how to concoct a horror-yarn by smoke 'n mirrors...

create a creature... hmmm, it refers to itself as The Contrivance. Figure-out if it murders humans... Probably. Leave its motives unclear for the moment.

create a secondary horror to buttress the first... The Eye At The End Of The Street ('road' is too cliche-ridden). An unblinking floating-eye, which'll either be a spaceship (Earth's biology casting an 'eye'-effect, if the Contrivance is an alien) or a paranormal 'companion'.

pick a location for maximum action and weirdest atmospherics... a semi-remote, half-forested subdivision of mostly empty houses due-to-a-depressed-economy.

choose a muse-theme: a robot in a deserted house keeps making mysterious phonecalls to a little kid... A muse-theme should act like a health-replenishing 'game save' for your imagination to keep returning-to.

end of phase-1.