Brand New House

M

mobiledeli

Well-known member
my friends just got a brand new house... its totally unfurnished and will be for the next 4 weeks. the best part, its from the 1700's and its the scariest damn thing ive ever seen...

so naturally, i REALLY wanna do a movie there. but im drawing a blank on the plot. i dont wanna do a first night in the house, death ****, or a haunted house really (unless it kicks ass) so if anyones got any cool ideas, please tell me!

i hope to also keep you all posted on the progress, some bts clips, and production stills, etc. thanks!
 
If it's from the 1700's, how about a revolutionary war piece about a colonial family who was forced to quarter British soldiers during the war? It's an interesting subject actually. There could be all kinds of intense drama. How would someone react to being forced to house enemy soldiers during an occupation? There could be some kind of revenge action taken by the family towards the end or the soldiers could wind up killing one of the family members. It's got potential.
 
Videoguy1 said:
If it's from the 1700's, how about a revolutionary war piece about a colonial family who was forced to quarter British soldiers during the war? It's an interesting subject actually. There could be all kinds of intense drama. How would someone react to being forced to house enemy soldiers during an occupation? There could be some kind of revenge action taken by the family towards the end or the soldiers could wind up killing one of the family members. It's got potential.
Click to expand...

I like the way you think, that concept is chock full of potential drama... and is relavant to much of the political landscape we find our selves in right now.

Do you write?
 
thats some good idea! but theres a lot of problems, the location is on a highway, i dont have costumes/budget for taht stuff. i wa thinking a nitty gritty movie... someting that can scare the new owners wehn its done.
 
I'm glad you guys like my idea. I'm currently casting it with Mel Gibson as the lead. Just kidding, it's only a concept.

Rosestar,

I don't currently write but would like to or at least collaborate with someone. I have written/ produced a number of cable TV spots in my former pro video days. I just never got into real film making. I have more of a technical video background. I'm always coming up with ideas but have been side tracked with work, family, etc. Having moved fairly recently near the Hollywood area has peaked my interest lately in doing something. The current socio/ political atmosphere we are in does lend itself to some much needed or potentially intriguing projects. Any ideas?
 
im teh same way, i get an idea.. then im busy. but im doing this because this is the summer and i have no obligations... but a movie... but im still stuck on a story.. i dont need this to be like an award winning thing, just an excuse to film in a scary house.. its really an excersize for myself.
 
How about this: A bunch of guys make a small DV horror movie in a newly-bought and very spooky house. However, the house REALLY IS haunted, and one-by-one the filmmakers are brutally killed-off.

Don't show the killings, only the aftermath (LOTS of blood).

The twist is that film-maker that originated the idea did the killings because he HATES filmmakers. I'll leave the backstory up to you.

The other twist is that the house REALLY IS haunted, and the evil-and-twisted (though somewhat sympathetic) filmmaker gets his comeuppance in a most brutal and horrific manner (which of course is filmed, the irony being that he hates being filmed or having his picture taken.)

You could even have people from DVXUser show up as cameos. :-)

For inspiration, see "Evil Dead", "House on Haunted Hill" (50's Brit version) and anything by Dario Argento (there's one that's in a house -- "Suspiria" maybe? I forget.)
 
Maybe you do could some kind of Blair Witch meets the Evil Dead kind of thing. If you're just messing around, who know what will come of it?
 
Ok, here is mine: A realtor brings an attractive young couple to see the old house. The couple inquires about the former owner, who drowned while taking a midnight swim. While touring the house, they get locked in a bedroom. Stranded in the room, they begin hearing noises, voices, banging sounds, etc. but their cries for help go unanswered. They spend an entire night locked in the room, until the husband finds some ingenious way to lower his wife out a window. The plan being that once outside she could come around and let them out. After a harrowing escape she makes it outside, but there she discovers that there are several scary men inside the house searching for something. She decides to run to the nearby highway for help, but is apprehended by another of the scary-thug-gangster types, they take her inside and tie her up. The husband hears her screams and can only yell for her and try futilly to escape the well-built antique prison of a room. Finally her cries fade, and he can only imagine the worst. The realtor and the husband must then hatch a plan to escape, rescue his wife, discover what the evil men are searching for in the spooky old house, and find out the truth about the drowning of the former owner.

The only problems are that you will need a cast of at least 7 really good actors. You will have to figure out the rigging/ safety issues with the window escape, and you have to cut me in 5% for the treatment. Not to mention the diamonds and the CGI effects work.
 
pmark23,

We must have been thinking the same thing at the same time. Evil Dead was a great movie triolgy wasn't it?
 
