The long shadow of Get Out looms over these haunting stares, in a thriller predicated on some level on the exposure of racism. Her race is not a secret (“We’re Black,” says her son Sebastian, played by Samuel Small, when Neve balks at Ian’s hiring of a Black woman at his office), but it is verboten she never mentions Blackness, discourages her daughter Mary’s (Maria Almeida) styling of her baby hairs, and begins falling to pieces at the sight of two dark-skinned Black youths, whose unusual presence in town and in Neve’s new life toggles between spectral and literal, or sometimes both. She drives a Range Rover, wears strings of pearls and pussy bows, hosts a gala raising funds for “unfortunate individuals” in Africa, hides her natural hair beneath a series of manicured wigs. Married to a white man, an insurance broker named Ian (Justin Salinger), and fully absorbed in the mannerisms of pastoral white wealth, Neve’s story essentially functions, at first, as a passing narrative. That comes chiefly at the expense of Madekwe’s better-than-it-should-be performance as Neve, neé Cheryl, now a deputy headmistress at an overwhelmingly white public school in a tiny English suburb. British actor and writer Nathaniel Martello-White’s directorial debut nudges at some uncomfortable fault lines of race and class, but tends to over-index unearned suspense for character development or insight. Some get answered, but most do not, in any satisfying or specific way. ![]() While there is something to be said for all the horror movies out there that do show their monsters or characters, there’s something chilling about not knowing what the main characters are being faced with.It’s an unsettling, propulsive start that provokes several promising questions – where is she going? Why is she leaving? Who is the sinister voice on the answering machine? All the baselines of a thriller. The fear, bewilderment, and overwhelm that characters feel when they’re encountered by blinding lights from an unknown source can certainly leave an impression on the audience that extends far past the runtime.Īdditionally, the lights can indicate the presence of something without ever showing it (although you might catch a glimpse once the lights show up in some movies). More specifically, extraterrestrial movies. A great example of movies that use very strong hard lighting are sci-fi movies. When you think of horror, what genres do you think of? Most might think of their favourite movies in the slasher genre or something that stuck with them from a supernatural movie. However, that’s not to say that bright light doesn’t have a place in horror at all. For the most part, you’re going to see very little light as our fear of the darkness and more importantly, what’s inside it, is an essential component in horror. Lighting, like most elements in movies, can set a specific tone and evoke certain emotions. As long as you make sure you’re not making your film so dark that one can’t enjoy it, you should have no problem using this strategy to really shock your audience when it matters most. ![]() A great example of this is in the Halloween movies, where you might not see Michael Myers until it’s too late. By utilising underexposure, you can keep them hidden from the audience until it’s their time to strike. Say, for example, that you want to do a villain reveal as they hide in the darkest corners of a house. That being said, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t appropriate times to employ underexposure. Knowing how to balance low lighting and other forms of lighting is critical to creating something that people will actually be able to watch, especially if you’re building a film studio you have control over. Obviously, this doesn’t translate to good media. ![]() If you’ve watched today’s horror, you’ve likely come across a few films that were simply too dark throughout the whole thing. ![]() Underexposure can be a bit of a pain point in modern horror.
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