Obsessive Behaviour and Stalking Research

In our film opening, our protagonist is a killer who stalks her victims and shows obsessive traits in her personality. To ensure that the portrayal of this character is accurate and also effective, I researched obsessive and stalking behaviour. These are some points that I thought would be relevant to the antagonist's character:

• Obsession is defined as: 'Intrusive, repetitive thoughts, images or impulses that are unacceptable and/or unwanted'.
• Some psychologists believe that obsessions are caused by misinterpretations of the significance of a person's intrusive thoughts.
• Obsessions can be linked to anxiety disorders, e.g. obsessive compulsive disorder.
• Obsessive behaviour can be stimulated by aversive emotions like fear or disgust which leads to avoidance behaviour.
• Generally most people with obsessional traits are more socially conforming and less likely to take risks than the average person.
• Many people who behave obsessively often have a 'perfectionist' personality trait wherein they feel the need to get everything right.
• Stalkers can be classified into psychotic and non psychotic stalkers.
• Psychotic stalkers may have suffered from psychotic disorders previously such as delusional disorder or schizophrenia.
• Female stalkers often target other women while male stalkers are equally as like to stalk other men as as they are to stalk women.
• There are 5 types of stalkers:

1. Rejected stalkers
2. Resentful stalkers
3. Intimacy seekers
4. Incompetent suitors
5. Predatory stalkers

• Predatory stalkers do not want a relationship with their victims but seek to control them through assault (physically and/or sexually).
• Stalking is a behaviour that can be present in people with mental disorders, but is not an actual mental disorder itself.

All of this information is useful because it is relevant to the characteristics we have already decided our antagonist will have, which include:

• Being a predatory stalker
• Classified as a psychotic stalker
• Behaviour stimulated by averse emotions of disgust of her own appearance and fear of being ugly and old

Minor Production Companies Research

Dark Castle Entertainment
DCE is a production house formed in 1999 with associations with Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures. Its primary focus when it was first formed was to recreate William Castle's horror films, but began creating original films after two remakes, and also produced films from other genres from 2008 onwards. The most recent horror films produced by DCE are:

• The Apparition (supernatural) 
• The Hills Run Red (slasher)
• Orphan (psychological)
• The Reaping (supernatural)
• Return to House on Haunted Hill (supernatural)

Twisted Pictures
Twisted Pictures is an American independent production company that specialises in producing horror films. It was founded in 2004 after the success of the first 'Saw' film and has since then become well known for producing the films in the 'Saw' franchise. Other horror films recently distributed by Twisted Pictures are:

• Texas Chainsaw 3D (slasher)
• Chain Letter (slasher)
• Mother's Day (psychological)
• Dead Silence (supernatural/slasher)

Platinum Dunes

Like Dark Castle Entertainment, Platinum Dunes specialises in horror films (particularly remakes). Founded in 2001 in Los Angeles, Platinum Dunes entered a first look deal with Paramount Pictures and since then has worked with Paramount on projects such as 'The Butcherhouse Chronicles' and the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' reboot. Most recent horror films produced by Platinum Dunes are:

• The Purge (horror/thriller)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (slasher)
• The Unborn (supernatural)
• Friday the 13th (slasher)
• The Hitcher (horror/thriller)

Haxan Films

Haxan Films is an independent American production company headquartered in Florida. It is most well known for producing the famous horror film 'The Blair Witch Project', one of the most successful and critically acclaimed independent films of all time. Haxan Film's most recent releases are:

• Lovely Molly (supernatural)
• Seventh Moon (supernatural)
• Altered (creature feature/science fiction)

This research is useful to the group as we need to include a production company in the opening credits of our film opening. We can use this research to decide which company we think is suitable for our genre (psychological horror) and so improve the quality of our opening by making it look more professional.

Film Title Survey Results

Results.

We sent out a survey at the beginning of the week and have gained 27 responses from our target audience of people within the ages of 15 to 22 years of age.

Our survey came back with the most votes going to The Blood Runs Thick, the second favourite was Young Blood and the third most popular was The Donors. As a group we will have to discuss our film's title and we will take into account what our audience think is the most effective title for our film opening.

Even though they did vote for the blood runs thick this may not be agreed within our group as the best title for our film opening as we know what will be going into our sequence, but we will still take into account what our audience thinks when deciding on our final title.

As a group we are not happy with the majority of the titles that are on the survey. We are going to have to re-think our film opening's title and maybe come up with some more to choose from as we do not feel that as a group these film titles would be appropriate for our opening and also we believe that we could come up with some more that would suit our opening better.

Production Company survey

  We have created two ideas for our Production Company's title at the beginning of our opening sequence.
  To choose between the two options, we created a survey.

• First of all, we explained why we are making the survey and what it is for, to ensure that the people answering the question will pick the option that is best for our psychological horror film.

• In the question, we included the URLs of the clips.
• We also included the option to use both clips.

  We aim to collect 30+ responses to have a clear idea of what is preferred.

Production Companies Research

For my research I looked at notable film production companies that had released recent horror films.




Lionsgate Films is a production studio owned by Lionsgate Entertainment Corporation, a North American entertainment company that was founded in 1997. Lionsgate is the largest independent studio in North America as well as being the most commercially successful. Some of the most recent horror films Lionsgate distributed are:

• The Cabin in the Woods (psychological)
• The Last Exorcism (supernatural)
• Texas Chainsaw 3D (slasher)
• You're Next (slasher)
• My Bloody Valentine (slasher)
• The Saw series (slasher)

Paramount Pictures is another North American studio that produces films and television series. It is notable for distributing successful film series of many genres ranging from family films such as 'Shrek' to horrors such as the Friday the 13th franchise. Some recent horror films that Paramount have produced include:

• Shutter's Island (psychological)
• Paranormal Activity (supernatural)
• Friday the 13th (slasher)
• The Ruins (psychological)

Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. is an American film studio that produces films, television series and music. It is a major production studio and has several subsidiary companies, a notable one being New Line Cinema. Some horrors it recently produced are:

• The Conjuring (supernatural)
• The Apparition (supernatural)
• Orphan (psychological)
• Chernobyl Diaries ('creature feature')
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (slasher)

New Line Cinema is an American film company that as of 2008 is merged with Warner Brothers and is also a subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting and Time Warner. New Line co produced The Conjuring and A Nightmare on Elm Street with Warner Brothers and also distributed Friday the 13th alongside Paramount Pictures. The studio's last solo distribution of a horror film was Final Destination.

Summit Entertainment LLC is an American film studio with international offices in London. This studio is a subsidiary of Lionsgate and is known for distributing successful franchises such as American Pie and Twilight. Recent horror films produced by Summit are:

• Wrong Turn franchise (slasher)
• Sinister (supernatural)
• Sorority Row (slasher)

Film Classification Age Ratings

U

Universal (4+)

Very mild violence, language

No behaviour that may have a bad influence on a child is included

PG

Parental Guidance (universal, with the need for a parent's consent)

Some foul language included, mild violence

12A

12 and above

Foul language, sexual themes and moderate violence can be included

15

15 and above

Strong violence, foul language, sexual themes, nudity, drugs and discriminatory behaviour can be included

18

18 and above

Very strong violence, sexual violence, sexual themes, blood, gore, strong horror, discriminatory behaviour can be included

Character Profiles

Victim.

• 16 year old girl
• modern clothing
• innocent
• long hair

Antagonist.

• face-less
• dark, unisex clothing
• unknown identity
• ambiguous age

Survey Results.

Analysis of Survey Results.

For our survey we received 78 responses from people between the ages of 15 and 22 years of age.
Some of the questions we very clear on what our target audience wanted but with some of the results we didn't agree with the audience.

Question One.

For question one we asked what gender should the killer be in our film opening. It was close between female and unknown gender but unknown gender came out with the most responses. This is what we were thinking of doing for our film opening to create suspicion in the audience to who the killer is but we may also consider the killer showing female characteristics to throw the audience off as also our killer is obsessed with beauty and youth they may be more likely to be female than male.

Question Two.

 The responses for what our killer should wear came back as we were thinking of clothing that will hide their identity to keep the audience thinking of who the killer may be. So we will go through with this result and keep their clothing unisex and big so you cannot see who it is.

Question Three.

The results of the question we asked regarding sound in our film opening came back with the audience wanting eerie music included in the film opening. We were also considering to put sudden noises and metallic sounds into the music as well as what the audience requested to create a more complicated and effective music track that will relate to the film opening.

Question Four.

Question four asked about where the killer's lair should be located and came to a strong result of a basement. Our group will stick to this result as we know of a location in which we can use.

Question Five.

The results of question five told us that our audience would want the killer to use a normal household object such as a knife or hammer. This is what we will go with in our film opening as we were already considering using these types of objects for our killer's weapon.

Question Five.

This question with how the victims should be treated by the killer was quite close between the killer torturing them first and them being alive when the killer cuts them open. This can be an opportunity for us as a group to incorporate both of the popular results to make the opening more appealing to the audience.

Question Seven.

 At first the results came through for this question as suggested deaths but in the end the audience wanted gory and obvious deaths. We were going to include both of these as it will give us an opportunity to use our skills and also not have so much information in the film opening that it will make it look more like a trailer.

Question Eight.

The clear winner of this question was that the audience wanted the killer to keep parts of their victims. We will use this information when creating our film opening to include body parts in the killers lair to keep the audience interested.

Question Nine.

This question coincides with what we were going to do at the end of our film opening of a stalking scene to create a cliff hanger for the audience and from these results we can see that this is exactly what the audience wants. 

Relevent Historical Context

Elizabeth Bathory

We are considering taking inspiration from the life of Elizabeth Bathory, a hungarian countess, when making our psychological horror film.

The 'Blood Countess' or 'Countess Dracula'

Sculpture of Elizabeth from McFarlane's toys

• After her husband's death, there were several accusations that Bathory was torturing and killing hundreds of young girls.
• Her victims were the daughters of local peasants, lured into the castle with offers of well paid work.
• She later began to take the daughters of higher classes as well.

• One of Bathory's accusers claimed the number of murders to be 650.
• This became a key feature of Bathory's legend.
• However, only 80 of these deaths were verified at the time.
• She was imprisoned and remained so till she died.
• She was not put to death on account of her rank.

Anna Darvulia in 'The Countess' (2009)

• Further investigation, whilst she was imprisoned, uncovered evidence that she had been bathing in the blood of these girls.
• It is speculated that she believed that bathing in the blood of virgins would allow her to stay young forever.
• There is not enough evidence remaining to confirm or deny these ideas, though there is record of 300 witnesses supporting the story.
• Furthermore, groups of people were found to have aided Elizabeth in her actions.
• One of the most significant figures was Anna Darvulia, who supposedly influenced Bathory throughout.
• She, however, died before the trial.

Taking inspiration from the figure of Elizabeth Bathory, our psychological horror film will perhaps centre around a psychologically disturbed young woman who is obsessed with the idea of staying young forever.

She practices the methods of Elizabeth Bathory, by stalking other young women and draining their blood before bathing in it.