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The Living Nightmare
Activities
Before Viewing
An author's narrative technique can be highlighted by comparing (and contrasting) how printed text might be transformed to moving image. Discuss how television could convey the following extract from The Carver by Jenny Jones:
Their clothes were snagging and tearing and they would find their flesh pierced with splinters. Their eyes suddenly dazzled by the vast sinking sun. And all the time, the puppets were watching them with satisfaction from higher up. Maddy saw their hollow eyes glinting, their uneven mouths stretched back in mirthless grins. Cradled in their nest of branches, they watched Maddy and Alex struggle. "Fools!" they seemed to say. "It's futile, foolish, useless." The copse was conspiring with the puppets against them.
Print out and photocopy the above passage. Students should consider the action (underline verbs); add notes about how the story is written: sound (including music), pace, point of view, atmosphere, speech. Pool ideas and report back to the class. [Also see: 'After Viewing'.]
Talk about a frightening event you have witnessed and how you and others reacted to it.
Discuss what it would feel like to meet one of the evil characters in a horror novel.
After Viewing
Compare/contrast your initial ideas about The Carver extract (see 'Before Viewing') with how the scene was treated in the programme [13.40]. What differences are observed? Why have changes been made? Would other changes be made for a cinema film? How successful has the visual medium been in conveying the printed text?
Try writing a text version for the Halloween [12.23] or Scream 2 [16.00 and/or 17.20] film clips. Consider which adjectives and verbs could enhance the writing.
- Write a scene where a character confronts something terrifying.
Study the two lists below. Let your main character experience something from list 1 and its contrasting opposite in list 2. To achieve a satisfactory ending, list 2 should finally triumph over list 1.
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