Heidi

Contents

Heidi

Characters: schoolgirls

Characters: other

Narrative: storyline

Narrative: settings & themes

Enigma codes

Genre conventions

HeidiI chose the name ‘Heidi’ because the main character is a little girl called Heidi. I think the name Heidi is effective because it is a young, old-fashioned and innocent name, yet the girl in question is dead and is the

cause of the disastrous events.

Molly Harmon (left) will play Heidi. I chose her as the character because she

interested me when I watched The Woman in Black (also rated 12). She is only in the

first scene for a minute or so but she has a haunting, innocent, almost creepy

appearance, perfect for the role of Heidi.

Characters: schoolgirls

Emma Shorey (below) will play one of the murdered little girls

(Molly). I chose her because she also plays a creepy young girl in the opening scene of The Woman

in Black, and she, like Harmon, can capture a creepy character.

Elissa Walker-Reid (right) will play one of the murdered little girls (Belle). She is the third and final young girl in the opening scene of The Woman in Black, so can also portray a creepy young girl.

Addy Miller (left) as one of the murdered little girls (Poppy). I chose her because she plays a little zombie girl in the first episode of The Walking Dead and can therefore portray a dead girl.

Characters: other

Helena Bonham-Carter will play one of the potential buyers of the school – Marianne. This is because she has played sort of creepy characters before, such as in Tim Burton movies (Sweeney Todd, Dark Shadows) and the Harry Potter movies (Bellatrix Lestrange).

Johnny Depp will play the other potential buyer, or Marianne’s business partner, Richard. I have chosen him because he has a large fanbase so will appeal to a larger audience, has a history of playing creepy characters and works well with Bonham-Carter.

Narrative: storylineIn a Victorian school, a young girl named Heidi was brutally murdered and left in the janitor’s closet down a long creepy hallway. The hallway, although entry was forbidden, was investigated, one by one, by several little girls who, one by one, had heard the noises of a girl being attacked and, one by one, were all brutally murdered and left in the janitor’s closet, too. The school was then shut for good.

Until the year 2003, when two potential buyers, Marianne and Richard, take a look around the derelict school. They start to hear the noises of a little girl being attacked, and investigate. To their surprise, they find several young girls along the way, despite the school being closed. Each of the girls urge them towards the noise eagerly. They realise something isn’t right and try to find their way out, only to be obstructed by these little girls, still intent on helping them find the noise.

Eventually they find a long hallway with a door at the end, after escaping the little girls, and run to hide in it. As they open the door, one final little girl, Heidi, is standing in it, ready to kill them and lock them in the janitor’s closet as her revenge.

Narrative: settings and themes

Setting: Set in a derelict Victorian school. All dark, with no electricity. Flashbacks will be set during the day, the present (potential buyers) set at night. Flashbacks set in Victorian times (1864), present set in 2003.

Themes: revenge. The revenge of Heidi, bitter because of her death.

Enigma codes

The movie will open with a shot of a long dark hallway with just a door at the end of it. Immediately the audience will ask – what is behind the door? As the camera very slowly moves towards the door, there will be four slight second-long flashes of a little girl (Heidi) standing in front of the door covered in blood, starting from far away and ending up right in front of her smiling face. The audience will ask – who is the girl? Why is she covered in blood? What relevance does she have to the door? The scene will have a slight sepia tinge to it, showing that it is a flashback, and the audience will wonder why it was in the past – what has happened since then?

The scene then cuts to the present day, 2003. It is a winter late afternoon, so it will be slightly grey. A man and a woman are standing in front of the derelict school. The audience will then wonder who they are and why they are there so far in the future. The woman, Marianne, shows apprehension at entering the school, but the man, Richard, urges her that it will be fine. Marianne states that she’s worried, considering the school’s past. The audience will then wonder what happened in the past, and whether it was linked with the little girl/the door.

Genre conventions

Conventions of a thriller/horror:

The setting will all be dark and gloomy

Set in Victorian times

Flashbacks

Creepy music (for example, there will be a scene in which the little girls are skipping around singing Tiptoe Through the Tulips)

Old photographs