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SEAHORSE
SEAHORSE
FORMAT
Feature-length fiction film (estimated running time of 90 to 110 minutes)
GENDER
Psychological Horror / Historical Drama
AGE RATING
16 years old. Due to themes of suicide, explicit violence, sexual references, self-harm, and sensitive political content.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Young Adult: Individuals interested in genre films with strong political and social commentary, especially those who value works about toxic masculinity, mental health, and Brazilian military history.
LOGLINE
Trapped in time, three soldiers in 1889, 1981, and 2023 face boredom, corruption, and psychological terror within the same military guard post. Three eras, one same fear: the endless cycle of violence of the Brazilian Army.
ABOUT THE PROTAGONISTS
The story is told from the perspective of three characters in different time periods, whose lives alternate and merge, acting as a single social and historical entity.
Oliveira (2023)
Soldier, 22 years old. Anxious and desperate. He's in the Army as the sole source of income for his family. His conflict is between social pressure (money, family, status) and corruption (arms trafficking within the base), using his cell phone as an escape from reality and a source of anguish.
Dos Santos (1981)
Soldier, 19 years old. Exhausted and grieving. His loyalty is broken when he is humiliated and forbidden from attending his mother's funeral. His conflict lies between the oppressive authoritarianism of the dictatorship and extreme loneliness, seeking refuge in music.
Dos Santos (1981)
Soldier, 19 years old. Exhausted and grieving. His loyalty is broken when he is humiliated and forbidden from attending his mother's funeral. His conflict lies between the oppressive authoritarianism of the dictatorship and extreme loneliness, seeking refuge in music.
SYNOPSIS
In a terrifying and timeless cycle, the guardhouse of a large Brazilian military base serves as the stage for the solitude and psychological terror of three young soldiers, separated by centuries.
In 2023, Oliveira, pressured to support his family in the favela, grapples with anxiety, lack of prospects, and military corruption, while watching news of a coup attempt on his cell phone and struggling between boredom and temptation. In 1981, Dos Santos is forbidden from attending his mother's funeral, humiliated and forced to guard the wall amidst the hysteria of the dictatorship and news of attacks. In 1889, Ramos, with nothing to do after the Proclamation of the Republic, seeks distraction by carving a tree trunk, but is confronted by the traumas of the Paraguayan War.
As a fog and a temporal distortion invade the guard towers, each in its own time, the isolation of each soldier transforms into deadly claustrophobia. They relive their traumas, haunted not by ghosts, but by the persistence of violence and pressure from the Brazilian Army. The story culminates in a suicide attempt, which exposes the human cost of authoritarianism and male loneliness.
REFERENCES
The project is conceptually anchored in the intersection of Psychological Horror with Social and Historical Critique, exploring claustrophobia, mental collapse, and the enduring violence of authoritarianism.
Cinematic References (Tone and Aesthetics):
Son of Saul (László Nemes, 2015) - Framing and Claustrophobia
He's a 10-year-old boy who grew up in the world of samba. He's part of the children's percussion group, but his dream is to be a master of ceremonies.
He likes to boss the other drummers around. The other members get mad at him and he has no friends. He's constantly out of rhythm with the drums because he gets...
always "in the clouds".
Go and See (Elem Klimov, 1985) - Brutality and War Experience
A basis for immersion in historical violence (such as Ramos' trauma in the Paraguayan War), using the camera to reflect the horror in the characters' eyes.
Gothic (Ken Russell, 1986) and Repulsion (Polanski, 1965) - Surreal Horror and Mental Breakdown
Influences for representing the deterioration of the soldiers' minds, with the use of visual and auditory distortions (the fog, the tightening guard tower, the visions of the dead) that blur the line between reality and madness.
Son of Saul (László Nemes, 2015) - Framing and Claustrophobia
Inspiration for the use of close-ups and constant focus on the protagonists, conveying a feeling of suffocation, isolation, and the impossibility of escaping trauma.
Go and See (Elem Klimov, 1985) - Brutality and War Experience
A basis for immersion in historical violence (such as Ramos' trauma in the Paraguayan War), using the camera to reflect the horror in the characters' eyes.
Gothic (Ken Russell, 1986) and Repulsion (Polanski, 1965) - Surreal Horror and Mental Breakdown
Influences for representing the deterioration of the soldiers' minds, with the use of visual and auditory distortions (the fog, the tightening guard tower, the visions of the dead) that blur the line between reality and madness.
Distorted Noise - Lima (The Voice) and the Telephone
The sound of the (old-fashioned) telephone and Lima's ghostly voice will be treated as an element of supernatural horror, similar to the frequency distortion tone present in games like Silent Hill, acting as a trigger for anxiety and threat.
Triple Time Structure
The alternation between 1889, 1981, and 2023 is not merely an aesthetic device, but the driving force of terror, where the guardhouse and its bloodstains act as a fixed point proving that the suffering of the past is the terror of the present.
Soundtrack - The Voice of Brazil and Popular Music
The alternation between 1889, 1981, and 2023 is not merely an aesthetic device, but the driving force of terror, where the guardhouse and its bloodstains act as a fixed point proving that the suffering of the past is the terror of the present.
The Gaze (Rear Window) - Surveillance and Social Envy
The guard post serves as an observation point for soldiers to watch over the "normal" lives of civilians (the arguing couple, the children), intensifying the isolation and social resentment of the protagonists. Even though the soldiers in the guard post see very little because of the wall, they hear everything that happens beyond the concrete.
JUSTIFICATION AND APPROACH
The project A GUARITA transcends the horror genre by positioning itself as an urgent and necessary commentary on Men's Mental Health and the Persistence of Authoritarianism in Brazilian history.
SOCIAL AND THEMATIC RELEVANCE
The film offers an approach to taboo topics in Brazil:
A Critique of Loneliness and Male Suicide
The narrative exposes the social pressure, emotional repression, and lack of psychological support that lead young people (like Dos Santos and Oliveira) to collapse. The film is a dramatic warning about the urgency of mental health policies, especially in highly rigid environments such as the military.
The Uselessness of the Military Machine
By portraying boredom, corruption, and arbitrary violence (such as that of Ramos or Lima), the project questions the social function and usefulness of the Brazilian Army, echoing historical criticisms of the role of the Armed Forces in times of crisis and coups d'état (1889, 1981, 2023).
Timeless Historical Horror
The film uses temporal distortion to argue that the traumas of authoritarianism and violence are not resolved, but only repeated. The guard post is not haunted by ghosts, but by the institutional memory of violence that suffocates generations of soldiers.
