Looking to make my story more of a supernatural horror with some action and sci-fi elements

[paranoid marvin]

What if it adapted to being a game that would attract the kids to play it such as a Nintendo game or arcade?

Have you seen the updated Jumanji movie ? They enter through an old games console that looks like a cross between the Atari VCS and an Intellivision. The Tron movie acts on a similar (ish) basis.

And you have to ask would the journalist, cop etc also want to play a games console? What about the people transported through the portal before games consoles/electricity etc?

But as I mentioned there are numerous stories with people entering portals, and plenty of ways of activating them.

If it's a horror movie, you could have them doing  nothing to activate the portal. Perhaps beings on the other side of the portal at certain times or under certain circumstances come through the portal into our world and drag whoever they find in the house back over to their side?

 

[UltimateUniverse900]

Have you seen the updated Jumanji movie ? They enter through an old games console that looks like a cross between the Atari VCS and an Intellivision. The Tron movie acts on a similar (ish) basis.

And you have to ask would the journalist, cop etc also want to play a games console? What about the people transported through the portal before games consoles/electricity etc?

But as I mentioned there are numerous stories with people entering portals, and plenty of ways of activating them.

If it's a horror movie, you could have them doing  nothing to activate the portal. Perhaps beings on the other side of the portal at certain times or under certain circumstances come through the portal into our world and drag whoever they find in the house back over to their side?

Ah yes, you're right about the updated Jumanji. I was merely thinking of a way to get young kids lured in if they were to play an arcade or game console in the 1980s. For other time periods before electricity, I was thinking it could of been magic books or a secret cave?

But beings on the other side dragging whomever in at any time could also work, should I just go with that?

 

[paranoid marvin]

Ah yes, you're right about the updated Jumanji. I was merely thinking of a way to get young kids lured in if they were to play an arcade or game console in the 1980s. For other time periods before electricity, I was thinking it could of been magic books or a secret cave?

But beings on the other side dragging whomever in at any time could also work, should I just go with that?

It's going to depend on what kind of a story you want to tell. Supernatural/alien entities entering our world and kidnapping unsuspecting people is a bit of a divergence from your original post.

If you go with the accidental opening of a portal on our side, you would probably need to choose a consistent 'thing' or 'action' that opens the portal. And it can't be something too obvious, as otherwise everyone who entered the house would be taken.

I hope that some of my suggestions have been useful/helpful, but I think that the ultimate decision has to lie with yourself as the creator of the story.

 

[UltimateUniverse900]

It's going to depend on what kind of a story you want to tell. Supernatural/alien entities entering our world and kidnapping unsuspecting people is a bit of a divergence from your original post.

If you go with the accidental opening of a portal on our side, you would probably need to choose a consistent 'thing' or 'action' that opens the portal. And it can't be something too obvious, as otherwise everyone who entered the house would be taken.

I hope that some of my suggestions have been useful/helpful, but I think that the ultimate decision has to lie with yourself as the creator of the story.

If it's accidental what's an example of something the teens could of caused to open the portal that other generations before them could of done the same thing resulting in being taken? Because it might sound similar to the puzzle from Hellraiser?

Thank you, your answers have been very helpful. I'm just concerned I'll end up using the same idea from other stories and movies.

 

[Wayne Mack]

I'm just concerned I'll end up using the same idea from other stories and movies.

I find that it is the presentation of the idea that is far more important than the originality. The high level plot doesn't need to be unique, the craft is in making me, as a reader, interested in the story. Probably the best thing is to just jump in and have fun writing.

 

[UltimateUniverse900]

Thank you. I have an idea of what I want to do now, but it will consist of this portal having many different forms of entertainment or anything that can draw in a small crowd which it disguised itself as in order to trap them in this altered world. And this would have been going on for many decades in all different places. Could this work without raising any suspicion over the years of people gone missing without any trace? Say if some of the victims trapped at some point were at a nightclub and they all vanished without a trace? Would this have drawn too much attention even if it was from years ago? And what if it was those who recently vanished after doing a livestream and others witnessed it on the internet? How could their tracks be covered?

 

[Yozh]

Maybe the portal, like any good serial killer, aims for people who won’t be missed. Maybe it is sentient and only takes people when nobody else is watching. Maybe it takes people whose choices in the game indicate they will be a good victim.