DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

Every time I show my movie THEY COME AT NIGHT (2007), the most common question that arises is: “how did you shoot that scene where she falls down the rabbit hole?”

The answer is very simple; it’s not a real rabbit hole.

No, seriously, there is a trick.

While we were working on the shoot for TCAN, an American horror movie came out entitled PULSE. On the poster, a woman was tangled in a web of arms coming out from underneath her. I was afraid people would think that the idea/influence for my film was from that movie.



The influence actually came from an old Roman Polanski movie entitled REPULSION. This movie came out in 1965 and starred Catherine Deneuve in her first major role. In the climatic scene, the young actress could see hands coming out of the walls around her to attack and grope her. It was one of those classic terrifying moments from the 60’s.

TCAN was shot in black and white for esthetic reasons. I wanted to create a distinct contrast for the dark scenes, which I wanted more shadowy and sinister. Petr Maur did the cinematography for the first part of the film - the bedroom part - while Paul Crivellari shot the warehouse scene.

TCAN opens with Anna-Alexandra Sharrett sitting on her bed. She knows she’ll have nightmares and resents going to sleep. Ounce she laid down, we moved the mattress from the bedroom to the living room floor and installed the camera in a 90-degree angle over her head. This allowed us more work space and more height for the tripod. When the nightmare starts, we changed all the bed sheets with large panels of black fabrics to create the desired contrast effect: Anna-A, dressed in white, surrounded with darkness. I had Cathy Symonds, Ryan Browne, and Petr Maur dress in black from head to toes (including gloves and head masks). They wrapped themselves in the black fabric and started grabbing and groping Anna-A while she struggled.

Petr then grabbed on to Anna-A’s legs and pulled her out of the bed while the two others rolled on to her. The black and white paid off very well in this part of the film.

Down the rabbit hole she went.

When people watch this part of TCAN, they are under the impression that Anna-A is falling down the hole while in reality, she is sideways and not moving. I had the actress lying on the mattress, then Cathy and Ryan (still dressed in black) holding on to her. We covered the set with 5 meters of black fabric and installed the camera sideways on the floor just at the head of the mattress. Petr stood on top of the set and slowly waved the blanket while I shot the scene from under the blanket. We shot a few feet of film, then moved the camera a few feet away, shot again, then moved away again, thus creating the illusion that Anna-A is falling inside a hole while in reality, she is lying still.

I intercut this scene with shots I took in my backyard one night. I filmed as I walked through dead leaves with a flashlight. It added to the creepy effect and helped to the illusion.

The second part of the movie was shot in the same warehouse that was used in SINNER (2005). Anna-A appears there confused and scared. I shot her from the top of a 5 meter ladder with a 10mm lens on a Bolex to create the illusion of a large empty room.

In this scene, Cathy Symonds plays the ghost. She’s wearing (believe it or not) my wife’s prom dress from 1977, black gloves to her shoulders, a piece of black fabric to hide her face, and a transparent piece of fabric to cover her head. The light was set right behind her and I asked her to walk in a straight line towards the camera. On her first attempt, she couldn’t see where she was going and ended up walking sideways. I had to pierce a hole in the black cloth to allow her to see the camera.

In the editing process, using Final Cut Pro, I dropped the brightness of the scene to hide the surroundings and make the room even darker. Because the light was right behind Cathy, she stuck out despite the darkness. I then overlapped and delayed bits and pieces of the scene to create the ghostly effect.

In the final edit, Paul Charbonneau’s music added a lot of momentum to the movie. Two days of shooting, several hours of editing, excellent work from the crew and actors ended up with a simple yet effective product. THEY COME AT NIGHT premiered at the 2007 IFCO winter Gala.

CREDITS: Anna-Alexandra Sharrett, Cathy Symonds, Ryan Browne, Petr Maur

Cinematography: Petr Maur, Paul Crivellari

Music: Paul Charbonneau

Assistant: Elizabeth Duncan

Written, directed, and produced by Daniel Cardinal