Films similar to final idea film- similar films/characters/props/music

Films similar to final idea:

The lovely bones (2009)

Plot

Susie Salmon, a young girl murdered at fourteen, sits in her heaven as she watches her family grieve, suffer and fall apart without her. Susie follows the lives of her family and friends as they struggle to cope with the aftermath of her death. In watching her family on Earth, Susie’s journey to understanding the life she was robbed of becomes the central idea in the extraordinary novel “The Lovely Bones” written by Alice Sebold. “The Lovely Bones” evokes joy and sorrow in its reader, making the whole reading experience worthwhile. 
Alice Sebold delivers originality in her novel by creating a heart-warming story told from the fresh point of view of a young girl in heaven. The novel begins with the protagonist, Susie Salmon, already in heaven. Most novels do not start by introducing a central character that is deceased before the story unfolds, but “The Lovely Bones” begins with the main character saying, “My name was Susie Salmon […] I was fourteen when I was murdered […]”  The most interesting aspect of the novel is the point of view from which the story is told. The point of view also plays a significant role in the novel. Even though the main character, Susie, is dead, she still manages to evolve throughout the novel, therefore being dynamic. As Susie watches her family from heaven, she matures with them and experiences life by observing. The idea that life continues after death is the central theme of the novel. After the protagonist dies, she manages to stay in touch with her family by appearing at certain moments, almost like a ghost. Susie lets her family and friends know that the dead are here “All the time. You can talk to us and think about us”. A connection between the living and the dead is established throughout the novel, which ties into the central theme.

Genre: Drama/Thriller

The genre of this film is drama/thriller the genres are slightly different however both films have psychological elements to them and both involve abduction.This novel/film is very similar to ours, as Susie gets kidnapped and gets murdered. However with our idea of the final film we wanted the young girl who gets taken to disappear so people presume she's dead even though she might be alive. There are elements to it such as Susie and her younger sisters relationship that will be shown significantly in our film as the main character in our film is the young girl that wants to seek for revenge from the person that has 'taken her sister' away. Innocence is really important and is important in this film as Susie was naive and young, and gets murdered, which is also similar to our idea as we want the young girl to still show her innocence through her cruel behaviour to those around her. 

The Grudge (2004)

Plot

Karen Davis is an American Nurse moves to Tokyo and encounter a supernatural spirit who is vengeful and often possesses its victims. A series of horrifying and mysterious deaths start to occur, with the spirit passing its curse onto each victim. Karen must now find away to break this spell, before she becomes its next victim.

The Grudge is a supernatural horror film. This film is very similar to our final idea. The mise en scene shown on this film is very close to the way how we want ours to look. The make up and costume is very sincere and haunting which gives a sense of build up to the story, which is what we want, we want to make sure that the make up used is not over the top as we want the characters to look believable. The storyline is very different to ours as it is about a girl haunting and killing people were as ours is more about how the young girl gets affected by her sister being kidnapped and how she seeks for revenge.

Genre: Horror/Thriller

Similar Characters 

Susie Salmon- The Lovely Bones

Susie Salmon who plays the young who gets murdered by her next door neighbour. Susie Salmon is an innocent, caring young girl, who's very close to her family. However once she gets murdered she wants justice to be put in to place. As Susie hints out who the murderer is Susie's younger sister finally manages to fit the last jigsaw by risking her life going into the murderers house and finding the evidence that her fathers been seeking for. Susie finally gets the justice she's wanted from the beginning and accepts her death as she makes her way to heaven. This shows how Susie has matured from this painful tragedy, she has learnt pain, aggression, hatred, love, sympathy and most importantly herself as an individual, her weaknesses and strength which was her loved ones. 

Susie is very similar to Lucinda who will be the main character in our film. The innocence will be shown throughout the film as Lucinda has been forced to seek for revenge as she believes that justice should be done. Lucinda is not only very similar to Susie but her sister too, as Lucinda is seeking for the revenge of her sister. This links in with Susie's sister who also seeks for evidence and revenge so her sister gets the justice she deserves. Susie looks like an average teenager so nothing to sinister is shown about her character in the beginning of the film, this is interesting as it creates a bigger impact on the audience when they later on see or find out that Susie is dead. This might be a good way of showing Lucinda off in the first scene as we don't want her to look creepy and sinister, we want to show a bit of her innocent and naivety as well.