Yeah, that was the first thing I thought of. Great movie done on a low budget, few actors, just a few locations, but mostly done in a cabin -- and made money and stars out of those involved. More importantly, Xena wouldn't exist without it!

On beckerfilms.com there's a diary from one of the filmmakers during the shooting which goes over many of the trials and tribulations they went through. Sounds like every film I worked on! Should be required reading.

I was going to suggest a "Blair Witch" element as well -- have the film done from the POV of someone shooting a "The Making Of..." of the film they are filming (so it's a film within a film within a film!) Then entire movie could be done easily and cheaply, and suspense could be raised by keeping the action offscreen (cheaper that way too.)

For example, have them hear someone screaming in the next room -- they all rush over only to find the door locked! The guy keeps screaming and screaming -- pleading for them to save him (or her) -- while they frantically try to enter the room. Finally they break the door down and find only lots of blood and a spleen (or something like that). Easy and quick to film, and directed right could be very effective.

Japanese horror films are also a great in respect of showing very little, but being very suspenseful.
 
well ive been thinking, and my dad and i got a small idea, an escaped psycho ends up back at the house where he killed his wife. he lives in the basement next to that chalk outline of her. a family's car breaks down and they find this abandoned house so they spend the night... the last night of their lives.

i added that dumb end thing for fun, but there are so many problems i see. any ideas on how to make it better?
 
Maybe lose the psycho, keep the chalk outlines. The family breaks down, enters the scary house... starts to feel relaxed... maybe it's okay --- they can stay here just this one night. Then they look around -- one of them is missing. A SCREAM!

From deep within the house: AHHHHHHH!

They go running to find their family member staring at a chalk outline. The area has been taped off with DO NOT CROSS police tape, but dad decides it's all old and whatever happened here is in the past.

Later they prepare sleeping bags on a dusty floor. As some of the dust clears they see another chalk outline. Blah blah blah.

As they all finally quiet down to sleep they hear 'screeeeech' 'screeeeech' as if someone is writing on a blackboard. They also hear footsteps as if someone is running back and forth above them.

Ultimately after much scariness and lame horror film fright moments they track down the source of the noises... high in the attic, walls and floor covered in chalk outlines, they find three children. One of them is busy posing on the floor while another traces his outline in chalk. A third runs around stringing police tape everywhere. Just as everyone breathes a sigh of weird relief a pounding is heard from below! The family turns to the sound, then back to the kids... but the kids have disappeared!

Dad investigates the pounding... it's coming from outside, where, of course, a thunderstorm is raging. It turns out to be the father of the three kids. They live in the big empty house. The man is a police officer and says that he had to leave the kids home alone for the evening when a big emergency arose in town. The dad tells him they must have invaded his police tape supply and mentions how morbid it is that they amuse themselves doing chalk outlines of one of their siblings. The kids appear, slowly joining their father (the cop) and whispering in his ear. The officer looks at the family that let themselves into his home and says that yes, the kids don't really enjoy doing chalk outlines of live bodies, but luckily for them they now have an entire family to practice on.

The family screams.... like this: "AHHHHHH!" or more of an "AAAAHHHH!"





or... I dunno.
**DISCLAIMER: don't take me seriously
 
I think the best story is one that can be told even without the Haunted House; wouldn't Hitchcock use this elemt as the MacGuffin? Find your story; the Haunted House is something that just happens to be there.
 
i agree with hudson. owen, thats a good idea, but not really what im looking for, i only have a few more days before i have to start shooting for time restraints. the house is empty, no furniture, and its scary as heck. any help? im drawing a blank.

but do you think maybe that idea about the psycho is okay?
 
Deli,

You said the house is empty, right?
Why not just film in the empty house? Do lots of low dolly shots and room to room. Maybe start in the basement and work your way out. Or a bedroom closet door, from the other side a very quiet voice asking, "help us." and then you back out of the house and into the yard. Oh, damn. I was going to use this plot. Crap, well it's yours now.....
Remember, the scariest things are what you think you saw.
Music will be the key.
-Will
ps. I write all the time
 
I was just spouting off whatever came to mind until I tired of typing. Hence the disclaimer. Please do agree with Hudson! If your intent is to scare the new owners perhaps your overall goal can be to explain why the house lies empty now.
 
well some friends and i are going there today to be in it and see what we feel would be scary. future user, what exactly do you mean? just show shots of the house, that would be cool, but not... plot really. if you know what i mean, or maybe i didnt understand you.
 
well we all thought up and idea and this is the best we could do in a few hours, what do you all think?

