It's not Halloween for a while (it's at the end of October), but we wanted to do our Halloween edition of our Short Films / Big Ideas blog now to give you time to get organised to run a mini (or full) unit on horror. Horror is a terrifically engaging unit to do with Years 7-9 students. However, often we can't watch films in our classrooms that students find scary. At home, they watch films like 'Saw' or 'Fright Night' or 'Scream' - all of which have an MA rating and are unsuitable for classroom viewing. Fortunately, there is a range of scary short films out there which can provide a fright to our students without needing to use gratuitous blood and gore to do so.
Below is a list of our favourite short horror films which you can watch in your 7-9 classrooms. Before you do this you might also like to get students to explore how much they already know about the horror genre. On our resources page we've put a Horror Plot Creation handout. This handout lists typical settings, characters, orientations and complications you will find in a horror story. In groups, students pick a character, a setting, and 1-2 orientations and complications. Using these elements, they then need to generate a horror story of their own. Students will have a lot of fun coming up with their horror plot and then sharing them with the rest of the class. They will also see how formulaic the horror genre is. Download the resource here: http://www.tickingmind.com.au/resourcedownload
Pencil Face - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MjTb5A68VA
A girl discovers a huge pencil that will draw anything. But what are its motives?
In this classic horror short, two young women alone in a house hear a 'bump' in the night and decide to investigate.
A girl investigates a mysterious doll shop.
Spectre - http://vimeo.com/1228438
What's happening in the background when a man is shaving?
The Facts in The Case of Mister Hollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzw8qdXCep8
One picture - what's the story behind it? A unique horror short about vampires.
We particularly recommend playing Pencil Face and Spectre with and without music and asking students to think about the important of music as a technique in horror.
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