The Guardhouse

Three soldiers, in three different centuries (1889, 1981, and 2023), face boredom, corruption, and psychological terror within the same military guard post, confronted by the suffocating cycle of violence and futility of the Brazilian Army machine.

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.

Feature-length fiction film (estimated running time of 90 to 110 minutes)

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 body.

Oliveira (2023): Soldier, 22 years old. Anxious and desperate. He is in the Army as the sole source of income for his family. His conflict is 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 is the oppressive authoritarianism of the dictatorship and extreme loneliness, seeking refuge in music.

Ramos (1889): Soldier, 37 years old. Traumatized and bored. A former combatant in the Paraguayan War, he grapples with post-monarchy boredom and relives the atrocities he committed in the name of his country, questioning the purpose of his life.

The project is conceptually anchored in the intersection of Psychological Horror with Social and Historical Criticism, exploring claustrophobia, mental collapse, and the persistence of authoritarian violence.

Cinematic References (Tone and Aesthetics):
Son of Saul (László Nemes, 2015) – Framing and Claustrophobia – Inspiration for the use of close-ups and constant focus on the protagonists, conveying the feeling of suffocation, isolation, and the impossibility of escaping trauma.

No Country for Old Men (Coen, 2007) – Slow and Minimalist Tension – Reference for building prolonged suspense and immersion in moments of boredom and silence, where the threat is not seen but felt, reinforcing the atmosphere of psychological terror.

Gothic (Ken Russell, 1986) and Repulsion (Polanski, 1965) – Surreal Horror and Mental Collapse – Influences for representing the deterioration of the soldiers' minds, with the use of visual and sound distortions (the fog, the tightening guard tower, the visions of the dead) that blur the line between reality and madness.
Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985) – Brutality and War Experience – 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.

Distorted Noise – Lima (The Voice) and the Telephone – The sound of the telephone (old model) 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 the trigger for anxiety and threat.
Soundtrack – The Voice of Brazil and Popular Music – The contrasting use of martial music (Guarani) and the arrogant speeches of the Voice of Brazil against songs of longing and mourning (like the song of Dos Santos' mother), underlining the opposition between the military machine and human drama.
The Gaze (Rear Window) – Surveillance and Social Envy – The guard post as an observation point for soldiers over the "normal" life 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.

In a terrifying and timeless cycle, the guard post of a large Brazilian military base serves as the stage for the loneliness and psychological terror of three young soldiers, separated by centuries.
In 2023, Oliveira, pressured to support his family in the favela, deals with anxiety, lack of prospects, and the corruption of the barracks, 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, being 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 the trunk of a tree, but is confronted by the traumas of the Paraguayan War.

As a fog and a temporal distortion invade the guard posts, each in its own time, the isolation of each soldier transforms into a 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.

Psychological Horror / Historical Drama

16 years old. Due to the themes of suicide, explicit violence, sexual references, self-harm, and sensitive political content.

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.

THE GUARD 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.
The film offers an approach to taboo topics in Brazil:
1. Critique of Loneliness and Male Suicide: The narrative exposes the social pressure, emotional repression, and lack of psychological support that lead young men (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.
2. The Uselessness of the Military Machine: By portraying boredom, corruption, and arbitrary violence (like 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).
3. Timeless Historical Terror: The film uses temporal distortion to argue that the traumas of authoritarianism and violence are not resolved, they are only repeated. The guard post is not haunted by ghosts, but by the institutional memory of violence that suffocates generations of soldiers.

The approach will focus on sensory minimalism to maximize psychological impact:
• Cinematic Claustrophobia: The direction will use tight framing (referencing Son of Saul) and long periods of silence and boredom to immerse the viewer in the soldiers' anguish.

• Noise as Horror: Terror will be built predominantly through auditory elements — Lima's sarcastic voice on the phone (the personification of the institution) and the juxtaposition of distorted political news (A Voz do Brasil) with the characters' intimacy.

• Triple Time Structure: The alternation between 1889, 1981, and 2023 is not merely an aesthetic device, but the engine of terror, where the Guardhouse and its bloodstains act as a fixed point that proves that the suffering of the past is the terror of the present.