Treatment & Influences

The Cabin is a horror film that follows the central protagonist and her boyfriend as they go and venture to find this log cabin in the forest to go and stay at. The two characters start by driving towards the forest where the university owned log cabin is. The male character, Aaron, is a university lecturer that is studying the area around the cabin. As the location was a war training ground, Aaron is studying the land to discover the history behind it. The two characters then pull into a lay by where they park up, and get ready to set off towards the cabin. As they walk through the forest, things start to go wrong, their only phone dies, no directions, and so on. When the eventually reach the cabin, they come to realise that the university owned cabin is smashed up, as some one has vandalised it. They then have to sleep in a vandalised cabin as it is too far to walk from the lay by as they are in the middle of no-where. Jess the central protagonist, then need the toilet so she has to go out side which is when the stalker is revealed.

This film could be compared to: Cabin in the woods (2012, Drew Goddard); and Cabin Fever (2002, Travis Zariwy)

Cabin fever had a quite a small budget compared to other films of $1,500,000 and a gross of $8,633,585 in the opening weekend, and $21,000,000 overall. Therefore making almost 15 times it budget. This shows there is a market for these types of film.
A more modern film Cabin in the woods, had a budget of $30,000,000 and a domestic gross of $42,000,000 therefore not making quite as much as cabin fever but still making money.

The film then continues, where Jess the runs back to the cabin where Aaron is, scared of the whole situation. When they go to investigate, Aaron does not see anything and thinks she is going mad, as he does not believe her. She then has to survive a night knowing that she saw a stalker in the forest that they are sleeping in. The next morning the two both go back to the car, as they were unprepared for the situation. They end up getting lost on the journey towards the car, and end up going in completely in the opposite direction. Further and further into the woods, in the middle of no where. When they realize that they are on the wrong track that does not lead back to the car, they are so disorientated, as the forest all looks the same. The story then progresses of them trying to reach civilization, with no phone, and the risk of the stalkers that lurks in the forest.

Location is an important one for the film as it has to be believable that it is in the middle of nowhere, in a remote area, where there is endless opportunities of filming in different parts of the forest. The location will have to make the viewer feel that they are nowhere near civilisation with only a road that goes near the edge of the forest.

Budgets of other films over the past decade have varied. For example Cabin in the woods had a high budget of $30 million where as Cabin fever had a lower budget of $1.5 million. Since the location is quite remote, and the whole film stays in one place, cost of location will not cost that much, just getting permission from land owners, will be the issue. Since the film requires the villain to be a stalker, an actor and make-up will do the job, therefore, there will be minimal special effects in the film. Things like actors will probably cost the most of the film as they will have to be believable to recreate the narrative, and give a true representation of what that situation would be like. To create verisimilitude, to make the film more believable, costume and mise-en-scene will have to be done and created well, although the film is set in quite a natural environment, things like the cabin will have to look abandoned and vandalized. Also lighting will be a big aspect of production, as the forest scenes are quite dark due to the time of day, lighting will be important. It will not only need to look natural, but also be light enough for the cameras. Therefore overall I think I would need a budget between the two films of about $25 million, so the film is believable and realistic.

My inspiration for this idea came from the location. As I live and have spent countless hours in this location, I thought it would be perfect for a horror film, due to the setting feeling like you are far from civilization, and then the damaged cabin, is perfect to fit the plot. The film Cabin in the Woods (2012) has also inspired me to create this film as the location and environment I want to film in is very similar. I have just changed the narrative and character of the film, but kept a similar location due to it following the horror conventions. also Cabin Fever, and older horror film, has inspired me to create a horror film within the woods. Due to both films making money, especially Cabin Fever, making almost 15 times it budget, shows that there is a market and audience for this type of film. Looking at both of the films for camerawork and editing, they tend to use slow sweeping pans, long shots and medium shots of the actors with long progressive shot times, whilst the plot is calm. But when everything goes mayhem, the cuts between shots become faster, and close-ups of the actors are more common. This type of genre and these films have inspired me to come up with this idea, the location, and character. Especially looking at these examples, shot types and editing of the two films, has definitely motivated me, and made me think about this when filming and editing.
In the two films, they use handheld cinematography, to symbolise and emphasise to the viewer that something is wrong, maybe following them, and to foreshadow that something may go wrong. Therefore in my film I have been inspired to use this sort of camerawork to follow the horror genre conventions.