Synopsis

Synopsis – Hell Revealed

In an unnamed urban area lives a boy aged about 17 and attending college. He appears average, however; his interest in demons and hell leads to a complication wherein he summons forth a spirit of a demon which possesses his friend. He then must try to redeem himself and rid the demonic possession from his friend. Whether he can save his friend’s soul though, is another matter. As the demon spreads its malevolence and hatred, the boy must mature in order to go head to head in a game of wits with the creature. In time, the boy will also see true hell revealed before his eyes, while all this is conflicting with his normal life of college and work.  Despite his interest in demons, he is forced to put his quest for knowledge aside and put everything he knows about the evil forces to the test, as he is faced with the challenge of sending the demon back to hell. Will he succeed or will his friend’s soul be ultimately lost to evil? Will he stop the demon or be defeated?  Will he win in a game of wits, or be damned because of his unholy interests?
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Synopsis 2

Hell will be revealed before the eyes of a 17 year old boy known as Steve. He seems like an average college student, but his interests in demonic forces and hell leads to a conundrum wherein he summons forth the spirit of a demon which possesses his friend,Chris (also 17) . He must then strive for redemption and rid the possession from his friend. Whether he can save his friends soul in the end is another matter.  As the demon spreads hatred and malevolence, Steve must mature in order to defeat the demon in a game of wits. Despite his interest in demons he is forced to put his quest for knowledge aside and put everything he knows about the evil forces to the test if he is to send the spirit from where it came from. Will he succeed or will his friend's soul be ultimately lost to evil? Will he defeat the demon or be defeated? Will he win the game of wits or be damned forever?

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Synopsis: Final

Hell will be revealed before the eyes of a 17 year old boy known as Steve. He seems like an average college student, but his interests in demonic forces and hell leads to a conundrum wherein he summons forth the spirit of a demon which possesses his friend, Chris (also 17). He must then strive for redemption and rid his friend of the possession. Whether he can save his friend’s soul in the end is another matter. As the demon spreads hatred and malevolence, Steve must mature in order to defeat the demon in a game of wits. Despite his interest in demons he is forced to put his quest for knowledge aside and put everything he knows about the evil forces to the test if he is to send the spirit back from whence it came. Will he succeed or will his friend's soul be ultimately lost to evil? Will he defeat the demon or be defeated? Will he win the game of wits or be damned forever? This is his ultimate trial. Being able to meet a real demon is everything he has dreamed of. But with his friend being possessed, he will have to make the difficult decision of whether he will take the opportunity to learn about the demon or save his friend.

The Characters

The central characters for my film will be the following.

The protagonist- A boy who is interested in gaming and watching videos in his spare time. He also has an interest in demons, hell and the forces of evil. His name is Steve.

The antagonist- Friend of the protagonist, but becomes possessed by a demon when the protagonist accidently summons a demon spirit. Voice of this character will be digitally edited to show the demonic possession. His name is Chris

Support- There will be a third character to give some kind of support in the film. I havent decided what yet however.

Story Ideas

For my narrative, I have looked at different theories for what structure might work best as a project considering time limitations and budget. For structure I am going to use Todorov's structure where the equilibrium is balanced but is then distrupted sending the protagonist on a quest to restore it or create a new equilibrium. The story type will be the fatal flaw idea, where the protagonist will make a mistake and will have to resolve it. Also, the story will focus on the protagonists redemption throughout the narrative while he/she resolves the dilemma at hand.

One film where the fatal flaw plot idea is used is in The Army of Darkness, the third film in the Evil Dead trilogy. When Ash, the protagonist, picks up the necronomicon, he is supposed to speak three magic words he was told earlier. When he messes up and an army of the dead arise he has to redeem himself and fix this problem.

Example 4- Evil Dead Trilogy

Evil Dead Trilogy (1981-Evil Dead/ 1987-Evil Dead 2/ 1992-Army of Darkness, Sam Raimi)

Evil Dead is a B-movie trilogy, directed by Sam Raimi, and revolves around the Necronomicon Ex Mortis (the book of the dead). My film has drawn inspiration from this as it contains demons (though mostly unseen), possession and a protagonist who gets caught up in facing the demons and going through a journey of both survival and redemption.

The backdrop for the film is the old cabin in the woods location, typical of many horrors. The mise en scene helps develop the eerie setting through fog and a dark forest. Also, cinematography and editing play a significant role in representing the demons. Whenever a demon is chasing Ash through the woods, the camera floats off the ground and glides quickly towards him as an inhuman sound plays. It will cut between the demon chasing Ash and a tracking shot of Ash running.

