Due to my recent experience as writer and producer of short horror film ‘The Last Supper’ (Thyne, 2022) I will be exploring the following question:
Does having a microbudget inhibit the overall success of a short horror film?
In my approach, I first look at the history of the horror genre as a whole and how trends, concepts and ideas developed over the years- mostly due to extensive technological advancements. Through recognising the past, I was able to create a better understanding of the present, and how modern-day horror films often utilise advanced CGI and SFX to create extremely graphic, brutal images to provide a ‘shock-element’- thus becoming successful with the genre’s cult-like audience who love to test their limits.
Evidently, CGI and SFX is not something readily available for students on a micro-budget, meaning my production team and I had to find other ways to appeal to potential viewers. After reading the likes of ‘The Philosophy of Horror’ (Fahy, 2012), it became clear that many horror films often provide an underlying social commentary. In turn, this can validate/confirm the audience’s feelings, or challenges their thoughts on the matter in hand. Either way, they get people talking. This is in reference to the likes of ‘Get Out’ (Peele, 2017’ and ‘Debt’ (Henrie-Mccrea, 2020)-both of which inspired ‘The Last Supper’ (Thyne, 2022).
In addition to this, I discuss the challenges faced when filming my graduate project and share an analysis of audience responses to varying sub-genres of horror. This allowed me to find what is popular amongst the masses, and how we can distribute it to the correct places (digital platforms and festivals) in order to find success.
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