Horror Film School is a new feature in which talent in front of and behind the camera share the ins and outs of creating the biggest onscreen scares.
“Cobweb” is French director Samuel Bodin‘s feature debut, but he’s well-known to horror fans for directing and co-writing the scary-as-hell 2019 French series “Marianne.” Bodin expands on the shadows and secrets of the series with “Cobweb,” a twisty tale in which Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr play the creepy parents of Peter (Woody Norman), who starts hearing haunted whispers in the walls. The Hollywood project, produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Point Grey, was a departure for Bodin, but follows his tested guidelines for conjuring scares. Bodin shares his dos and don’ts of directing a scary movie.
DO add tenderness to the story
The more tenderness you have in the horror story, the more scared you will be when things all go wrong. That is basic storytelling. I have to love the characters, I have to laugh with them, and suddenly, when things get complicated, I will be scared easier.
DON’T move too quickly
You have to avoid being too fast. You have to be slow. I think that’s a big, big rule. It’s not a technical thing, but it’s like you are sitting next to the campfire and telling a story with every shot. You have to move slowly and do each shot, even when it’s complicated, on set. Everyone wants to go fast, and suddenly you say no. You have to have the intention of finding your own visual language.
DO study the masters
I rewatch Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” every three months. It’s crazy to see a horror movie where you can be terrified when the language is so cinematographic. It has the full spectrum of humanity and what is horrible in humanity inside one character. That film has marked me forever. I’ve also been a John Carpenter fan since I was young. When I discovered “Halloween,” I saw how you can play and be generous in a simple way. I really think that the brilliance of John Carpenter is his universal imagery. I always think about how even if I shot a comedy or a Western, I’d still think about him.
DON’T rely on the same old scares
It’s like you’re playing a game that everyone knows, so you have to surprise people in a way. It’s why the game is still interesting. On my part, I prepare myself a lot, even when I’m in the writing process. The first idea is never the good one. When you direct it, you have to play with the audience very sincerely, and I will go further than they think.
DO embrace change
This was the first time I directed something that was not my script. On “Marianne,” we were two writers, but I really prepared my story and scenes on paper. This was a cool script because it was simple and rich, but finding a cool simple story is very complicated. So I really embraced that, but I had to enter it and say, “OK, it’s not my way to create fear. How I can use that? It’s not my story: How can I enter it the best way I can?”
DON’T disrespect the audience
The audience has to feel like they’re on a roller coaster, but you have to always respect them. You have to have them with you and then play with them a lot. When everyone accepts the game, it’s a pleasure to feel that cinematographic thing. It’s the pleasure of seeing a theater feeling the same thing in front of a big screen and jumping and everything. I love all stories, and when they are well done, I am five years old again. You must always see what you are doing as an audience would see it.
