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Most horror movies follow a straightforward plot trajectory: 

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A force of Pure Evil targets the characters. It menaces them, harms them, and if it can, it kills them.

 

Their goal is simple: Get away from the scary thing.

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IRL is different. 

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Our main character desperately craves affection and companionship. That yearning brings him face-to-face with unimaginable Evil.  

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But instead of 'pure evil',  this Evil Being has a disturbingly relatable motivation behind their blood-curdling atrocities:

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They did it all for Love. 

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As director, my foremost objective is to put us in the perspective of our main character. We're going to root for him on his journey to find love - even as that journey descends into a nightmare. Which leads to my second objective as director:

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Scare the shit out of audiences across the world.

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And so we shall. But our scares won't just pop out at the viewer. They'll be crafted to perfection, like in THE CONJURING series.  

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Critics of those movies dismiss them as “just a bunch of jump scares.” That simply isn’t true. 

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Those films are global hits because they spend huge amounts of creativity and patience ratcheting up the tension. They often spend their first half just building the dread and fear, without ever resorting to a loud noise. 

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That takes confidence. Many horror movies reflexively toss out scares at random, merely because the filmmakers are worried the audience might be bored. 

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We’re not doing that. 

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We're going to light the fuse of tension … then let it build … and build … then a little more … until the audience is watching through their hands … 

 

And only then will we think about hitting them with a jump scare. 

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To make sure we bullseye every one of those crucial moments, I've learned from experience that you can't be over-prepared. 

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That's why IRL will be extensively storyboarded, and complicated effects sequences will be rendered as animations. 

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This includes camera work, special effects, stunts, and other complexities that can devour precious time on set.

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Counterintuitively, all this preparation doesn't lock us into a rigid shooting plan. Instead it grants us the freedom to improvise, finesse, and follow our creative impulses. 

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The result is the richest, most riveting movie we can make.​

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