Competent Horror’s Connection Problem
Skip this storytelling element and risk becoming a mediocre horror film.
Last week I went to see a movie which made me think about good storytelling. It wasn’t Oppenheimer, though I saw that too, it was a little independent film titled Talk To Me, and I was trying to figure out why, pun intended, it did not speak to me. A day later, not only did I see what was missing, I saw a link to how we use communication to connect with our audience.
I’m not about to heap scorn on a small film.
First, it wasn’t bad, or poorly executed. It delivered a few jump scares and squeamish moments for my friend, demonstrating competence in the genre. Second, and more importantly, being the first feature film ever made by it’s co-directors, it represents 100% more films than I’ve ever made.
Other than simply assuming I’m dead inside, I wanted to figure out why, in a dark theatre, there was no lasting impression.
The plot gives us an interesting premise. A cross-section of today’s society takes seances, those parlor tricks from the mid-19th century, and turns them into social media stunts. The ending, in my opinion, is intended to be thought-provoking, and therefore should also have lived rent-free in my mind for at least a little while.
The next morning I was working through a few website changes while 1982’s Poltergeist played in the background. Forty-five minutes later, realizing the website work had unintentionally ceased and I was fully engrossed in a movie I’ve seen a dozen times, it hit me.
People, or characters, are one of the key elements that draw us in to a story.
Though directed by the horror legend Tobe Hooper, Poltergiest was co-written and produced by Steven Spielberg, who knows a thing or two about creating memorable, relatable, lifelike characters placed in extraordinary circumstances. This film is patient. We get to know the personality of each family member. We see them going about their day. We witness them interact and react to each other. We laugh at their mishaps. Early on, we lament with Jo Beth Williams when she discovers Tweetie, the pet budgie belonging to her youngest daughter, passed away. Wishing she could have avoided her daughter finding out (and easily replacing him with another identical bird, she sighs “Why couldn’t you have waited until a school day?”
These are real people we can relate to.
That’s the milestone in storytelling we must achieve before we place them in harm’s way.
By the time their struggles begin in earnest, I care about what happens to this family. I relate to a family who will doing whatever it takes to become whole again.
When watching Talk to Me, I didn’t relate to the characters. Though they’ve obviously experienced trauma in the past, we never spend enough time getting to know them outside of that narrative. They were merely people-that-bad-things-happen-to.
That was the moment I thought about communication
My specialty is teaching organizations to effectively communicate change. However, when I say ‘communication’ in this context, it could be a townhall, a keynote speaker or a CEO’s global statement. Even a simple email. You can extrapolate a good deal of insight from who is centered and how they are represented within that communication.
When a horror movie doesn’t take the time to invest in good storytelling, when it doesn’t centre the story around fully realized characters you get to know and genuinely care about, they go in one of two directions. The same is true of communication.
Competence Doesn’t Equal Connection
Last month, I spoke about why horror movies cannot simply be a series of scary moments. Well, communication cannot simply be a series of emotionless words or a list of tasks. A competent horror movie hits all the beats. They have jump scares, tension, McGuffins and depending on the style, a few moments to make you squeamish or some gory scenes thrown in for good measure. It is their version of the corporate jargon bingo card.
The 2022 Corporate Buzzword Bingo card. See more at Focus Business.
By the time the film is over, all the boxes are checked but the audience isn’t moved by what they saw.
2022’s Smile had some interesting imagery, an intriguing premise but otherwise, was simply check, check, checking those boxes, with no character development. The protagonist and her relationships with others, felt one dimensional.
Imagine, you are a psychological therapist who has had an extremely difficult day at work. You return home, to find your beautiful cat patiently waiting for you at the front door and - walk right past past him. Ignoring him completely. Who does that? That is not a character I’m going to care about when bad things start happening.
When the character is not presented as a real human being, no one is invested in what happens to them.
If your communication is merely a demonstration of competence, it too, will fall flat. Do you really expect to connect with your audience when all you are saying is industry buzzwords? Or rattling off a list of facts?
No human is going to feel moved by a series of emotionless jargon, linked to a snapshot of the CEO standing next to a random employee they clearly have never met with a frozen fake smile on their face.
You want to build rapport with your audience.
You want them on your side.
Take the time to create connection by being human yourself because, and here’s the kicker, your audience wants to be engaged. Even the most cynical person, who expects that you are wasting their time, would prefer to be proven wrong.
Political speech writers figured this out a long time ago.
Two candidates can present the exact same policy suggestions. One, armed only with facts, the other, armed with a compelling narrative that tells the story of the people affected.
Who makes the bigger impression?
I’m not suggesting that you skip being factual, as many politicians do. Simply ensure that those facts are woven into the fabric of a three dimensional human story if you want to engage and leave a lasting impression with the broader audience you are trying to connect with.
Try to be a Spielberg. Whether your goal is to motivate, entertain or tug on the heartstrings of your audience, you won’t achieve your goal if they are not invested. Construct a narrative which focuses on real people, not people-something-happens-to. You don’t need to recreate War & Peace - humanizing your narrative is possible in a short amount of time. It only requires a few sentences on the page or frames in the film.
Don’t Centre the Antagonist
The other option horror movies have when they are unable to create three dimensional protagonists with their storytelling, is to shift the focus entirely to the antagonist.
Usually this happens in the sequels.
The studios want to cash in on that good, original idea but doesn’t really understand why it worked in the first place and/or they don’t want to invest in good writing.
Think Freddy, Jason and John Kramer/Jigsaw.
All of these baddies featured in one or two really good movies with interesting protagonists and decent storytelling elements. Let’s not lose sight of how dramatic this shift really is in how the story is framed. We move away from characters we care about, with motivations we relate to, and replace them with characters whose only purpose it to be killed off. They are disposable in service of the big bad antagonist.
Sound familiar?
This shift occurs in communications and reporting about organizations. And it cuts both ways.
Did the Company hit its targets, or did the people who work there reach their goals, thereby ensuring their annual bonus payment? Did the Company ignore environmental concerns or did a few directors and board members willingly disregard the safety hazards they were presented with, and move forward with poisoning a water source in order to increase profits?
Positive or negative, the real people have been replaced in these communications with a faceless stand-in, which prevents an emotional connection. Corporate communications do this intentionally to obfuscate ownership for the negative choices their leadership make and to avoid giving credit to the employees who are the reason the business is doing well.
Maybe you can relate.
When I worked in higher ed, so many faculty emails started with “the school has decided” or “the college has determined…”.
Did it?
A collection of classrooms, hallways and auditoriums got together to make a decision? Or did a group of people, who shall remain nameless, make a decision they know no one will be happy with?
Even in a simple email, choosing who to centre your communication around can affect how it is received and the (lack) of connection it creates with your audience.
Center the Protagonist. Think of the message you wish to communicate. Yes, horror sequels make money for the studios, but the message is inherently negative. It positions the faceless bad guy at the heart of the story and celebrates people as being disposable. As less-than-human. It is a message that broadcasts to the audience “don’t bother getting invested, no one in this story matters”.
That is not the message you want your audience to receive.
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