ambient sound of police sirens and her
harsh breathing
 Silence is a good method to intensify the eeriness.
Silence would be used effectively to enhance the
verisimilitude of the situation.
 Eerie non-diegetic background sounds and music
add to the tension and brings among a sense of fear
and anticipation.
 During the climax of the film, the sound intensifies
and increasingly gets louder, at this point the
audience is able decipher that she has a pseudo-
identity and she is unaware of the killings she
carried out due to her shock.

29. Issues we address
 Mental illness exists EVERYWHERE and if
some people do not address their problems
of metal illness, there could be terrible
consequences. Some people feel they’re
strong enough to handle issues on their
own, when there are consequences they
would suffer.
 Bullying is a huge issue with potential
serial killers. Carol Clover a horror film
theorist says ‘Killers in horror tend to have
either issues with their childhood or are
sexually disturbed’. We address this
problem as our character Spencer, has
been tormented with bullying in the past
and from that she develops a serial killer
pseudo-identity that wants to get revenge.