Victoria - Mama 2013

Victoria plays an innocent role as she is abandoned in the woods alone with her younger sister, both growing up without any social relationship or contact. Victoria is too young to go through all the pain alone which is why the audience sympathises for her. After being found Victoria see's things more clearly and wants to start a new life however with Mama a wall away its impossible. Victoria's character is very mature for her age as she stands up to her self and chooses what she believes is right and leaving her sister for Mama to take care off. Victoria has a very scary side to her, as in the interviews that she participates in she looks around constantly and she seems quite paranoid, which makes the audience also feel uncomfortable, I also like how Victoria's look is very naive looking, but she also has something mysterious and edgy about her too that seems quite sinister. 
The reason why I believe that Victoria is a similar character to our main character is because of the way she behaves throughout the film. At the beginning she is very patronising and hard to deal with as she is full of anger but is seeking for help and love at the same time, which will be like Lucinda, as she will feel all abandoned in the hospital which will cause her to feel pain and loneliness even more. The begging scene will also be very similar to when Victoria is being interviewed by the lawyer as she is looking sinister and she keeps fidgeting around looking up, and ignoring the questions that the lawyer asks, this will create tension as it will build up the scene making the audiences thinking that something is going to happen.

Mise en scene

Setting:

The setting has to look simple and white, as we want the main character to stand out through the background. This will create the atmosphere and will make the audience feel uncomfortable. The image below shows the similar idea that I'm trying to express. The beginning scene will begin like this, as we want to start with Lucinda being interviewed by the doctor. This setting will suggest where the scene is set and the colour white will suggest craziness and invisibility as everything white also blends into the background. This will look very powerful as Lucinda will stand out, and her innocence will be shown. We wanted to go for this type of setting because we thought it would set the scene which is in a hospital, but also gives a hint to the audience that the young girl is abnormal.



Lighting:

The lighting will be very bright as the colour white stands out, but the colour of Lucinda's hair will also stand out as it will be a dark tone which will instantly stand out from the white background. We thought it would be good if the lighting was bright as we want the audineces eyes to tingle and give an insight to what the film will be about. The brighter the light the more you see, which is what we want as we want the audience to see every detail, which will make them look deeper into Lucinda which will be sitting in the centre of the room. The image below shows you a better understanding of what we want the lighting to be like in the first scene.




Costume/Make-up:

We want to make sure that the costumes gives an idea to the audience of who's what in the first scene. So we thought Lucinda who plays the innocent young girl that is seeking for revenge after her sister gets stolen, to look mentally unstable and sinister, so we thought she could wear a simple white gown, so that she blends into the background. By doing this the audince will only be able to see Lucinda's face and hair. This is what we want as we want the audience to see Lucinda's face expression, and her state. 
For the make-up we thought of using bruised and a tired look to show that shes in a lot of pain, but also to show that its not normal for a young girl to be looking in so much pain. This will instantly give the audinces a clue of why she might be looking like the way she is. 
Lucinda needs to look mentally insane and ill. We will make lucinda's face look really pale and emphasise her eyes by making them appear hallow and emotionless, we also want to make her look like she's not had any sleep. We will achieve this by putting red and purple makeup under and around her eyes. We will make her face pale which will make her look really ill, it will also emphasise her eyes and make all her other facial features seem less significant. For the hair we was thinking of leaving it straigh but really flat and greasy to show how emotionless she is and uncared she is. We liked the colour balck for the hair, as it will suggest something sinister about her but also itll stand out from everything else white in the room. The length of the hair we thought would be better if it was longer as it gives a sense tension and also makes her look more innocent as she will be hiding half of her face with her fair, which gives the audience an idea of how old she is. The image below shows the way we expect Lucinda to look like on the first scene.



For the doctor, who will be a female, we thought can look more lively compared to Lucinda as she is normal compared to Lucinda. We want the doctor to look very proffesional and into her job, so we thought she could wear a white lab coat, suggesting that she is researching and is the doctor. We thought she could wear blue baggy trousers as its a typical doctor clothing which is how you'd expect a doctor to dress up like.
For the make up we thought of using simple look on her as we dont want her to look unproffessional. We thought she could use a little pink blusher to and a little mascara as we also don't want her to look miserable.


For the translator we thought she could look a bit more dull and boring. So for the costume we thought she could wear something boring like a baggy top and brown thick trousers but can also wear bright accessories, which will make her look more fun and will add a bit more interest to the first scene as every character will be different from each other, so the audience will have more to think about.
For the make up we thought she could look a little child like, so with bright coloured eye shadow and simple earrings but a lot of blusher. It will help to add a bit more character to her. Which will also give her a little more humour.

Props:

We want a very few props for the first scene as we only want the audience to concentrate on Lucinda and her character. We thought of using a table and a chair as we need Lucinda to sit down ready to be interviewed but also her her to fidget and tap her fingers on the table when being questioned adding a little more tension. We also need three chairs which will be needed when the interview starts so that all three characters can sit down. The colour of the table and chairs can be any colour as long as its dull and old, brown will be the most suitable as its not too dark and it doesn't blend in with Lucinda's hair. We will also use a cup so the interview can have a sip every now and then, this will make the interviewers character more real and add a little more to the setting.

Music:

For the music we thought of using something that's going to make the audiences heart beat along with the rhythm so it builds climax. The type of music that we think will be suitable will be an eerie, slow music that gradually builds up with the films climax. this will stereotypically create tension and anticipation for the audience that will be watching the film as they will know that something wrong is going to happen.