'It's coming from inside the house.'
Most horror movie fans know that murder and torture don't just happen at summer camps and cabins in the woods.' For many of the film's characters, the terror is a little closer home. Fans of 70's horror remember the movies 'Are You in the House Alone.' and 1979's When A Stranger Calls, with the classic line, 'Have you checked the children'.
I never saw 'When A Stranger Calls' until a few years ago, but I remember kids at school talking about it after it aired on television back when I was in Jr. High in late 80's. It was especially unsettling to a few of my female friends who spent many of their Saturday nights babysitting.
In 1996's Scream, the horror was also often home based in a suburban setting. The films opening was a 12 minute sequence featuring Drew Barrymore being stalked, tormented and eventually stabbed to death in her family's home, As terrifying as running from a masked maniac in the woods might be, there was something especially brutal as seeing characters butchered in places they considered to be safe.
Sidney was terrorized in her home, and the films ending sequence, featuring multiple murders, also took place during a party at one of the characters homes. Since Ghostface loves a home invasion, it made sense then, that he be caught, and visually captured, in the home of the photographer he was on the hunt for.
Some of you might have been surprised to see new Halloween imagery from photographer Tom Nakielski from Lights On Studio. Many of you who follow the site know that Tom sadly stopped shooting this year after health and mobility issues forced him to put down his camera. But, as they say, artists got a art and if the Mountain won't go to Mohammed, then Mohammed must come to the Mountain.
I had my Scream theme in mind for awhile now, and Tom and I had been discussing some possible ideas in the spring. Unfortunately, Tom was not mobile enough to shoot with his heavy Canon camera, or maneuver around his studio. Moving lights and sets was out of the question, and Tom thought he was done shooting for good. That was until, he had an idea.
Since Tom couldn't shoot in the studio, he decided to he wanted to try shooting somewhere a little closer to home, in living room. If you look closely, you might notice some of Tom's prints on the walls behind our gorgeous Ghostface. If Tom could remain seated, and use his Android, he wanted to give capturing Ghostface a go.
Since this was new for Tom, and a bit of an experiment, he wanted to start with a model he's worked closely with in the past. It was model Hansel Wellington who first introduced me to Tom's work back in 2015. Artist and model have formed a close creative relationship, and Tom knew Hansel was the perfect model to try out this new, home based, method of shooting.
'Although I said I was through photographing. I thought I would give it a try in my living room, Thankfully, I had Hansel, who was more than willing to give it a try. I love working with Hansel, and thankfully, he's a bit of an exhibitionist willing drop his pants at the drop of a hat.
I was going to try using my camera phone, but then thought I really wanted to use my real camera, The problem is the camera is too heavy for me to even pick it up and put it on the tripod. Hansel was very helpful and it ended up going very smoothly. AKA Alfred Hitchcock. It's funny that I have thousands of dollars of studio lighting equipment. That is at the studio however, so I am so I ended up using a cheap $15 shop light.'
Hansel channeled his inner psychopath, and visited Tom at home to create some sexual and scary suburban screams. Tom liked the straight images they created, but his living room, nude prints and all, didn't exactly give off a terrifying vibe. Although Tom doesn't usually do a lot of editing on his images, this time, a little photoshop was in order to create a more sinister style to Ghostface visuals.
'The session went better than I expected. I tried using ketchup on the wig. But it didn't really show up in⁷ the shots, so I did some photoshop on the wig and knife to add some blood. It may not be convincingly real, but who wants reality now of days? Looking at the pictures, I did not think the background was. Interesting or good for a Scream theme. So I added some gritty texture to give it a kind of film noir look. I thought the cracked glass look made it more interesting and more visually horror like. '
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