'It Watches/I Won't Be Back Till Late' - Rough Plan

Short Film for media - 5 mins
Horror/Thriller
Aiming for a sense of atmosphere that is created by films such as ‘It Follows’ and ‘The Witch’.

The title I have decided to go with was ‘It Watches’ (blatantly based off of ‘It Follows’), but this may be changed at any time. The reason I have decided to go with this tile is because the main character is going to be ‘watched’ through the beginning of the film, until the viewer finally catches a glimpse of ‘it’.

I am going to start the film with the main character finding out he is home alone by a note let by his parents/family. The note will say something along the line of:

I’ve gone off to work and I won’t be back till late… Heres some money towards dinner, order a takeaway if you like….. remember to turn the lights off if you’re not in the room unless you want to pay the electric bill

After the character discovers he can order a takeaway, I believe it would be appropriate for the main character to do something funny/goofy in order to relax the viewer; similar to ’Ticklemonster’ where it starts with a much more relaxed tone before the horror actually starts.

The next few scenes will be of the character doing whatever while he is home alone. However, as scenes progress the camera shots will change from being inside the house, to outside the, giving the implication that someone/something is watching the main character, the shots from outside the house will slowly start to get closer the the character before eventually being inside the house again.

I think it would also be good to play around with mirrors in the house as I believe that it can create some nice practical effects i.e. have ‘it’ viewable in a mirror that the main character isn’t looking at, only to have the camera turn around to have ‘it’ not actually be there. I am hoping that these types of methods will be able to create a sense of tension and unease. After a while the character will start to move about the house as he feels unsettled, this is where the character will find the note that was left for him taped to the wall. The note will read the same, but have words crossed out of it, for example:

I’ve gone off to work and I won’t be back till late.

giving off the implication that ‘it’ has done something with the main characters family. I want this short film to play on tropes and cliche's of the horror genre, and I feel that this kind of thing gives off the type of ridiculous and cheesy atmosphere of similar films.

The viewer will then start to see ‘it’ more around the house, until one final jump scare, similar to the end of ‘Ticklemonster’.