House Movie

ACT 1

EXT/INT. HOSPITAL – NIGHT
Ambulance drives up, people come out, the passed out man on the stretcher has blood all over his head and body and a big wound on the side of his head. They bring him inside and cut to him in a room. Quiet and silent except for a clock ticking. He’s a vegetable, doctors try to talk to him, but he just sits there. Lots of close-ups on his eyes. Cut between the scene and flashbacks.

INT. HOUSE – DAY/NIGHT
(FLASHBACK)
He locks his wife in basement, he lives in the corner of a room, no furniture in house, he tortures wife with his rows of knives on walls. Big ax, too. There’s a bat on the floor, the wife picks it up and slams him in the head, holding the knife, and he falls down and lands on his wife, killing her. He holds his bloody head, and stumbles out of the house. He collapses on the sidewalk somewhere.

INT. HOSPITAL – NIGHT
A doctor comes in for his intravenous food shot. The doctor gets scared by a knock on the door and hits the wrong vein sending shock. The man freaks out and kills the two doctors. He runs down the hallway, lost, he runs out of the hospital.

EXT. HOUSE – NIGHT
He runs up to the house and enters it through a hatch on the porch and into the basement. SLAM! The hatch closes.

ACT 2

EXT. HOUSE – DAY
A couple of kids are walking on the sidewalk, they stop at the old house, and they look at it. A few other kids come by, tough looking, and taunt the kids, scaring them into thinking that it’s haunted. They dare them to stay the night. No! So they take the kids and lock them in the house.

INT. HOUSE - DAY
Let us out! See ya tomorrow! Scared, house is dark, they turn lights on and it’s not THAT scary. They try the doors, but they’re all locked. They all sit on the floor in a living room of sorts. Talk a little bit. Hear a toilet flush. All four of them are there... so what was that? They go to see what’s up and they see blood on the toilet. What? Then they hear footsteps behind them. Maybe the blood was there before, they ignore it (kinda) and go downstairs, but there’s only three of them. What?

They look for him, cheap scare cause he was joking. Hahaha, then he gets pulled into the bedroom he was hiding in and the door closes. Screaming, door is locked. They struggle to open door and finally open it. There’s blood streaks on floor and bloody hand print on door knob. They gotta get him out, so they go down and grab a floorboard and use it as a weapon. One goes to the closet door, opens it, he’s gone. It’s empty. The others stay downstairs and hear footsteps and dragging. So they follow the sounds and see the basement door closing. They call the other friend down.

The door is locked. But one of them saw another way in, they go outside to the hatch, the same one the man went into. They end up in the basement. They see the friend and wife dead. There’s the bloody bat on the floor from the fight with the wife before. There are knifes on wall. The kids are freaking out. From the shadow comes the man he hits one of the remaining three kids on the head knocking him down. ****!

There’s a struggle, one goes back to the hatch, the other runs up the stairs to the upstairs bedroom. The one who goes outside hears the kid who was hit on the head screaming and has to go back in. He finds a window, breaks it, and goes in. He goes up the freaky stairs, the man could be anywhere behind him. The friend hiding hears the noises and tenses up. He is hiding in a side room in a bedroom. The friend sees the other friend come in, comes out of hiding spot, they gotta get out. They start leaving, but the hiding kid sees the man and hides, the other kid gets it from the guy. The last kid is hiding in the bedroom now.

The man walks in the bedroom and looks right at where the kid is hiding. He strokes his knife as he waits for the kid to come out. Sure he could go in, but he’s waiting. There’s a noise in the hall, the man looks and gets hit in the head by the kid he just stabbed. The kid falls and pushes the knife deeper into himself, dying. The hiding kid jumps out and runs the man stabs him in the leg, nearly paralyzing it. The kid limps around the house, the man gets up and looks around, he is easy to find and the man knocks him out.

ACT 3

He wakes up in the basement next to his dead friends. The man takes an ax off the wall and slowly drags it toward the kid (extremely tense) the kid is screaming the whole time. The kid looks around and grabs the bat (the one that gave the man the head injury in the first place) and hits him in the head with it. The man falls right on the kid with the ax. Dead, just like the wife. The basement is a major death scene.

EXT/INT. HOUSE – DAY
It’s morning now, and the bullies from the beginning come back to get the kids. They open the front door and look around. They go down into the basement... holy ****! From behind them comes the man. Club! Black!

THE END


personally, i think its OKAY, not my best, but not my worst. so what do you all think?
 
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