In 2009, when
#HeDiesAtTheEnd won the Tabloid Witch Award for Best Horror Feature Film, I interviewed director Damian McCarthy, which I reprint below:
A man is working in an office, late one night. He's alone. The lights are dim. His computer asks him if he'd like to know how he will die.
He Dies at the End is a simple film. One room, one actor, no dialogue, under 5 minutes. Yet in that brief time span, with those few elements, the film does everything a great horror film should do.
It establishes a creepy atmosphere, heightens suspense, and ends on a genuine scare. Many longer, bigger budgeted horror films offer less suspense and no real scares, earning He Dies at the End 2009's Tabloid Witch for Best Dramatic Horror Short Film.
He Dies at the End comes from Ireland, making this the second year that Best Dramatic Horror Short went to a foreign film. In 2008, the award went to Germany's
#Vadata, another minimalist tale.
Yes, the Tabloid Witch appreciates minimalist horror.
#Oculus won 2006's Best Horror Short. All three of these films were mostly limited to one room, starring one actor each. You don't need big budgets to tell a scary story.
"I wanted to make an old-fashioned supernatural horror film," says writer/director
#DamianMcCarthy. "The story's universal. Everyone in the world has felt uneasy while on their own in some place.
"In the last few years, every horror film is tie them up, cut them up. Every possible way to kill someone must have been filmed; it's not scary anymore. They're fun to watch, but they don't leave you looking over your shoulder. I wanted to see if I could scare an audience with a non-violent, black and white, dialogue free film.
"Horror filmmakers have a big arsenal of ghosts, demons, monsters, the devil. He Dies at the End relies on the unknown, which is the most terrifying thing as the audience imagines all sorts of horrible possibilities."
McCarty cites
#EvilDead2 and
#Ringu as influences. The latter "is the most terrifying, unsettling and simple horror film ever made. It is all suggestion. If they show you something to be afraid of, it's just a glimpse or a reflection in a TV screen."
As with Oculus and Vadata, He Dies at the End makes admirable use of sound. Because there's no dialogue, sounds assume greater importance in establishing atmosphere and suspense. "Sound -- and more importantly, silence -- in Ringu was a huge inspiration for He Dies At The End," says McCarthy. "Evil Dead 2 was a big influence for it's balance between comedy and horror."
Of his sole actor,
#FintanCollins, McCarthy says, "All Fintan had to rely on was his facial expressions, and his turns and glances to the door. Fintan's a true film actor. He knows the camera will pick up every little blink. He did a great job keeping things sedate in the beginning, and subtle when the horror kicks in. It would have broken the tension if it had been played with more obvious terror in his face."
McCarthy studied film and TV production at
#StJohnsCollege, in Cork, Ireland. He's writing his first feature script. His next short film, Hatch, will premiere at the
#NewYorkCityHorrorFilmFestival.
He Dies at the End was shot on HDV, in black and white for atmosphere. "I wanted the office to be full of shadows and dark corners," says McCarthy. "Black and white in horror movies suggests the threat is more supernatural -- like a ghost or demon. It gives the office a haunted house look. There were practical reasons too. (1) I wanted the questions posted onscreen to stand out clearly. (2) We had no money. Our monster was not exactly
#HRGiger's
#Alien, so we needed to keep him as dark as possible. In the end, though, I think that he did look fairly rubbish added to the whole thing."
The film was edited on Final Cut Pro. "I did the music on Garage Band. I used industrial generator and pulsing noises for the atmosphere." The film premiered at
#Film4Frightfest in London. Since then "it has screened all over the world. And now the Tabloid Witch Awards Best Dramatic Horror Short, which is an amazing honor and something I am extremely proud of. I am a big fan of Oculus, a previous winner, so it's nice to have our film in such company.
-- written by Thomas M. Sipos
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