AHS is an anthology created by Ryan Murphy (my spirit animal) and Brad Falchuk. I am drawn to this show because of the coo-coo crazy, but mostly because of the innovative cinematography work by Michael Goi. Every episode, every scene, even the opening credits, takes me on a visual journey into the world of the gruesome and sometimes erotic. I especially love the way the camera always finds a way to pull me in as if I were a part of the story, not watching it. For example, the scene in AHS: Coven where Fiona Goode, the supreme witch, conjures Papa Legba, a demon. Instead of using a talking head shot, for maximum freak out, Goi flipped the camera to circle Fiona and land on Papa Legba (:47-1:30). The slow movement and the shadows cast on the wall sort of foretold me someone or something was being summoned from an entirely different dimension. We as human beings move left to right and front to back. Papa Legba was introduced using a full circle, and the circle movement indicated he was a spirit.
There is another scene from AHS: Freak Show where Twisty the Clown has just killed a man out on a date, and turns to run and ultimately kill the woman. Twisty turns around and the camera moves showing her point of view of him chasing after her (2:45-2:56). It makes me feel so uncomfortable every time I watch it, because in that moment, I felt the unanswered question. Was she going to survive? I held my hands over my face halfway wanting to believe she would, but knowing she wasn’t going to escape her fate. AHS inspires me to be a better storyteller, to take risks, and to find better ways to make my story more visually appealing.
I hate scary movies, but I forced myself to watch these clips because 1) it’s daytime and 2) I’ve heard so many wonderful things about this show and the way it’s shot. With both of these minute-long clips I found myself covering my eyes and peeking through my fingers (my go-to move when I’m scared), but quickly overcoming my fear because I couldn’t help but evaluate the great cinematic shots. It’s pretty amazing how a simple POV switch builds tension and fear, and it’s also amazing how examining everything as a cinematographer makes everything just a little less scary.
These two shots reminded me of an intense scene from a show I absolutely love, The Walking Dead. (I know, I know — you can binge watch TWD, but not AHS? But I was afraid of this zombie-filled series for the first three seasons, too.)
*SPOILER ALERT* This clip is a HUGE spoiler so if you’re invested in this show at all and not caught up, do not watch this. *SPOILER ALERT*
http://bit.ly/20eIium
This scene of a main character’s “death” combines both techniques Goi used in American Horror Story. Rohn Schmidt is the head cinematographer, and I believe he used a combination of 360-degree camera movement and jump cuts between POV’s to leave the viewer with the unanswered question: Did Glenn really die?
I haven never finished this season, but you know what? I’m not gonna go for a picnic anywhere close to the bushes in my life.
I found it’s really difficult to make a good horror movie that’s not full of cliché. But we always get scared when something jumps out of nowhere, even though we knew it’s going to happen when we look through a keyhole, peephole; and when the camera is on POV, and all of a sudden it turns to look back. Those camera movements build up so much tension that creates what we called the “horror”.
However, you may remember the indie horror film I was talking about, “It Follows”. It only has two “jump out and scare the s*** out of you” scene, the rest of the film is scary in a way that it brings out our inner fear, which I don’t see many other horror movies do. The monsters never run, they walk, some slow, some fast, you can always get away with it, but it’s always there. It follows you anywhere, anytime. By far this is the most interesting horror movie I have seen, plus the amazing soundtrack reminds me of Hitchcock’s classic horror movies.
Trailer of It Follows if you haven’t seen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkZYbOH0ujw