Full Film Idea - DIABOLUS

Our film idea is one that’s based on the idea of possession; the demon in the case is called DIABOLUS (also the title of the film) which is Latin for Devil. The protagonist Chris is an stereotypical teenager coming up to his 18^th birthday. However, he is contacted by a Psychic who tells him he is in danger, as he was born to become a human vessel for the DIABOLUS as soon as he turns 18. Despite this warning, he tells her to leave him alone and that he doesn’t believe in superstition. The Psychic then takes matters into her own hands, knocking Chris out with sleeping pills, and setting up an exorcism in an abandoned caravan in the woods. At the crucial moment of removing the demon, Chris wakes up confused and hits the Psychic as he runs away into the woods. What he does not realise is that, the DIABOLUS that was dormant waiting for him to turn 18 escaped and has instead taken the Psychics body as a vessel with a plan to possess Chris’s once more and go on a murderous rampage. Chris runs to a nearby barn, with no idea where he is and takes shelter while the DIABOLUS uses the Psychic’s skills to locate him. Later, in the evening, Chris is woken by the Psychic trying to knock him out with a metal pole. He runs deeper into the barn buildings to hide where he finds phone signal and rings his friend asking for help who figures out where he is and says he is coming to find him, despite disbelieving Chris’s story. In a battle against the DIABOLUS, his friends are killed, and Chris is nearly taken over by the demon several times but manages to resist it after a few minutes due to anti-possession sigils the Psychic drew on his skin right until the very end where the audience believe he has killed the Psychic and the DIABOLUS. However, as he goes to leave, she grabs his ankle and pulls him out of camera view meaning the audience never find out what happens to him.
-THIS WILL PROBABLY CHANGE SLIGHTLY WHEN WE'VE FILMED-

DIABOLUS perpetuates the work of several key narrative structural theorists, the first of which being Todorov. It follows the basic ideas of beginning with an equilibrium, which is disrupted by an event setting off a chain of events, creating disequilibrium. This is then resolved by the denouement and a new equilibrium is settled at the end. However, DIABOLUS does twist Todorov’s idea a little because when the audience think a new equilibrium has been reached, it turns out the Psychic isn’t really dead and drags Chris off screen meaning the audience has one last big scare and they are never sure what happens to him. Another theorist’s work that can be seen in our film idea is Propps work on character types. Chris is obviously the typical ‘Hero’ however, you are never sure whether he thinks he can save the Psychic (who would be the ‘Princess’ character type) or he is just trying to survive himself. The last theorist whose work fits DIABOLUS is Barthes, who did work on binary opposition (the juxtaposition of two contrasting themes). Binary oppositions clear in our film idea are: good/evil, human/inhuman and trapped/free, the last being because the most terrifying moments of the film would be when Chris is lost inside the barn buildings.