The inspiration for my project was the Dybbuk. In Hebrew it means adhere or cling. I thought it was neccessary to research about a spirit in folklore to add realism to my trailer. The Dybbuk is a malicious or malevolent possessing spirit believed to be the broken soul of a dead person.
The films A Serious Man (2009), The Unborn (2009), and The Possession (2012) all feature a dybbuk in different roles. When it comes to creating my film trailer, I will take influences from The possession, Sinister and Paranormal Activity but not copy. I decided to use the Dybbuk as it's unheard of and it's not just a typical horror film.
But "The Possession," is based not so much on Jewish legend as urban legend: a supposed "dybbuk box," a "haunted" wine cabinet bought at an estate sale in 2001, and advertised on eBay with a story about a dybbuk's curse that causes misfortune to anyone rash enough to own it.
There are, to this day, people who believe in dybbuks – and people who have claimed to cast them out.
One example, from the 1970s: a possessed woman who was being "choked" by the necklace she was wearing. This necklace had been given to her by a parent, her father, who had committed incest with her. In addition, the father held her over the throat when he did that to her.
In the Jewish faith there is no belief in demonic possession though there can be a possession of a living person by the soul of one who has left the body, but not the world. This soul is seeking a body to possess in order to take care of unfinished business. This would make sense because of the example I just gave above.
The dybbuk may be the soul of a sinner, who wishes to escape the just punishment given to it by the 'angels of the grave' who seek to beat them, or to avoid another form of soul punishment. A dybbuk may seek revenge for some evil that was done to it while it lived. The dybbuk may be lost and enter a body simply in order to find a rabbi who would be able send it on it's way. The living host may or may not know that a dybbuk is occupying their body. There may be torment towards the host but this depends on the intent of the possessing soul.
If the dybbuk is able to encounter a rabbi while possessing a living host, then an exorcism ritual can be performed. The Jewish exorcism ritual is performed by a rabbi who has mastered practical Kabbalah. The point of the exorcism is to heal the person being possessed and the spirit doing the possessing. This is a stark contrast to the Roman Catholic exorcism that is intended to drive away the offending spirit or demon. The intent is to heal the soul that's possessing and heal the person. The ceremony is done on behalf of both.
Horror films go back as far as the beginning of film making, infact centuries before that. From a young age we have all imagined seeing 'something' out of the corner of our eye, shadowy shapes/ghostly images and have come to fear the unknown. Horror films give shape to this fear, an outlet for the essence of fear itself, launching us into a terrifying and disturbing world without ever being in danger at all.
Horror films, when done well and with less reliance on horrifying special effects, can be extremely potent film forms, tapping into our dream states and the horror of the irrational and unknown, and the horror within man himself. For example the Blair Witch Project which was a film that was created using only hand held cameras and no special effects whatsoever. It played on the fact that at the time no other films had ever been made like it using just hand held cameras. Also its storyline was developed on and incorporated the legend of Elly Kedward, a woman banished for witchcraft in 1785 in the Blair Township (latter-day Burkittsville) where the film was set which fooled the audience into thinking "could this actually be real?". The way it was amateurly filmed just added to this sense of ultra realism which opened the audience up to a whole new level of fear. The Blair Witch Project and The Posession are the main influences for choosing to do a film trailer.
The above poster for The Blair Witch Project is what I intend to re-create with my film trailer, as though it's a whole film.
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