Film Courage: What has to happen in the first 10 minutes of a horror screenplay?
Joston Ramon Theney, Screenwriter, Author, Director, Producer: I think it depends on
the genre and what you're trying to accomplish but I think certainly there should be something
that happens in that first 10 minutes that makes an audience realize Holy crap I'm in for a ride!
Something has to happen in that first 10 minutes that gives you that feeling
and if that doesn't happen I will oftentimes wonder what we're waiting on? That's just like
a friend of mine he gets onto me because he's way bigger film and TV buff than I am and
he always says to me like Oh you stopped watching the tv show too soon. It got
really good on the fifth episode and I'm like Then why did they wait into the fifth episode?
Do it from the beginning. I do this for a living, you can do it
from the beginning I think it works the same way with horror films if in the first 10
minutes you've you've not told the audience what kind of ride they're on then you in my
book you haven't succeeded in my book you're setting yourself up to fail so in the first 10
minutes give them something give them something to realize holy crap something's about to go down
so it doesn't necessarily have to be a gory scene it's just maybe a sense of mystery a sense of
something ominous that's looming yeah I just I mean give them some that's why I say depends on
the type of film that it is because there can be it can be a film that is going to make you feel so
uncomfortable so they give you something at the beginning to let you know like what's happening
or what the stakes are or something something that really pulls you in and lets you know like
I really need to keep watching this film if you haven't given them the hook like what's gonna
pull them in I don't I don't know what you're doing really and that goes really not even
just for for horror films but films in general I think you should give somebody some indication of
of what kind of ride they're on is it going to be the the Disney teacups that spin around is it
going to be you know space mountain what kind of ride are we on you know so with 70s and 80s horror
you think we took our time really making it a little more eerie a little more suspenseful
I think people cared more there is
there's this thing that happens when you shoot film where everybody goes hey this is serious
you know and I feel that's lost now I feel like people say you know if we don't get it right
we'll get it again we'll do it again and we'll do it again we'll do it again nobody takes it
really is serious but even right now if you tell somebody we're shooting 35 millimeter
film and you show up and you plop down the film camera everybody goes hey hey this is serious
and everybody starts taking way more I don't know what it is about a film camera that makes
everything more serious but it does and I think back then that was all you had
you only had film it was just what kind of film are you gonna shoot with but you only had film
and so everybody took everything very serious and and then two if you were a small production you
had a limited amount of film most of the time you were shooting with a bunch of short ends whatever
it was very serious and it was very well thought out and nothing was shot in an extraneous sense
nothing was shot just in case everything was shot with a purpose and uh you know I think
we're missing that today is that why you love the 80s horror genre oh I love it for so many reasons
but that's one of them that's one of them um I certainly I felt there was a magic in the 80s
you know I felt I mean it came in at the late 70s as well but but there was just a certain magic
with the 80s and the way the films entertained while still taking it all very seriously
and and still really focusing on on the creative and technical aspects but just
really putting that production value out there making it feel magical making it feel special um
I feel like that's that's something that I i've carried with me in in all of my films trying to
make something special always even when it's a shoestring budget i've tried to find some sort
of way are there five 80s horror films or late 70s horror films that you think every horror
filmmaker should watch like you know Salem's Lot or or you know any of these Stephen King um I mean
my favorite is one that you know when people hear it they kind of go what is that but evil
dead trap I think everybody should see that I want to say it was I don't know when that one
came out I know it was in the mid to late 80s and it is a completely insane horror film from japan
and it was at a time when those movies were banned especially ones that were
this that depicted violence and gore to this extent I mean this guy went hard core okay
and I remember seeing that in where did I see that film I don't even know where I saw it
it's such such a rare film I forget where I saw it but I fell in love with it immediately and
i've watched it I don't know how many times I had to buy it and the only way you could buy
it in the u.s was part of a a big pack of films where it was evil dead trap because that's the
only one I really really watch and then it was another one called like entrails of a virgin
oh yeah yeah um it's just they're so bizarre but yet you could tell when the film is made
it's made with love this guy loved the genre he loved this was before gore gross out was a thing
before you know gore it was you know people think about like the mutilator that movie
and which not a great movie but the thing about it was was you know it had some decent gore and
the positions that they put people in even when they didn't show it when it was just implied
you were like ah you know um but nobody had taken it to the extent that this guy did
you know I think his name is was it toshi toshiharu ikeda is his name and uh the visuals
of that movie are just so disturbing um but I look at that film as being my top horror film
uh ones that influenced me yes now if you start getting into others that people should see
do you mean like top hard top just films in general just because it just seemed like there
was a creepiness factor that really took time to build yeah and and I really love that of the
that era not so much the gore yeah absolutely this one had this one had the gore came in much
later but it did have the creepy effect speaking of evil dead trap it did it if you haven't seen
it please see it it's I endorse this film okay my name is josten yes and I approve this message um
now if you're if you're moving away from that you have to like right next to that put halloween
the original halloween now that one is not 80s that one's late 70s I think that's like 78 or 79.
