Genre and narrative

 The Genre: I have found great fascination in psychological thrillers and find the techniques and themes explored intriguing. Psychological thrillers I have watched which inspired me to create my own consist of, 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane' by Robert Aldrich, 'Psycho' by Alfred Hitchcock, 'Mulholland Drive' by David Lynch, 'Clockwork Orange' by Stanley Kubrick, 'Shutter Island' by Martin Scorsese, 'Fight Club' by David Fincher, 'Men' by Alex Garland, 'Midsommar' by Ari Aster, 'The Shining' by Stanley Kubrick and 'Donnie Darko' by Richard Kelly. I also feel this fascination with the exploring the mind links to my other subject Psychology and is something I explore a lot in my art, usually in painting.

Narrative: (read proposal for more in depth explanation of the plot and three act structure)

I want to create a Psychological Thriller which, while incorporating cross cutting between two parallel narratives and an open ending, still conforms roughly to the three-act structure. The story will be told to us through a monologue by Girl 1, who is the only person who speaks in the film. We later discover that she is an unreliable narrator, and we are not sure who we can believe. 

I aim to subvert the audience's expectations of film tropes. From the beginning we are shown the characters as fitting these normal tropes with Girl 1 as the protagonist, Dorothy as the 'princess' (friend in this instance) and Mother as the Villain. However, after the twist our views of these characters change, and we cannot be sure who to trust. I also aim to explore the idea of subjectivity. In the end, there is a second twist/ ambiguous ending when the doll turns. I want the end of the film to leave the audience with a chill as it subverts their understanding of the plot and the characters.

The beginning will introduce us to 'Mother'. It will have a sinister, tense atmosphere as we are only shown close ups of her as she drives. The slow start will cause us to wonder who she is and where she is going. It immediately lets us know that there is something possibly disturbing lurking around the corner. 

The middle will include our introduction to the two girls and then the build-up to 'Mother's' arrival. The escalation in tension as Mother gets closer will be done with cut back and forth between the two girls and mother getting closer and closer, and by Dorothy saying how mad her mother is and portraying her with sinister undertones. This will be shown as she walks through the block of flat doors, goes up the lift, walks across the landing then the balcony and rings the buzzer. During this act will be the subtle hints to girl 2 being a doll and will be entirely a monologue from girl 1.

The end will be the twist, which will act as the climax, in which we realise that Dorothy is just a doll after Mother walks through the door and we are shown Dorothy from a different perspective, as a mannequin who looks disturbingly similar to her. This will be the moment the audience realise that Girl 1 is an unreliable narrator. However, there will be a second twist, in which the dolls head turns to follow mother and the ending is ambiguous. We do not know who to believe or which perspective of Dorothy is the correct one.