Guardian Article: Fear Be My Friend (1999) - Short Review

This article on 'fear bed my friend' is mainly to promote 'The Blair Witch Progect'. it does this by looking at horror on a wide scale and analysing why people love horror so much and how it appeals to them.

The article it's self cleary states that we, the audience, engoy horror films and no matter how much one scares us we still want more. " As human beings we like being scared. Or, put it in another way, we can't resist the draw of something that cludes us, something beyond the human, beyond interpretation. That's the lure of the horror story, that when it works it evokes, it doesn't create, something we don't understand and which we call fear."

We are told from this that horror is a part of what we need from reality but yet we don't actually want it. " In movies or in books, we don't pay the price for our fear. We are safe". we engoy being scared within films and books but when it is in real life we are truly scared. Horror molds are reality into the society we live in. If we see something in a film that scares us, it will frigten us within reality. "Fear is designed to protect us, to make us runaway". For example, if horror films didn't have the typical conventions such as graveyard, the woods, strange noises (sound of the door creaking) e.t.c we wouldn't be as frightened and uneasy about them outside of the film and in reality.

It could possibly be said that horror films have constructed our society and us as individuals in the way we interact with everyday things and people."Horror is there for a reason- for something it tells us our limits, or what the threat is, what it is that is not understood". Horror as been around for generations and each time has helped form the conception of what each person has.

When creating my film i have to take in to consideration important points that this article has stated. One of the most nesscessary things that I need to think about is the target audience, who is it aimed at? "Everything you do in a horror film has to relate to an audience with a median age of 15-25.'

This is what has been taken into account, since my film is based on a modern day Snow White but with a horror twist, the target audience is all up for horror movies but yet they still get to reminisce with there childhood memories of the film. Also the artical states some important features of making a horror film. "Horror is cheap to make- all it requires is a small cast, a forest at night, and a looming house- which is why it's a genre so beloved of independent film makers'.

I don't have a lot of resources or equipment to make a hollywood esque horrom movie teaser trailer but as it states 'simplicity is the key', plus I would be more successful in trying to get and independent film company to distribute my production.

When considering how to make my trailer stand out and grab the audience attention, I came across what Myrick and Sanchez said in the article " We did everything wrong, we broke the rule, both in the way we made it and in the way we marketed it". The key is to make something that is different from traditional horror teaser trailers and attract the audience but still relate it to them.