um but that's what I meant by late 70s early 80s you know that time period so I would definitely
put halloween on that list I think they they got busy quick they let you knew let they let you
know what type of movie you were in uh they had a summer camp feel but in someone's house which
was pretty easy I mean pretty interesting I really loved that about the film um I think he took his
time and he didn't try to rush anything in the film but you understood in that first 10 minutes
what kind of movie you were watching it wasn't a mystery it wasn't a mystery um I think once you
once you leave that one I want to I want to stay more in the more accessible range so I would say
if I if I'm going with what's more accessible I would then lean towards
your uh your hell razors I think hellraiser was very creative for his time um I don't think
anybody really kind of got into that aspect yet of making your making who would normally be a villain
kind of an anti-hero so I thought that was pretty cool that was pretty clever
um and from there I jump into to your your jason's and your freddy krueger's
yeah what about the use I don't know if this would be horror tropes but you know let's say the
the late night phone call and no one's there yeah like what what are some of the things
that are just tried and true that they always work it doesn't matter what year this is just
it just builds an intrigue um I think that shot from behind when a person is walking through a
house and the camera is drifting behind them and they stop and the camera's slowly getting closer
okay because you're like oh my god what's gonna happen you know I think that always works
and that never gets old and nobody ever says why you know that's tired nobody ever says that
because it's just the movement of a camera I think once you get into actions that's where it gets
you know kind of tropey I think when you get into the late night phone call I think when you get
into the um oh my gosh it's so hot let me take my clothes off and then you see the hand reach
in and take the clothes away and it's like oh that's not the killer that's their friend you
know it's just like oh come on you know like a lot of those things I think they get really tropey but
I think the the camera tricks are the things that don't get old I don't like the jumpy things
I don't really like those so much those are boring to me mainly because I don't jump but um I like to
be creeped out I like to end the movie and like go should I turn off the light you know yeah I want
that feeling you know um but I think the whole camera moving behind someone I love rosemary's
baby when the camera kind of shifts a little and you're constantly thinking something's about to
happen to her just because the camera moved a little I like little subtle things like that
I think those are still very effective they'll never go away
should something scary happen on page one of a horror film or is it better to wait a little bit
if it fits the story it's all about what fits the story
and what story you're trying to tell if um if you get right to it on page one hey bravo
I hope that you don't take your foot off the gas cause now you've built up expectation because I
think you said in the last question that halloween they let you know fairly quickly what was going on
is that something that did they maintain it it's been a while sorry so
oh yeah but but mainly because halloween wasn't it wasn't a story about a guy in a mask
who was just killing people at random like that wasn't the story
um it was a story of evil and evil started young and this kid was full of evil and so
as he when he grew up and he came home it was like what is this guy going to do now you know and he
was stalking jamie lee's curtis character and you always knew it was that it was that
that sense of did you ever see uh what was that movie uh it follows and it was you know the girl
has sex with the guy and then the evil spirit starts following her and if it catches her it'll
kill her that sort of thing right so the thing about it was it moved slow but it was always
present and it was always closing in so even if it was far behind you knew you had to stay that much
ahead of it right you knew in this movie jamie lee curtis didn't know only the audience knew
that he was closing in on her he's getting closer and closer and close and that's where the dread
came from that's why in the beginning of the film when we see him as a kid and we see him like he's
actually going about murdering you know his sister and the sister's boyfriend and all that stuff
it was the build up of this evil that was inside this kid and he slowly worked his way up to that
in those first 10 minutes right and then he grew up and now you're watching it play out as an adult
so he he built he set the tone for what the rest of the film was going to be and he didn't really
let up all he did was give you someone to care about in jamie lee curtis's character laurie
strode he gave you somebody to care about and then he said now watch me butcher her
and then you were like you were so worried about it you were like please
run he's right there you know and I think he did that very very well sure and it would be the same
I guess in the exorcist as well even though the character wasn't stalking her it was inside of
her and she couldn't she couldn't get it out she couldn't stop it yeah you set the tone very early
with that one I mean they said an eerie tone uh when they were digging up they're excavating
the thing and it was it just felt weird the musical cues the zooms all of it felt weird
all of it felt very very weird and they kept that feeling throughout it just kept you off balance
it kept you really off balance it made your skin crawl a little bit right yeah it was great.