Six Horrifying Horror Filmmaking Pointers

1. Create tension
The purpose of horror filmmaking is to evoke dread and make viewers laugh uncontrollably. "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it," as the famous horror filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock famously remarked. Although jump scares have been popular in recent years, the true trick to making a great horror film is to take your time creating suspense and tension. When the viewer is more aware of or suspicious than the characters, suspense is created.

Consider this: A eerie mansion serves as the setting for the scary movie we're watching. After the villain sets a lethal trap, we watch the main people frantically attempting to escape the house by racing through dim hallways. We know they are heading toward the trap, even though they believe they are running toward freedom. As the characters approach the trap, we watch this scene on the edge of our seats, but as soon as they do and the villain leaps out at them, the scary part is over and we can resume our comfortable chairs.

Advice on Creating Suspense in Your Horror Film:
Use jump scares sparingly because they lose their impact with repeated use.
Give your characters challenges and something to contend with throughout the scene. For instance, give them a handful of keys and ask them to attempt unlocking a door. If none of them fit, they dump the keys all on the floor and have to start over.

2. Develop characters with depth
As filmmakers, we want the viewer to care about the characters' fates and to be cheering them on. Even when the characters in scary and horror movies go through horrible things, the viewer won't care if we don't take the effort to make them seem real and three-dimensional.

Character development advice: Well-developed characters should be engaging, have both strong and weak points, and not be overly ideal.
Every action they take in the field should have a purpose. Do we know why they behave that way? Or is it merely to advance the story? If so, alter it. Give them a reason to act in that way because it is consistent with their character.
For your horror film, create a profile for every character. Enumerate their personal characteristics, interests, dislikes, and significant life events. You'll get a true sense of their personality from this.

3. Keep the monster hidden!
Every horror film features a monster of some sort, a malevolent entity that hunts down and harms the main characters. It might be an actual monster, such as a werewolf, a shark, a supernatural entity, or a person with a mask and a weapen.The longer we keep the entire monster off screen, the longer the audience will be terrified of it, even if we spend a lot of time creating the monster's makeup and outfit to make it genuinely terrifying. The notion of the monster will always be more terrifying than actually seeing one on film since viewers will fill in the blanks with their own imaginations when they are merely shown a peek of it. When creating your own horror film, look for methods to imply the audience's danger without actually displaying the monster.

Advice on Creating Monsters in Horror Films: Always have a monster in the frame.
Advice for Creating Monsters in Horror Films: Make sure the monster is hidden by objects wherever possible. For instance, if the monster is seen looking behind a tree, branches and leaves may block out the image.
To only display a portion of the monster, use close-ups or extremely close-ups.
To display the monster's shape without displaying the entire thing, use shadows.
Make use of other characters' reaction shots to convey the monster's scary nature.

4. Conversation, conversation, conversation!
Despite being one of the simplest and least expensive aspects of a movie set to fix, bad speech frequently detracts from scary movies. The viewer can learn a lot from a character's words.It's crucial to invest time in crafting unique and captivating conversation for every character. Making your characters and conversation believable will make us care more while we watch a horror film, even though it's simple to concentrate on all the scares.

Advice on Crafting Powerful Dialogue:
Pay attention to the conversations going on around you. What terms do they use? To say the same thing, would you have used different ones?
Read your dialogue aloud or have a friend assist you when you've finished writing it. Is that a natural sound? Are there any awkward-sounding words or sentences?
Does what the characters are saying sound like what they would say if they were speaking? Return to to learn more about your character profiles.
Keep in mind that this is a horror film: you are placing your characters in dire circumstances where they can be pressed for time or in grave peril. Think about their normal conversation; how may it alter given their current circumstances?

5. Show affection for your adversary
A character in a movie who is driven to oppose the protagonist and sow discord is known as an antagonist. Voldemort from the Harry Potter movies is a fantastic example of an antagonist. The monster is the adversary of a horror film. You should give them some thought, but perhaps expecting you to love the monster is asking too much. Every character in a story thinks they are the hero,Not one of them believes they are the bad guy. Characters have a purpose for their terrible deeds; they don't just commit them for fun. What is causing your monster to act evilly? What are they seeking? What drives them?

Advice on How to Write a Likeable Antagonist:
See if you can determine the monster's motivation by watching previous scary movies.
Give your creature a backstory; it doesn't have to be lengthy; notes will do. Consider their existence before to the commencement of your horror film; what significant events shaped them into the people they are today? What are they seeking?

6. Unsettling Soundscape
A horror film's sound design has a significant role in its level of fright. Sound design may need to put in a little more effort than in other genres when creating horror films because it establishes the mood and atmosphere. Consider viewing a situation in which a character is evading a monster. Would it be frightening to see that scene with cheerful, optimistic music playing over it? Picture that sight once more, but with the sound effect of a rapidly beating heart over it. Much more terrifying. Consider adding sound effects to your scene to make it more eerie as you arrange it. These noises can be played softly and subtly to evoke anxiety in the audience.

Advice for Using Sound in Horror Filmmaking: Think about making a subdued soundscape just for your monster to play whenever they appear on screen. This is a great theme to use if you aren't displaying your monster.
Making your own sound effects (known as a foley artist in the film industry) could give your movie a spooky sound design.