Writing and analysing a twist

Begins with three friends: Rachel, Jessie and Max beginning their school day and discussing the events of the last few nights that they had heard on the news. There had been a series of missing persons over the last week, every missing person had last been seen around or entering The Moorey woods. They used to play in the woods when they were younger, particularly around the large hammock in the clearing of the woods. They discuss how the local authorities have done nothing to investigate what is going on. Jessie is the most curious about what's going on and suggests that the three of them take a look. Max seems slightly less enthusiastic but agrees. Rachel remains relatively quiet throughout the conversation, avoiding eye contact with her two friends by staring blankly at the floor, but nods occasionally in agreement. They organise to meet in the mid-afternoon outside the woods so they have time to investigate before it gets dark. 

Max and Jessie are at the entrance first, slightly later than the time the three agreed. Rachel is not there. Max and Jessie wait for nearly 3 hours, calling her several times but it goes straight to voicemail each time. The sky begins to slowly turn grey and stretch out into its melancholic expanse, covering the ceiling of the world. Jessie is frustrated and suddenly jumps up off the log she was perched on and strides meaningfully into The Moorey woods. Max is panicky and less keen on going in, especially at this hour, but refuses to let Jessie go in on her own, so follows behind her reluctantly.

They use torches to light the way, hoping to find some sort of clue as to which direction to go in, such as footsteps, but there is nothing. They are about to turn around and go home, when they suddenly hear a voice. It sounds like someone young, perhaps their age. They move towards the voice, and as they get closer, recognise it as Rachel's. She is screaming inaudibly. They begin to run towards the screams as it sounds like she needs help, then they are stopped in their tracks. The screams turn into sirens of madness. And in the clearing, there she is, riling in bloodlust on the floor. It is clear now that her soul has left her body - she is possessed. Fanatically folding her limbs over one-another in a sprawling attempt to gain form. In an act of grotesquerie unlike any other, she coiled round and rose. The audible cracking of sinews and flesh split through the forests once sedated ambience. Max and Jessie turned to each other, a palpable fear coated the air as they ran. 

Her limbs thrust themselves forward, carrying her body behind her and with rapid inhumane elasticity, she begins her chase. The forest became alive with their screams as Max and Jessie ran in an attempt to save what little of their lives they had left. 

She - it - was gaining on them.

With ripping etherial flourish, it coiled round Max's ankle, a crimson display decorated the floor as he was dragged away.

A way in which my film was influenced was through the narrative structure of La Jetee in which there was identical scenery from the childhood of the main character to the end scene of his death. In my film, the three characters had played at the hammock in the clearing of the woods as children - this was the same clearing at which they saw the possessed Rachel, before meeting their fate. Similar cinematography and camera shots would be used at the beginning of the scene when the three friends reflect on their childhood memories in the woods, and at the end when they see Rachel. I would also include a change of lighting - for the childhood reflection the lighting would be quite bright and dreamy, and for the final scene it would be dark and shadowy to create an eerie suspense.                         

Another way in which the twist would be influenced is through the use of a switch of genre, presented to us in the plot twist, in High Maintenance as well as Pitch Black Heist - in both films the genre switches when we are presented with the twist. In Pitch Black Heist we assume it is a Heist/Crime film but it changes to a Drama between a father and son's relationship and the son's sense of revenge. In High Maintenance, it starts off as a drama and then upon the revealing of the characters being robots, transforms into a sci-fi. In my film, we are introduced to what seems like a Mystery story - people going missing and a group of friends aiming to essentially play detective and discover the reason behind the missing people. At the very end we realise this is not the case; it is in fact a horror. This change of genre amplifies the impact of the surprise and increases the feeling of astonishment within the audience. I would use music that is calm and peaceful at the beginning, creating a false sense of security for the audience, then the tone would change as soon as Max and Jessie see the possessed Rachel - the music would become more fast paced and dark. In terms of the cameras, I would maintain a steady and level shot up until the point they enter the woods, at which I would change the camera to hand held, creating a shaky effect especially when the characters run. Also, I would do a close up when Rachel catches up with them and grabs Max, and a shot where the audience sees the POV of Rachel, so just her hand grabbing his ankle and Jessie screaming in the distance. I would also mute the sound at this point, so all the screams are silent, making it more dramatic.

In addition to this, it could also be argued that High Maintenance influenced the film through its use of red herrings and foreshadowing. In High Maintenance, there are the red herrings of the wife's emotional behaviour and both characters smoking and drinking. In my film, it could be argued that the screams of Rachel which sounded like her crying out for help was the red herring, as the audience might have assumed that whoever or whatever was responsible for the previous missing people had found Rachel too. Furthermore, in High Maintenance, there are several instances of foreshadowing - the line, 'mechanical sex' between the original pair foreshadows that they are robots whilst also unhappy in their relationship. The main hint that the main character could be a robot is the repetition of dialogue and behaviours in the second half of the short film, after the first robot is turned off and the new one is delivered. Additionally, the two women who deliver the new robot behave in a somewhat automated way. In my film, it could be interpreted that Rachel's behaviour at the start was suspicious. She is quiet and avoids eye contact between Max and Jessie which has implications of guilt - perhaps she knows something that the two don't. These behaviours foreshadow what they later discover as her possession.