Open with TRAUMA! Specifically for the lead character, probably a woman. Death of a loved one, an accident, surviving something awful— whatever it is, it is very rooted in the real world. That’s important!
Jump ahead a few weeks or months. The lead is going to A REMOTE LOCATION because it will help her get better, or she’s stuck there, or it’s her only option now that her life is ruined. Or maybe she just already lives in a weird old house. Before, or right after she gets there, we’ll see some of her shitty friends.
A BF that gaslights, an insensitive bestie. Maybe one person means well, but they have their own shit going on so they can’t get too involved in our lead’s drama. NIGHT ONE, in the special remote (and cheap to shoot in) location… A BUMP IN THE NIGHT or a BAD DREAM. Or something other type of random weirdness.. maybe all of the above!
THE NEXT DAY we see her TRY to find a sense of normalcy. Maybe back in her status quo...but she just can’t seem to gel into it. She makes other people uncomfortable. Maybe she even has an outburst of legit emotion that just upsets people she’s not supposed to upset. Shitty friend says HEY MAYBE YOU NEED TIME. Or, the inverse, she ventures out into the world and finds something in it SUPER off or unsettling. And of course EVERYONE around her is either unaware, accepting, or rationalizing of any weirdness they might see.
NIGHT TWO things get a little weirder. The bumps or the dreams (OR BOTH) drag on a little more. Whatever it is, it is upsetting, but also, maybe grounded and explainable… though at the same time, totally not. Basically, the scares get bigger WITHOUT escalating the state of the world in relation to the scary thing. What does that mean?
If a spooky things happens, and it causes permanent, or lasting, effects on anybody on the outside… it offers up proof something is going on. This ends the isolation for our lead. This means you’ve gone too far. Remember, the core of any scare is isolating your lead. This is why so many first act scares in horror rely on dreams or visions.
THE NEXT DAY she tries to tell her shitty friends OMG SOMETHING IS HAPPENING. They don’t believe her. They don’t care. Or, they care for like ten seconds then go back to their own bullshit. If she has an awful boyfriend he’ll pin it all on “sleepwalking.”
The idea is, the trauma she’s carrying is effecting her sanity… or is it? OMG— is it trauma or is it something supernatural?! (Spoiler, it’s probably both because ALLEGORY IS NEVER ENOUGH!) If there’s a shitty BF he’ll be sure to tell her it’s all in her head and will struggle because his desire to (play video games, bone other women, get ahead at school/work) has precedent, but also… the lead lady is hot and he doesn’t want to give that up.
ANOTHER NIGHT… once again the bumps/dreams intensify. This time they take on a personality— a voice, a face, a precise image/symbol. Maybe she witnesses something awful or just really weird. It could also potentially be her vision of the horrible thing that has given her trauma. And of course…
IN THE LIGHT OF DAY no one believes her and any physical evidence of the thing is now gone. Basically the entire world is now in on the gaslighting plan. Now one of two things happens— she goes on the offense and plays detective. This is not traditional horror where she will do research or talk to an old local who knows stuff. This will be an inward journey that usually involves finding something creepy left by the victims of the opening trauma, or maybe she finds a chunk of physical evidence from scary thing that was not whisked away… OR—
Maybe she just finds an old book. A24 loves old books.
And yet, still no one listens. This is around halfway through. A normal horror movie would have at least 2 if not 3 deaths by now, but in elevated horror we hold off any deaths until around now. We really want the tension high.
So now, with this one puzzle piece, SOMETHING TERRIBLE HAPPENS. A death of one of the shitty friends, witnessing something super creepy and abject, or maybe an attack on the lead herself that she gets barely away from.
The back half of the story is now a simple repeating pattern. By day, more answers must be found, and despite said terrible thing in the last beat now being common knowledge amongst friends/the world, people still want to normalize it. Our lead is basically the only sane person in the world, but at the same time, looks insane to everyone she encounters.
At night, the SCARY STUFF escalates further and further, possibly claiming more victims, generally due to their own hubris in thinking if they just prove our girl wrong, they’ll fix her (instead of acknowledging her trauma).
Generally speaking, the ultimate truth and the most unsettling thing come hand in hand to destroy the lead’s sense of reality. Depending on the writer/director/auteur’s level of nihilism, our girl will either realize that the only way to defeat the evil that plagues her is to correctly move past her trauma/grief, or, the evil/grief will consume her.
If it is the former, she will have a pithy line in the arms of her last remaining friend and it will cut to black. If it’s the latter, there will be a slow pull-back shot of her laying dead in the space she’s been trapped in while chipper music plays. There is never a hand-popping-out-of-the-grave button.
Don’t forget to trauma-allegory! Don’t forget to super overdo the gore in just a few choice moments! Don’t forget to make the evil thing obscure and folksy! Maybe secretly be non-linear for as long as possible! Don’t forget to cast your hipster friends!
Okay, let me be clear. This thread was tongue in cheek. Don’t be that guy who points out the A24 movie that doesn’t follow this exactly. Don’t be a know it all. Recognize I’m talking about a style and a vibe, and one (somewhat common) way to break down. Just settle down, neckbeard. KNOW THIS—
Horror is horror, and it is the most diverse genre in all film in that it can easily merge with other concepts to create a new subgenre, easy peasy. The term “elevated horror” was invented by a reviewer who didn’t want to admit they liked an A24 horror movie. That person was a coward.
That said, the term has stuck and now it is used by execs to describe a certain style of horror film. This style IS NOT NEW. It’s been called grounded horror. It’s been called art house horror. It’s been called Foreign horror (cause we used to not make them so often in the states). I’d say it probably started in earnest in the late 60s, early 70s with movies like Don’t Look Now, Sisters, Rosemary’s Baby, or even Psycho— generally these are psychological thrillers that have tiny pushes into the uber-macabre, some remote lesser-known mythology, and/or a touch of the supernatural.
Don’t let the term, or my coy breakdown above (which DOES WORK BTW) scare you away from some truly amazing movies.