not scary
Reviews for "Thanks - Halloween Short"
See now-- The problem here is that you just don't know anything about psychology of horror. Like what AnimeTeam below me said, you kind of need a distraction in order to nail a jump scare. If I was already staring there, it wouldn't really be any more scary if something jumped RIGHT WHERE I WAS LOOKING. That would just mean "I was correct" and then you only end up startling me.
What you want is MAXIMUM SCARE FACTOR.
"How do I do this?" You may ask. It's fairly simple.
1) Isolation
You know that pretty little voice you have narrating the story? Yeah, no. That's got to go. I was not scared at any point during the duration of this short film because of the incredibly calm voice that followed me throughout. It was constant. There were no breaks or changes. It was just that voice. All the time. ALL THE TIME.
If your mission was to go down in some creepy strangers basement and fetch him his... toy or something, I don't know... would you rather go in the basement alone? Or would you bring a friend? You'd bring a friend, right? That would make it less scary, having your back covered, and all.
2) Familiarity
First time: It's scary.
Second time: It's scary.
Third time: It's scary, but you're getting used to it.
Millionth time: Fuck off.
I've already seen your Slendermans and your Jeff the Killers. Just stop using that stuff altogether. Come up with something new, for God's sake.
3) Tricks n' shit
If your setting up for a scare, practice it on yourself. Showing an image of something SLIGHTLY scary and having a loud scream really doesn't cut it these days. That's why you have to delve into the minds of the viewers. A really good (and classic) example of horror psychology is "The Maze" game. The game required you to focus with the utmost patience as you navigate a tiny dot through an incredibly narrow maze. If you "dun' fucked up" you were greeted by a grotesque image of the little lady from the exorcist.
The trick there was the FOCUS. You have to make the subject COMPLETELY DISTRACTED on something else, then go in for the kill. There's tons of examples like this on the web... even on YouTube. "Follow The Car" is a great example!
So, next time you make something in the horror genre, make sure to actually know what you're doing before you go in all willy-nilly and stick in a whole bunch of easily identifiable characters.
loved this! keep it up!
Awesome!
Eh... I don't know why people always add Slender Man as a scary dude. I think people fake the scare of it. You know; the generation click type of thang. It was an okay attempt trying to scare you with the jump scare, but you gotta realize that it should be done at the right time. Many people use it, so it's kinda hard to make the perfect jump scare. To make a successful jump scare, you gotta distract people with something, thus making them unexpected of the scare. So... making them focus on the hand, the audience will predict the scare. The narration kinda ruined it for me, too. This should have been a creative animation(maybe no sound.) Let the illustration tell the story, that's what this would fit with :D Other than that, I see no reason for this to be a Daily 3rd Place.