Cinematography technique · used in 4 films
Setting the scariest scenes underground or in closed, below-ground spaces. The tight, buried setting becomes part of the horror.
Examples
Jonathan Demme · 1991
Buffalo Bill's basement, Lecter's underground cell, the climactic chase through darkness: the film keeps moving its action further underground. In these places, Tak Fujimoto's cinematography takes away the safety of visible exits. Both Clarice and you are trapped with no obvious way out.
Where to see it: Clarice's descent into Buffalo Bill's basement. The night-vision sequence is filmed from the killer's POV.
Guillermo del Toro · 1997
Most of the film's fear lives below the city: maintenance tunnels, an abandoned church, a train car and a nesting room. The tight, dark spaces leave the characters little room to run. You feel that the monsters own the ground.
Where to see it: The tunnels: Peter, his assistant Josh and an MTA officer enter the maintenance tunnels, and Josh is killed after going to look for help.
Guillermo del Toro · 2002
The Reaper nest sits beneath the sewers, in cramped dark spaces where the team cannot easily retreat. Being underground makes every creature feel closer. The setting helps the final push feel like a trap.
Where to see it: The assault: Blade and the Bloodpack go down to the Reaper nest beneath the sewers and detonate a UV bomb.
Zach Cregger · 2022
The scariest part of the house is below it. Tess finds a hidden room behind the basement, and a long tunnel leads down into a pit. Being underground, in cramped and hidden space, makes the dread physical, because there is no easy way out.
Where to see it: The basement. Tess locks herself in the basement and finds a hidden room with a camera, a mattress and a bloody handprint.
Questions