AMY PACHECO'S WRITING 50 PORTFOLIO
RIP Film
RIP Essay
​“The Last Call,” is a short horror film created by Amy Pacheco, Absar Ahmed, Talin Ovanessian, and Jackson Wagg and is about Talin, a college student who chooses to not go back home for Thanksgiving as she has a troubled relationship with her mother. In search of comfort and friendship due to her inability to rely on her mother, Talin invites Amy, a childhood friend, to spend the holidays with her. However, this situation darkens when Talin’s friends start disappearing after Amy’s arrival. This film is targeted at college students as it portrays a common experience of dealing with fake friends. Since college involves meeting new people and fostering new friendships, this movie cautions against blindly welcoming everyone. It demonstrates the scary reality of fake friends and how well they can hide their true colors. For instance, Amy was able to fake that she was Talin’s true friend and impede Talin’s other friendships out of selfishness and jealousy. She is a perfect example of how jealousy is everywhere and doesn’t always evidently present itself, as it sometimes lies within those whom you least expect it from. So through the use of the final girl trope and drawings from Noël Carroll’s, “The Nature of Horror,” and Carol J. Clover’s, “Men, Women, and Chainsaws,” this film serves as a reminder to not trust everyone as not everyone has genuine motives and portrays how common it is for people, like Talin, to heavily rely on friendships for support, but ultimately warns against overlooking subtle signs—such as sly comments or odd behaviors—that may expose someone’s true nature.
Moreover, my group decided to have Amy kill Jackson and Absar as a metaphor that people will go to certain extents to get what they want, even if it is at the expense of others. Amy was willing to do whatever it took for her to get Talin all to herself; she did not care about harming others as long as she got what she wanted. Her fixation on Talin became a consuming obsession, and she viewed anyone in Talin’s orbit as a barrier to her goal; she was solely driven by her dark desires. Even though Amy was strategic and sneaky, my group and I decided to make Talin’s character more powerful than Amy’s character. By maintaining the role of a final girl, Talin can take control of the situation. As stated by Clover, the final girl must be a strong female presence and a victim-hero (Clover 53). Talin was indeed a victim as she simply demonstrated her vulnerabilities to Amy. She was only looking for companionship in someone she thought she could trust. Amy took advantage of this and took matters into her own hands. When she was caught red-handed, she was not apologetic as she saw nothing wrong with her actions, and tried to manipulate Talin into trusting that she did this for her. Talin demonstrates her strength and power as she stands up against Amy and tells her, “No. YOU don't understand… You don’t own me!” and pushes Amy off the edge of the stairs. Talin transcended her victimhood and rejected Amy’s control. Her words not only rejected Amy’s dominance but also reclaimed her self-worth and independence. Amy falling off the stairs symbolized not only physical defeat but also the collapse of her manipulative dominance as a fake friend. Talin emerged from this battle as both a survivor and heroine in her own narrative.
Aside from the scriptwriting, I also contributed to the filmmaking process. My group and I encountered a couple of difficulties in terms of how we were going to capture Amy, killing both Jackson and Absar. We were unsure of how to capture a murder scene without making it look fake. So, I decided to make the red pen the murder weapon, as it is an object that seems harmless. Using a pen as the murder weapon demonstrates that Amy is truly insane as she is capable of killing someone with a writing utensil. I also came up with the idea that we do not necessarily have to show Amy directly killing them. I suggested that we show a glimpse of Amy’s murderous actions but leave the murder itself up to the imagination of the audience. I chose to have a close-up of Amy creepily stalking Jackson through the study room’s window and show her clicking the red pen. I told Jackson to look frightened and try to back away from Amy as she approached him with a pen to make the audience fear for his life. Another key idea that I contributed was the final scene between Talin and Amy. Originally, we planned to have Talin kill Amy by slamming a rock against her head; however, this proved to be difficult as we had no idea how to shoot this scene. I decided that it would be easier for us to go a different route. I suggested we shoot the scene on a staircase in which Talin would push Amy right off. This helped finalize our film much smoother and made it a more realistic ending.
My group and I focused on following conventional horror expectations; we made Talin the archetypal final girl, battle Amy, the personal monster in her life, and the slasher in the narrative. As explained in “TV Tropes,” the final girl is the last character standing against the slasher and is typically an innocent female character. Talin was the last character standing, given that Jackson and Absar were murdered, and had no choice but to confront Amy. My group chose to do this to ensure that our film follows the criteria of the final girl trope. Furthermore, we also ensured that Amy’s slasher character followed Carroll’s criteria regarding constituting an art-horror monster. Carroll argues that a monster must be threatening and provoke feelings of disgust and revulsion, as this would demonstrate that the monster is unwholesome and impure (Carroll 53). Amy’s character proved that she was indeed menacing as she displayed her ability to kill using only a pen. This further positioned her as categorically interstitial since she poses danger despite her non-threatening appearance. She does not look like the typical slasher—she is simply a “normal” college student. However, the fact that she does not look threatening makes this film scarier because it demonstrates the reality that dangerous people are not always physically threatening, and emphasizes the need for caution when creating new friendships.
​Furthermore, as the scriptwriter, I was responsible for creating a rough draft that included some ideas for our storyline. I decided to base the story on two college students who were childhood best friends. I chose to use college students as the main characters for the film to make it seem more realistic and relatable. The beginning of the film starts with Amy appearing as if she was like any other normal friend. I chose to hide Amy’s true colors at the beginning of the film to demonstrate that it is very easy for someone to fake their intentions. I also decided to include a line that would have great significance and would repeat itself at the end of the film. I made Amy say, “Don't worry, now that I’m here, you have nothing to worry about.” At first, this may seem like a harmless thing to say; however, this comment subtly suggests that Amy might have ulterior motives but does not directly demonstrate any threat just yet. This line also makes an appearance at the end of the film as Talin confronts Amy. Amy said, “Don’t you remember? I told you, you would have nobody else to worry about…” I chose to make this a significant line because it causes the audience to connect the dots and realize that Amy has demonstrated signs of jealousy since the very beginning. I also came up with the idea of Amy angrily writing down Jackson’s study room number after he interrupted her conversation with Talin. This was one of the biggest details in the film as it was the first scene that directly demonstrated something weird about Amy as it is not normal for someone to sneakily write down another person’s future whereabouts.
​Overall, this was one of the best group projects that I have ever worked on. Every group member was a delight to work with. Not only did we all get along very well, but we also worked very well together. Every meeting we had was very efficient which is why we never fell behind on our work. We made sure to stay on top of our workload. For example, from the moment the project was given to us, we began to work on it. We immediately decided on a day to meet up and create a script so we could begin filming as soon as possible. On the days we were filming, we made the most of our time and focused on filming what was needed to stay on track. We were able to film everything in two days, which we all thought was pretty impressive. In addition, we all also had very good communication with each other in every aspect of this project. We all shared ideas and created a storyline that we all approved and liked. Everyone was easy to reach out to whenever it came to planning when to meet up. Ultimately, this was one of my favorite groups I have worked with. They were very fun and intelligent people to work with as they made this project very exciting to work on.