I watch a lot of short horror films online. I love them. There is so much talent out there that it’s scary (excuse the pun). If I ran a multibillion-dollar industrial complex like a Blumhouse — I would recruit every single job based on the talent projected through YouTube as often as humanly possible.

What I’ve noticed though, is that there are two camps when it comes to independently produced horror online. The successful ones (i.e — higher view counts) are the shorts made by filmmakers who try to project what scares them on camera. The ones that work less effectively are those made by filmmakers who try to imagine what frightens an audience.

I have no quantifiable evidence to support this — just a gut feeling. The films with recognizable cinematic tropes are the ones, I believe — an audience can see right through.

I’m not saying they are disingenuous, I mean, cinema is a manipulative art form and when the manipulation works, it WORKS. But when filmmakers dive into a bag of tricks made famous by others in the genre they are working in, it shows.

When filmmakers truly tap into what scares them — usually they will find two things.

One) An audience will reciprocate that fear and share the work. If they relate they will want to find others who relate also and create a perpetual loop that helps spread your work. You may not reach everyone you desire — in fact, you may find many who HATE your film. This is okay, you want to find a core audience who can identify with you as an artist. This will create a loyal following for your work.

Two) The work will be more unique as it is relying on a lived experience in a given, frightening moment — to convey that on screen rather than through a bag of tricks developed over a course of a half-century from every other horror filmmaker opens the door to possibilities not seen on screen. This should be your goal with every project — However, especially in horror

Writing and shooting from the heart, not from a scholarly approach to horror is the key to finding and sustaining an audience and, quite possibly — a career in Horror filmmaking moving forward.