10 Golden Rules For Making The Perfect Horror Movie
8. Establish The Rules Of The Game
It's been said many times before: Horror, more than any other genre (save perhaps comedy) is like a game between the audience and the filmmaker.
The audience wants to be scared, but also wants to be able to chuckle and say "I saw that jump scare coming" or "that person was an idiot for doing that". We come ready to be vulnerable, but also with our toughest armour on to defend against the easy moves. The truly successful Horror filmmakers take this premise as a tool to build the most effective scares they can.
Take John Carpenter's The Thing, for instance: The scene is set, and we have a shape-shifting creature somewhere within an arctic research station with a handful of protagonists. Any one of them could be the Thing. Every scare the film builds is based on this premise.
The thing is completely amorphous, but we never see it transform into a computer or a desk lamp, because that would break the rules of the game. The audience does not know where the Thing will show up next, but we know everywhere it could show up, and that makes all the difference. We are shocked and scared when it appears, but we never feel cheated.
The main way to get around audience skepticism in this genre is to present us with all the tools we'll be scared with, then use them in ways we do not expect. It's like the rule of Chekhov's gun. Or in this case, Chekhov's... creature from outer space.