Page 208 - Student: dazed And Confused

connected with the audience - and the studio accountants :the
skeleton-masked killer(s) from Scream. The spooky little girl from
The Ring. And that sadistic but oddly playful killer from the Saw
movies. Each villain brings something new and different to the
horror movie canon.'
(Deneen, 2007, p215)

The Exorcist was of a movement where the antagonists of the piece were manifestations of

evil and nothing truly tangible. But a demon called Pazazu who masquerades as an

imaginary friend (IMDB) led me to a thought. The villains in Stormed have only been seen in
snatches so far. They breathe and leave their scratches everywhere. But, on close reading,

at least one of the villains is closer than the lead characters think.

At the forefront of this story is the Shaw family. The two leads are the twins; one of them is

falling in love and the other is struggling with her own young family. These are things mass

audiences can see parts of themselves in. Family bonds are what I chose to play on in

Stormed and probably would have whether the industry was taking that path or not. This
connection of blood and name makes what happens to them that much more painful to

watch. People understand love and lust, shared memory, sacrifice and protection, fear of

the unknown, the odd relief that something terrible is happening to someone else.
Familiarity is what will make my reader and viewer care - they know these characters, they

share some of their personality traits. Investing 90 minutes in these characters and their

story before having these new friends torn away agonisingly and unstoppably will leave a

lasting memory.

The beginning of Stormed, at least, occurs in relative normality with the same problems and

discussions we all have.

FELIX
You nearly done back there?
(BEAT)
No-one expects perfection when you've got a
5 year old.

LEE
Felix, I am not walking round smelling of baby
sick like some tramp.
(Maddocks, 2009, p9)