THE SITTING 1 of 5 LUCY MARTYN

THE SITTING

Character profiles
 THE SITTING 2 of 5 LUCY MARTYN

MICHAEL

Michael is the protagonist within the story and appears as this

sort of stereotypical hero character. Within the plot, he is the
level headed and sensible one, as well as the leader of the
friendship group. He and the other characters are all 18.
Michael grew up through the Satanic Panic era so previous to the
seance he was always curious of supernatural and spiritualism -
this further persuading him to take part in the seance. When
Eric introduces the idea of partaking in a seance, Michael
immediately joins in due to his previous interest in
spiritualist and the supernatural.

Within the plot, Michael is initially very curious about the

various noises coming from around the house. This curious
attitude mimics that of the typical hero character within
horrors, this character is normally the very curious one that
wants to resolve the drama and solve issues. This curiosity is
constant throughout the story and leads to his demise at the end
of the film. Michael takes certain things quite seriously - for
example he took the ouija board very seriously by putting out
candles and physically setting the atmosphere. However when it
comes to his friends, he is quite jokey and easy going.

Eric and Michael have been friends a long time so their

friendship is very chill and relaxed. Jen joined the friendship
group slightly later, so he is close with her but not as close as
he is with Eric. He is quite a focused character and likes to
figure things out - when the spirit communication starts he is
very focused on it and constantly tries to understand and figure
out the source of it. This leads to him being slightly quieter at
times.

Michael is a fairly chilled person, he dresses slightly relaxed

and neutral, this mimicking his laid back personality.In regards
to his physical appearance, Michael is fairly tall and has messy
brown hair. He dresses fairly casually but is still neat, he
normally would wear something like baggy jeans and a shirt
THE SITTING 3 of 5 LUCY MARTYN
ERIC

Out of the three characters, Eric is the jokey non believer -

typical of a character in a horror. He isn’t really very
serious at the start of the film and tends to make jokes
about the situation, brushing off the reality of the
situation by poking fun at Eric and Jen. He isn’t really the
sensible character, he is jokey and light hearted but is also
easily frightened, however he doesn’t like to let this show -
especially to his friends. He is a fairly insecure character,
but he won’t let this show - instead he makes jokes and acts
fairly confident to hide this. He acts very confident, by
almost making fun of his friends and joking about the
severity of situations. Like the other characters, Eric is
also 18 and grew up through the Satanic Panic. However he
doesn’t believe in the supernatural like Michael or Jen, he
is quite reluctant to believe in supernatural, even when
situations that point to it being real happen in front of
him.

Within the plot, Eric is very chilled about partaking in a

ouija board - mainly because he doesn’t believe in it.
However as the spirit communication begins to unfold, he
starts to realise that something is going on and is quickly
frightened by what is going on. However, he is fairly
reluctant to admit this to Michael and Jen as he wants to
appear as this confident and relaxed personality.

He is fairly chilled in the friendship group, this seen

through his very relaxed relationship with his friends. He
has been friends with Michael for longer. He is quite close
with Jen as well, he has a very playful relationship with
her.

In regards to his physical appearance, Eric is fairly causal

in how he dresses as well, he doesn’t really care about how
he dresses. He is slightly scruffier than Michael and will
normally be seen wearing something like baggy jeans and an
old hoodie.
 THE SITTING 4 of 5 LUCY MARTYN
JEN

Jen is the girl of the group. Initially I had created her

to be this kind of stereotypical female victim character as
this is very typical of a horror. However with this
character, I plan to portray her as slightly more dynamic
and not being so stereotypical. She is the sensible
character in the friendship group, she is level headed and
focused, this helping to balance out the other two
characters.

Like the other characters, she is fairly relaxed, however

she likes to be in control and for things to go her way.
Sometimes she is outweighed by the two boys in the group,
but she is clearly respected by the boys and is almost the
boss of the group. Jen is quite a smart character. Like
Michael, she is very interested in the supernatural and
spiritualism and knows a lot about this topic, more than
Michael anyways. Jen is initially hesitant to take part in
the ouija board because she knows it could go very wrong
and could lead to bad spirit communication. However she
quickly changes her mind as she doesn’t want the boys to
see her scared and worried. She wants to be viewed highly
by the boys.

In the film, Jen is initially very shocked by the spirit

communication happening. She knew something like this could
happen but she has never actually seen anything like this.
She understands why it is happening and how - to a degree,
so she isn’t too scared and tries to make sense of it all.

She has a close friendship with the two other characters.

She has a fairly playful relationship with Eric because she
kind of likes him. She gets along well with Michael is he
is likeminded and wants to. Make sense of things.

In regards to physical appearance, Jen is kind of chilled

with how she dresses, she would normally wear jeans and a
crop top or shirt. She cares about how she dresses and
wants to have good style, however she dresses relaxed to
match how the boys dress. Therefore she is on the same
level as the boys.
 THE SITTING 5 of 5 LUCY MARTYN

THE SPIRIT/ GHOST

The spirit plays a fairly big role within the story
and can be seen within the film on numerous
occasions, the spirit within the story in normally
hidden in the darkness in the corner of the room.
The poltergeist died in the house and therefore is
tied to the location, haunting the house and the
people within the house. Within the film, I don’t
really plan to explain the backstory of the
poltergeist as I think this will be over explain
the spirit within the story. I feel this instantly
humanises the spirit and significantly takes away
from the scare factor of the film. However, I feel
creating a backstory for the poltergeist within the
story will allow me to portray the spirit within
the story in a heightened way, helping with dialog
and general portrayal of the spirit. The
poltergeist within the story is a priest from the
1870s, the priest lived in the house that the film
is based in and then later died in the house by
means of suicide. He died around the age of 50 by
hanging himself from the top of the stairs.
Michael’s family moved into the house in the 1970s. Initially
they weren’t bothered by any spirit communication, everything
seemed peaceful because Michael’s parents were very religious.
But as Michael grew up and started to learn more about the
supernatural and the devil, the poltergeist started to
retaliate and showcase mild forms of spirit communication
almost as a warning.
The poltergeist haunts the house through a build up if violent
spirit communication. Trying to evict people out of the house
so he can be alone. In regards to physical appearance, the
poltergeist is normally hidden throughout the duration of the
film, so the detail in the poltergeists face is normally not
the clearest. The priest has rope strangulation marks around
his neck and is dressed in an 19th century cassock. The
priest’s neck was broken when he died, so his neck can be seen
titled to the side.

People found the corpse in the house months later,

the body was left to decompose in the house. No one
lived in the house for years, until a young family
moved in the 1920s. The family quickly moved out
when they started to experience strange things
happening, in the form of random noises being heard
throughout the house - what sounded like strangled
screeches and screams as well as the the sound of
an old rope being twisted and pulled. The spirit
communication was also presented in the form of
objects and furniture randomly moving and things
gaining power randomly. The severity of this
increased intensely over a few years and the family
didn’t understand, moving out soon after in 1930.
After the first family, the house was left unlived
in with various stories surfacing that the house
was haunted