A Monster Playlist
Inspiration for our film and a celebration of the spooky season.
We’re now passed the production phase of our short film A Monster in the House, and we are currently deep into post-production. While we still have quite some time before it will be ready to share with the world, we wanted to provide you with a playlist of movies, shows, and music that will get you ready and in the mood for when the short film will be released.
Thank you all again for your contributions and kind words. We couldn’t have done it without your help, and we can’t wait to show you what we have in store.
Movies
• Oculus
Mike Flanagan’s work was a huge inspiration for A Monster in the House, starting with his second feature film Oculus. The film follows two siblings who investigate what they think is a cursed mirror that brought on the destruction of their family when they were young. This film does two things that heavily influenced me while writing our short. Firstly, the beautiful house becomes an inescapable maze. Despite it’s size, you feel claustrophobic and trapped until, eventually, they’re trapped in their own memories. Secondly, I love how seamlessly this film balances the past with the present, interweaving the two and showing how the trauma of the past influenced the people they are today.
• The Shining & Doctor Sleep
Two for one! The Shining is an amazing example of a perfect horror story and horror movie. Stanley Kubrick took the genre and ran with it, using his insane attention to detail to bring to life a loose adaptation of Stephen King’s book (to the author’s displeasure). Doctor Sleep is the long awaited sequel to The Shining helmed by Mike Flanagan, who marries both our love for the book and the iconography of the original film perfectly to create an amazing film about childhood trauma and acceptance. I wanted our film location (The Deen House) to be our Overlook Hotel, home to mysteries and monsters, both external and internal.
• The Babadook
Jennifer Kent’s debut feature film opened a new chapter for modern horror movies. The Babadook took it’s time, rarely scared more than unnerve, and told a deep story about depression, trauma, and family. While it may rely too heavily on it’s themes over it’s story, it was a huge inspiration for the feel of A Monster in the House. There doesn’t have to be jump scares every few minutes when you have dread that permeates through the entire runtime, even at it’s slower pace.
• The Orphanage
JA Bayona’s masterpiece offers much of what came before on this list: the big haunted house, a scary story, and a family crisis. It’s tense, dramatic, and at times, scary. But it is also incredibly beautiful in it’s representation of the love you have for your family, and it’s bittersweet ending will leave you smiling with tears in your eyes. It’s an emotional catharsis that feels good after two hours of gripping your armrest.
Television
• The Haunting of Hill House
Another on of Mike Flanagan’s masterpieces, this show was a massive hit, and it turned him into a household name. This show follows the Crain family as they weave between past and present to figure out just what happened to them during their short time living in Hill House. If it sounds similar to Oculus, it’s because it seems like it could fit squarely into that world he created, and it could also be said of his presentation of Doctor Sleep. Some places carry bad energy and bad memories. How Flanagan tells the story of familial childhood trauma is perfected here, making a show that is both horrifying, beautiful, and hand crafted. Our lead actors rewatched this show in preparation for their roles in the film.
• Channel Zero
For a show that debuted on the SyFy channel and based on Creepy Pasta articles, the creators somehow pull it all together for an anthology series that’s methodical, mind-bending, unnerving, and dramatic. It does an extremely good job of telling insane stories on a more down-to-earth level, focusing more on the characters and how these events are shaped by who they are instead of what is done to them. This is especially true for the first season “Candle Cove,” which might not technically be the best season, but it is definitely the closest in tone to A Monster in the House.
• Locke & Key
Surprisingly, this young-adult show makes the playlist as well. It’s not very scary, and it plays more like Stranger Things than It (although Stranger Things was a big inspiration for our monster as well). But we took plenty of inspiration from how they shot Keyhouse, and we even used plenty of screen grabs for our mood board and shot lists. It still deals with childhood trauma (and perhaps the graphic novel dives closer to the feel of our short film), but in the end, it’s a fun romp that helped us find new ways to characterize our beautiful location.
Books
• Penpal
What started as a Reddit thread quickly snowballed into a popular horror novel. Penpal isn’t about monsters of ghosts, it’s about the little memories you forget about in your youth. As the pieces slowly come together, a horrifying realization comes forth. Penpal isn’t very deep and not even extremely well written, but it is absolutely terrifying in it’s portrayal of youth, innocence, and friendship. I love how each new chapter begins a completely innocent story that slowly devolves into a nightmare, just like how I want our short film to feel.
• A Head Full of Ghosts
This novel follows a blogger who looks back on her traumatic past and the horrific events that unfolded during her sister’s supposed demonic possession. Like pretty much all the recommendations on this list, it portrays a dramatic loss of childhood innocence during an extremely unnerving situation. It’s different than most other horror novels you’ll read, and it takes a few wonderful turns. But mainly, I see it as a great example of a fleshed-out lead female character, looking at terrifying things through a child’s eyes and growing up to feel that weight heavily on her shoulders, just like young Sarah in A Monster in the House.
• Stephen King’s IT
I feel like I don’t even need to say the obvious here. While a shapeshifting, alien clown is nothing like our short film, the way this book bounces back and forth from childhood to adulthood, showing how trauma and friendship shape who you are. The past can and will repeat itself if you don’t confront your fears, your traumas and your demons. No one writes better children characters than Stephen King, and no one writes more horrific things they can go through either.
• House of Leaves
While this doesn’t necessarily connect with A Monster in the House in terms of theme, the way this novel not only gets you lost in it’s story, but it’s maze-like structure and ever expanding hallways brought plenty of inspiration to how we wanted our house to feel. Perhaps there’s nothing supernatural with our house, but with all the nooks and crannies, we wanted it to feel like a maze as they hid from the minotaur searching for them, like a twisted game of hide and seek.
Podcasts
• Knifepoint Horror
This single podcast will haunt your dreams for months to come. It’s like telling a ghost story over a campfire, except these stories feel very real. I love the calm and deliberate pacing these stories deliver, slowly succumbing to the horror that unveils. A few episodes to be sure to listen to: staircase, legend, and possession. Also, listen to vision even though it doesn’t really feel connected to A Monster in the House, it’s just really good.
• The No Sleep Podcast
While the stories are very hit or miss with this podcast, every now and then, you come across some truly amazing ones. It feels more like an audio drama or audiobook than a podcast. It can sometimes feel a bit over-produced, but when you get the right stories, you know it’s something special. Season 5 by far has some of the best stories this podcast has to offer, and many of those stay on my mind for inspiration when writing anything to do with horror.
