24/04/2007

Journey into Horror Setting sail with The Ferryman. Written by Nick Ward I'm always at my most comfortable writing comedy. In my own mind I would think of myself as a strange choice to write a horror movie. My shelves don't groan with DVDs of blood and dismemberment - a quick glance reveals Sideways, Field of Dreams, DIG, The Big Lebowski, Batman Begins and (honesty sucks) Finding Nemo. But I suspect somewhere deep inside our psyche comedy and horror are intrinsically linked. After all, there are people who suppress uncontrollable fits of giggles at funerals or accident scenes. We laugh during roller-coaster rides or after that scene in the movie that scares the packed lunch out of us. The best jokes are ones that reveal an uncomfortable truth and have us laughing in spite of ourselves. So, as a writer, this was the journey I took while writing The Ferryman. With comedy somehow we find the part of the brain that instigates laughter. With horror I had to find and locate the dark, dank place where fear dwelled like a coiled spring. I've gone on record as saying every movie must work on the page if it will work on the screen. A comedy should make you laugh when you read it. A thriller should thrill you. A tearjerker should make your eyes prick. And a horror should bloody well scare you! I recently read a script by a very respected writer/director and, I kid you not, the screenplay actually had a passage that read more or less - " this doesn't read very well on the page but when I come to shoot it, it will look amazing". I was furious. If you can't make it work on the page how the hell can you expect anyone to buy into what you¹re doing? The best piece of feedback I got from The Ferryman was from someone who read it and said they couldn't sleep afterwards. That kind of comment assures me that I've done my job properly ­ now it's up to the production team to live up to that promise. As a screenwriter it's our job to set the standard. Which brings me back to my journey. The journey from comedy to horror. I will be the first to admit that the process of writing The Ferryman has been a horror story in its own right and there have also been times when it has been a complete farce. Comedy and horror. But those of you who have been there know that making a New Zealand movie will always come with these conditions so I'm not interested in taking you on that ride. For those of you who have yet to embark completely on that ride, two pieces of advice - one, develop a thick skin and two, what doesn't kill a project only makes it stronger. Yeah, right. Okay, the first lesson I learnt writing this movie was: don't enter into the process of writing a horror flick simply because you know there's a market out there and you¹ll be making a quick buck. If you go into it with that mentality you're already onto a loser. There are no quick bucks in writing films. It's a hard, thankless but wonderful grind. Horror movies, I think, more than any other genre break down the wall between audience and film. They're in there. Their hearts racing. Their arses inching ever closer to the edge of their seats. They scream when the closet door flings open and the killer leaps out. They hide their eyes as the cut-throat razor presses into the wet flesh of a human tongue. For anyone that believes that movies can't move people then I say sit in the back row of a good horror flick and forget the screen - watch the crowd. No audience is more in touch with their genre than a horror audience. What's more, they're a lot smarter than you think and they can spot a fraud a mile off. The audience for horror movies isn't just a bunch of spotty teenage Herberts drooling over chicks in bikinis being hacked to bits. Far from it. They are encyclopaedic in their knowledge of horror movies, they read about them, they discuss them at length and, in many cases, they are evangelical about their favourites. Don't believe me? Go online and type in the title of your favourite movie. These Herberts know their stuff. So you can't fool them. You must sit down with the intention of writing an intelligent horror movie that offers something new. So how do you write good horror movie? Well as far as The Ferryman goes time will tell whether it's a good horror movie, but I will tell you how I wrote a script that scared a lot of people and helped generate the funding and the inspiration to make this movie happen. There was a defining moment during the writing process for me, a moment that made the script come alive and showed me the joys that exist in writing for this genre. The script was in good shape and was humming along in the places it was supposed to. The scares were there and a few laughs into the bargain (I couldn't help myself). Then the producer - Matthew Metcalf - came to me and said that while he liked the script he felt something was missing. Now, Matthew was a dream producer on this job. He knew what he wanted from it but he also gave me all the room I needed to write a good solid script. The thing that Matt felt was missing was "The Scene". All great horror movies have that one scene that stays with you well after you leave the theatre. The scene with the tree in the first Evil Dead. The bloody sex scene in Cabin Fever. You know the scene don't you? The sick twisted moment when you see something on screen that horrifies you on more levels than you care to admit. The one that critics hint at in their reviews. That scene. Well Matt was right. We didn't have "that scene" and for good reason. While I was writing an idea occurred to me that I quickly dismissed because I was worried about how people would perceive me if I committed it to paper. Out of pride I self-censored myself. So when Matt asked me what ideas I might have for "that scene" I told him the idea I'd thrown away. The minute I voiced it I knew it was right and so did Matt. A sick, twisted moment that would burn itself into the minds of the viewer. Something dark that I had foolishly discarded because I forgot that I was writing a horror movie and - as such - I was allowed to be horrifying. In fact that was my job. This is the secret to writing a horror movie. It's having the guts to go there. To explore the dark parts of ourselves that we refuse to admit exist. We should be scared when we write, and with any luck that will ensure that what are writing is imbued with fear. We have to be scared when we write and we have to hand on that fear to the reader. In doing so, we will put that most elusive quality into our work - the truth. You see the truth not only hurts it scares the shit out of us as well. In doing this we will naturally create a screenplay that is both intelligent and engaging and will still stay true to what its audience expects of it. When we write comedy we're rarely worried about being too funny. The same - I have discovered - is true of horror: never be too scared to be too frightening.