Idea: Liminal Spaces

 

One of the most recent and popular "aesthetics" to come out of the psychological horror genre is the idea of "liminal spaces." What they basically are are places that act as sort of transitions from one main destination to another destination, but within those two transitions creates an eerie sort of feeling, like you are not supposed to be there. I feel like there are two reasons you could approach these liminal spaces in psychological horror. One is to capsulate the feeling of being trapped there with no escape, being stuck endlessly searching, with corridors leading you to places you've already seen, and that rare door which leads you to an even more confusing place. A second could imply there is also something else in that liminal space with you, you trying to escape but to no avail the place is still an endless maze. I probably will not make this the full focus of my opening but the use of desolate places that ooze dread will probably take place in my horror film

Administrator. “Architecture: The Cult Following of Liminal Space.” Musée Magazine, Musée Magazine, 5 Nov. 2020, https://museemagazine.com/features/2020/11/1/the-cult-following-of-liminal-space.

Miche-Miche(Miche-Miche), and bartv(Bart Veldhuizen). “Liminal Spaces.” Blender Artists Community, 10 Oct. 2021, https://blenderartists.org/t/liminal-spaces/1332628.

Types of Horror

With every horror movie comes a specific subgenre or category it falls into. This fact came to mind when devising a storyline for my opening as with each genre comes different a whole bunch of different obstacles in relation to things like props, editing, and costume design. Taking a look at some of the more interesting ones on this diagram, I've decided to make my opening a psychological horror.

Psychological Horror

One of the things that I like about the most about this subgenre is that is messes with the audience's head way more than an actual villain could. For example, in the cult classic, "The Shining," Kubrick really delves deep onto how isolation can drive someone crazy, with Jack and his family being left in a massive hotel for months. The movie also subconciously messes with the viewer's perception, with some set design being realistically impossible and suspensful long takes of hallways, not knowing what might be in around the corner. This aspect of psychological horrors, with trying to make the viewer as uncomfortable and scared as possible without the use of jumpscares is very appealing combined with the idea of making the premise stick with them after viewing. The Shining also makes you doubt whether or not what we are seeing through Jack's eyes is real or not, like in the bar scene where he's seemingly talking to a ghost. This could be something I implement into my opening as insparation, and relating this to my two minute opening again, there would be most likely less use of props and moreso  actor / dialogue driven, which could be hard to execute. This subgenre I chose however will hopefully be a very fun experience with many fun challenges to get by.

Eddy, Max, and By. “Spatially Impossible Sets in the Shining Make It Creepier.” The Mary Sue, 26 July 2011, https://www.themarysue.com/impossible-shining/.

Hellerman, Jason. “Defining the Horror Genre in Movies and TV.” No Film School, No Film School, 4 Nov. 2020, https://nofilmschool.com/the-horror-genre-in-movies-and-tv. 

“The Shining Bar Scene.” YouTube, YouTube, 1 July 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmY4k85_XEE.

“Psychological Horror.” TV Tropes, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PsychologicalHorror.