"Just tell the story"

"Just tell the story." He said knowingly.
"But -- " I started...
He interrupted by capturing me with those lovely brown eyes of his.
...
You ever had anyone do that to you? Ever had an actor you think is sexy capture you with his eyes? Ever had Bruce Campbell do that to you? It's a pretty amazing experience.


Sorry, felt in need of a writing-related gloat. My insecurities must be playing up today.

The reason I bring it up, is, I think in the last few days I stumbled on to a key bit of wisdom. Something just clicked as I've been plotting a rewrite. It's about the writing process - and the bitch of it is, I have no idea where to start explaining it using words.
Pretty poor show for a wordsmith.

It is to do with getting emotion on to the page during the treatment / outline stage ... or, if you are into cards pinned to a board, then.

And it all links back to "Just tell the story".

SCENE A) informs how we feel about a character, what we know they have just experienced, SCENE B) builds on SCENE A, so you don't have to explain exactly what's going on - because the audience can see the image in SCENE B and make a reasonable guess about what is going on emotionally with the character.

In this instance, in SCENE A someone is tense, scared, has been messing with supernatural powers that they shouldn't have, it all reaches a crisis point ... SCENE B we see them again, in the same location, relaxed, character smiles gently - - and we know they have very likely been possessed. ... But we don't need to show the possession, and we don't need to explain in the action line that the character has been possessed - because we don't want the audience to know for sure, until a bit later in the story when it becomes really obvious that that's what is going on.

Again it's to do with the off screen story. In this case the villain's.

See, I've not explained it very well.

But I have finally grokked it. I knew this stuff before, but I didn't grok it. And now I do.

I wanted to share it with you.

If I can work out how to explain it any better than this, I'll post again later on.

Want a good scare?

Go see Drag Me To Hell.

...N'ah it's by that Spider-Man bloke... ...and it's PG-13**...

You are a died in the wool horror fan? Yes?
You loved Saw.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (the original) made you shudder delightfully.
In short you like a bit of sickness with your horror-high.

If you don't already know about Sam Raimi's horror chops, I guess you've never seen the Evil Dead films. Shame on you!
(If Evil Dead II changed your life, this is better!)

Next thing you'll be telling me you haven't seen Peter Jackson's early work. *rolls eyes*

Go educate yourself. How can you call yourself a horror fan if you don't know about Sam Raimi?

Drag Me To Hell is one of those films that is packed with scare. Ignore the teen friendly rating, it means nothing. This film made me terrified of a handkerchief for Dog's sake!

It will make you jump - a lot. It will gross you out - yes, even you! You too will be scared of a humble piece of cloth with some nice embroidery on it. It will make you laugh in that sort of "Oh my god that's sick!" kind of way. There are some satisfying visual references to other horror films - - who can forget that house? And generally you'll spend most of the film about a foot above the seat of your chair* - which lets face it, you don't really want to be sitting on anyway because you spilled your coke all over it in the first few minutes, and then accidentally dumped the popcorn on it a few seconds after that.

Okay, so you take my advice, you go to the cinema, get comfy, the film starts, introductory scene shows promise of what's to come, and then it goes to the meet the characters section and for about 5 minutes you are wondering why you came to watch this boring ass film ... that Eleanor doesn't know what the f**k she's talking about.

But don't leave.

Trust me on this.

As soon as the gypsy turns up - and then the action kicks in in the car park, you (like me and my friend) will not be able to take a toilet break (despite a serious need to relieve yourself from drinking too much coke before the film started) for fear of missing something.

I haven't nearly wet myself in the cinema for so many years! Sam Raimi really is the master.

Go see it.

The cinema was half empty when I went on Saturday night to the 7pm showing. I couldn't believe it. Get the word out. This is a film all horror fans need to see!
It uses old school horror methods to grab you by the throat and give you heart-attack after heart-attack, and as a result it gets the teen rating - despite being a film I wouldn't let any teen** in my care go and see. :) Nice one Sam.

*jumping in shock and terror!
**PG-13? They're nuts!!!

TERROR RATING: 9.8
(Most films are lucky to get 7.# from me. I almost never give out scores like this. Films that have rated 8.0+? I can count them on 1 hand.)