Example 3- Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Night of the living dead is a film by the godfather of all zombie films, George A Romero, and is of course about zombies. It was one of the earliest examples of zomie films and is what started drawing popularity to the idea of zombies.




It was the first zombie film to have the template used now for zombie horrors. Survivors encounter zombies, get scared, try to survive in some way, the dead are defeated and everythings happy. Although this film has a twist ending which adds to how good this film is.

The idea of the dead walking is a common one now, but in the past it had people on edge and was a very scary idea. This film may look aged now but at the time of release this was a horror masterpiece which you had to see, and even now its groundbreaking nature definitly means its a film for any film student to see.

The horror comes from many places. Tension is created when somebody dies right at the start, leaving the woman protagonist who barely speaks horrified. She finds a farmhouse and finds a corpse inside which shocks the audience. The visage of it is grusome in nature. Horror is also visually created in the zombies, which now would just look silly and quite humorous to see, but back at its release would put film goers on the edge of their seats.

Example 2- Profile

Profile is a film created by a group of students from a course which was available to people in year 10 and took them through two years of experiences and fun. It was called the creative and media diploma, and covered many aspects of the creative and media industry. In the second year, we had the opportunity to create anything we wanted, an extended project. A small group decided to make a film, and this is the product. I also helped with the soundtrack and am credited for this.


The film is a horror, more psychological rather than being chased by a physical entity such as Jason Vorhees or Freddie Kruger. It follows a girl who believes she is in danger from a person who wants to kill her. I will not post the ending in case you decide to watch it but it has a good twist ending, and not the kind of twist that results in a broken neck.

The narrative itself is original and keeps the audience tense. I know when I was watching it I felt quite on edge. The way it unfolds really helps this, such as the fact the protagonist ends up carrying a knife she is that scared. Also, the fact we never see the antagonists face helps add tension and fear as we never know what to expect. When an audience cannot recognise what something is, it is in fear of it- human nature.

The soundtrack also helps give it strong horror tones. For example, there is a point when the protagonist is running from the "murderer" and there is a tune played on a piano at a high pitch. It puts emphasis on the fact that shes running and is in fear of this person.

Example 1- Doom

This is one of the films I have chosen as an example. The action horror film with sci-fi themes and setting, Doom, is a film based off the groundbreaking franchise of games which brought to life the universe of the first person shooter, and made history. The film was made as an adaptation and didn't follow the original story, and wasn't a box office success. Yet, there was praise from the people who saw it, myself included.

It follows horror conventions like dark lighting and things popping out at you quite successfully. Theres one scene in the sewers of the mars base where the majority of the film is set where the cliche moment of somebodies flashlight going out results in his demise.

Also, the scene I have put above shows quite clearly the themes involved. The lighting is shown to be quite low and dark, and it shows what the protagonist is facing throughtout the film. Originally demons in the game, the people are infected by a twenty fourth chromasome which either makes you superhuman like the protagonist, or makes you a monster, some of which are shown to look very inhuman.This is something most horrors do, they detatch the antagonist from the audience and shows them as not being human in some way. Here of course shown by the bloody people and the mutated creatures.

Genre Choice

For my Film Studies coursework, I have considered several genres. Horror, sci-fi, comedy and many more. I have even considered some kind of merging of two genres such as sci-fi horror, or a romantic comedy. Also the things I have had to consider are how to portray the genre, and which one would be possible to portray in a storyboard. And also I have had to consider budget, as I have limited money to work with in this project.

After much thought, I feel horror might be one of the best to work with.It is quite easy to represent horror through lighting, and while storyboarding, in the text accompanying the image I can talk about sound and how it might affect the scene. E.g a sharp, highpitched tone to signify something shocking.

The narrative tends to be similar in most horrors. The movie might start with people dying or some kind of teaser to the "monster" or basicly what a group of people will face. In most cases the group of people will be killed off one by one as the tension increases, until the climax where either the entity or monster will be deafeated, or it will be left at a point of no resolve where we are to imagine what happens. In most horrors there will be balence restored to the equilibrium however.

Also, in the majority of horrors, there will always be a character who isn't afraid of anything, a character who is paranoid, a character who always screams and a character who sets themself aside from the others, who normally tends to be the films protagonist.

Aims and context- FM1

Hell Revealed

Genre: Phsychological horror
Target Audience: Horror fans who can relate to protagonists ( 15+), possibly non religous due to satantic themes.
Techniques: I will explore editing and cinematography in this sequence.
Sequence:The sequence will be the first scene after the intro sequence and will introduce the protagonist and his friend.