TITLE MEANING
The protagonist is acting as a guide to free her friend from the astral Jade is acting as a guide to prepare her Aunt for death The generational divide and critic on the role of elder people to guide younger generations and how they have failed
DESCRIPTION
Surreal psychedelic psycho-generational horror
PREMISE
A 30 year old astral projector must rescue her younger friend who’s has become trapped in the house of her deceased Aunt.
TONE
Psychological, energetic, trippy, surreal, stylized. Keep it fun, dark and weird.
THEMES AND SUBTEXT
Generational inequality and the impacts on mental health Mental Health-mild traumas that interfere with relations Permanent infinite mental distortion-how to escape an artificially created collective reality Saturn Devouring His Son Elderly generations create and force a reality based around their belief system onto the younger generations. Liminal spaces Self destructive nature projected outwardly Cosmic horror
STAKES
Dion wants to save her friend, at stake is her soul. To free her soul she must overcome the hypnotic trance that Irene has over her in the astral, however her approach is to use anger as an energy to free Jade. Dion leans too much on hate, but when she does show love things flip on her and in the end rage sets them free. She realizes though it is her love for her friend that truly is the saving force. As it is her love that frees herself and not actually her friend.
PHILOSOPHICAL CONFLICT (and shift)
External (unexpected plot elements) / internal (emotional) / philosophical
Dion shows weakness and cannot escape the Aunts reality (internal and external) She must surrender that her friend is better equipped to deal directly with the Aunt. The final twist is it was not her friend and she does not know what she surrendered to. (higher self/angel/’god’?)
STRUCTURE/STORY POINTS
Requires some setup and payoffs, meaningful (motif) Play with time, make it feel like a dream Emphasis on the constricting nature of the false reality through camera framing
CHARACTERS
Dion: Dion is the protagonist, a 30 something, jaded yet strong astral projector who needs to rescue her younger friend from a session she has conducted with her dying Aunt. She is a bit reckless and lacks a little empathy but tries to remain loving. She is also a rebel and is torn between having a desire to make profound changes to the world around her while wanting to escape it.. Want/Need Dion wants to save her friend from her dead Aunt’s astral reality but also has a strong hatred towards older world views. She is torn between showing empathy for her friend and her feelings of caring towards her Aunt but also has little patience. At first she energy must be given as much as taken. Look Dion should look a bit alternative and edgy while not trying too hard. Her spirit is somewhere between Doctor Strange and Sid Vicious. Preferably black or Indian (minorities are more likely to not inherit generational wealth and get pushed further into poverty) References to astral in
Jade:Jade is in her early 20’s. Dion is a mentor to her and someone she looks up to. She straddles between positive and hopeful but also a bit naive. She is full of love but also suffers from depression, her astral travels have brought a lot of light into her life and helped her escape her daily troubles. Want/Need She wants to help Irene pass over and loves her. She needs to overcome her willingness to surrender her energy and that loving someone is also letting go, especially if he is dragging her down with them. Look Jade should look more hippy/witchy/burner. Her spirit is between
Irene: Irene is a boomer, the myth of the rich Aunt. Can be between late 50’s early 60s She is an eclectic and charismatic character, she needs to bring life to this short. She is not inherently bad but has very strong world viewpoints. Jade should never have tried to project with her but she loves her and wanted to help prepare her for death. Unfortunately she did not realize the negative impact Irene’s deep rooted world views will have on her (literally trapping her in her own reality) and how they would manifest in the astral.
Name based on Aunt Irene in Jane of Lantern Hill
Tom: Tom is a teenage boy whose main role is to allow for some exposition and link the character’s together. He is Jade’s assistant who needs to go get Dion and bring her to Irene’s house once she no longer returns from her astral journey.
STORY BREAKDOWN
Act 1:Intro/Setup The protagonist arrives at the house. Being born into a reality, uncertain of its rules. The relationship with her friend is critical to her survival. Demonstrates Dion’s assertiveness and focus in accessing the problem and taking the necessary steps to resolve it.
Act 2/Astral/Kitchen Dion enters the astral. She immediately finds her friend Jade in the kitchen with her Aunt who. Jade is unaware she is in the astral and Irene, her Aunt, has died in the process and has now trapped Jade with her. This is a tension building sequence where the Dion must convince Jade to leave the room with her so they can escape the spell the Aunt has on them and get back to reality. Mildly surreal, time warping and horror sequence until Jade manages to escape. So trippy sequences and clever dialogue and visuals but nothing too crazy. The importance of the younger generation to work together to overcome the barriers left in place by older generations is key here, showcasing the 3 personalities and how they confront their conflicting worldviews.
Act 3/Dion getting trapped Dion has managed to help Jade transcend the false world created by her Aunt Irene. However she has used too much of her own energy and becomes trapped by Irene. (shown through empathy towards the dying woman). This sequence is more trippy, a mix between Mandy and Under the Skin. It escalates in an emotionally charged vfx climax.
Purpose of ending Jade’s attitude towards her friend and the ambiguity of what actually happened should leave a strong impression without the need for violence.
FILM REFERENCES
Possession: Annihilation: Themes/horror tone (dread, psychedelic) The Cell: Theme and style Get Out: Acting style, weird conversations as reference to kitchen dialogue. Mother: Camera/tone/mood Insidious: theme of astral, hollywood approach Oculus: Warping of time, filming style/main house bit Mandy: style reference/lighting/soundtrack Don't Breathe: style reference/lighting Under the skin: Tone/surreal sequences for ending Gone Girl/Fincher: style reference/lighting
LOCATION
Edwardian house in London in the least
Ideally a modern brutalist home with lots of open space (liminal) that can allow for some creepy lighting and interesting cg effects (ie You should have left)
RUNTIME
20 min
GEAR
Arri Alexa Mini Canon K35 Lenses
RESEARCH REFERENCE
The denial of death: Ernest Becker Generation Disaster: Karla Vermeulean Inventing reality: Michael Parenti
QUOTES
Adam Curtis's Hypernormalisation: We live in a strange time, the stability of the world is undermined. Those in control seem unable to deal with it, no one has a vision for a better future. Over the past 40 years, politicians, financiers and technological utopians, rather than face up to the real complexities of the world, retreated. They constructed a simpler version of the world in order to hang onto power. As the fake world grew, all of us went along with it, because the simplicity was reassuring. Even our counterculture became part of the trickery, because they too retreated into the fake dream world. This allowed dark and destructive forces to fester and grow.
Power, oppression, silencing, repression, are the stuff of horror, deriving from our essential fears of being forced, denied, controlled, displaced out of ourselves, into constraining roles and constricting places, unable to resist or refuse. Throughout its history, horror has been concerned with forces that threaten individuals, groups, or even ‘life as we know it’. It has been concerned with the workings of power and repression in relationship to the body, the personality, or to social life in general.”
I am not scared of creepy killers, supernatural entities or monsters in the shadows. I fear humanity can not wake from its self destroying lurch into oblivion, how it inhibits and feeds off of itself and where this undeniably will lead us all.
PREVIS
LOCATION
OPENING SHOT LIVE TEST
PERFORMANCE TEST
