Dreamcore

A place you recognise is shown empty and slightly wrong. A corridor, a swimming pool, a playground, all correct in their parts and incorrect as a whole.

The absence of people does most of the work. A space built for a crowd, photographed with nobody in it, reads as a memory rather than a location, and memory is what the style is imitating.

Empty the space and keep it familiar. Choose somewhere ordinary and communal, then remove everyone from it.

Soft flat light with no clear source. Overhead fluorescents, an overcast window, a glow that does not resolve into a lamp. Hard directional light makes a place look real, which is the opposite of the aim.

Nostalgic colour, usually faded and slightly warm or slightly green, with the contrast pulled down. A little blur or a low resolution helps, because a sharp image insists it was really there.

Use it for memory, for liminal spaces, and for a mood of unease with no threat attached to it.

Skip it when you need a specific fear. Nothing is chasing anyone in this style, and adding a monster turns it into ordinary horror.

Weirdcore uses deliberately poor image quality, harsh flash and often crude added elements such as text or arrows. Dreamcore is softer, dimmer and more coherent.

Magical realism keeps the world completely ordinary and breaks one rule inside it. Dreamcore makes the whole space feel wrong and breaks no rule you could name.

The model populates the scene. Say the space is empty and that nobody is present, because a figure gives the audience somebody to follow and the unease drains away.

The second failure is a sharp realistic image. Ask for soft flat light, faded colour and low contrast, and avoid anything that sounds like a high quality photograph.