TECHNIQUE HORROR
WHETHER IN DARKNESS OR DAYLIGHT, a well-timed jump scare CAN GO A LONG WAY”
hold there, and then Bambi would move, and you’d be like ‘Oh, shit!’ It caught the audience off guard.” BEWARE OF DARKNESS Achieving that darkness is a delicate balance; too much and the audience might miss something, not enough and the film isn’t as scary. “The issue we are constantly having is: everyone has a different viewing experience,” Knight describes. “People are watching on their phone, on the train, in daylight; others are in their house with a bright TV in a dark room.” Between cinemas, streaming services and home releases, ‘there’s no configuration that’s universal’. Whether in darkness or daylight, a well-timed jump scare – a horror staple – can go a long way. Something Very Bad ’s opening episode contains several. The first is in a diner, where Rachel and Nicky pause their road trip; the second is in a rest stop bathroom, where she searches for the parents of a baby that’s been
left in a parked car. When she can’t find them, she drives down the road to a bar, urging an employee to call the police. While in the bathroom, a man peers over the stall and stares at her – the third jump scare. There’s another when she returns to the rest stop, wondering where Nicky and the other car have gone. “Those moments were evident in the script,” says Trojnar. The more unexpected, he thinks, the better. “My favourite was the one where Nicky smashes his hand against the glass,” while Rachel’s in the car, transfixed on the trees – and what might be beyond them. With lighting, meanwhile, Trojnar was trying to create a mood more than fear itself. “We tried to keep it as mysterious and gritty as possible,” he says, while grounding it in naturalism. “It’s a horror story that starts as a family drama. The lighting shouldn’t be too enhanced or manipulated,” he thought. Taking place primarily at Nicky’s family’s winter cabin, Something Very
A SMACKEREL OF SCREAMS Both camera and actor were rigged onto a dolly in Winnie- the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 (left)
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