There was use made of a news report that played several different times and mentions the impeding accident as if it has already happened, which is a nice touch. There is also a picture frame which falls and breaks twice – rather like the continuing sequence in The Sixth Sense where the psychiatrist continually tries to open his basement door.
A lack of effect differentiation isn’t a problem, so long as one is consistent. This film employs several different techniques, such as cutting suddenly from dream to reality, bluish coloring, and black and white, which only serve to confuse an audience. The Sixth Sense showed all of its dead people without any effects and as if they fit into reality, which I think does a lot to add to the creepy factor. All these dream/premonition sequences need to have a standard look, and the storyline – particularly the ending – needs a better structure to it. As it is now, an audience might be creeped out, but they may still leave with the thought, “So…what happened there?”
Visual Look
This film had some nice visual elements to it. There was one really great special effects moment where there is a brief image of a knife impaled through Katie’s hand. It looked absolutely real, and actually gave me a bit of a start. In addition, there’s a scene early on where Katie goes to visit Wicker and after knocking on the door and window, she turns away for a bit, then back to the window to see that Melissa has suddenly appeared there and is staring at her. It’s a great moment that will make an audience jump.
There’s also a really nice montage after the scene of young Katie and her mother that is basically meant to show that Katie had grown up from “cut little girl” to “rebellious teenager.” This sequence is put together with moving images of framed photos of Katie and her mother, along with echoing audio clips that detail arguments between the two of them. It’s a really great transition from a very lighthearted opening scene to the rest of the film’s dark feeling.
However, there were a few visual issues that should have ben addressed. The most glaring (no pun intended) is the many washed-out exteriors. The worst one is at the beginning of the film where young Katie and her mother are at the beach. The sun is very bright and both are wearing all white and sitting on a white blanket. This may not have been so bad if an ND (neutral density) filter had been used, or the camera’s iris was properly adjusted, but as such both figures blend into the blanket. I’m guessing that the director wanted to show a contrast of purity and light as opposed to the depressed scenes of both mother and daughter in black that make up the majority of the movie, but this scene is just too washed out. At the very least, the two should have been on a different color blanket – a pale blue, pink, purple, etc would still match the tone without too much blending – and use of bounce cards and an ND filter to dial down the harshness. The rest of the movie’s exteriors were also quite washed out – once again, an ND filter and proper bounce cards could’ve worked wonders.
By contrast, there were several interior scenes that could have benifitted from some better lighting. While I realize the desire to create an eerie mood – which is done quite well in some scenes – others are a bit too dark. There is a scene where Katie is in Wicker’s house, which is fairly well-lit, and when she walks in front of the drawn blinds and peers out, she is almost completely washed out. Balancing this type of light is very, very difficult, but the easiest way is to get a large amount of ND gel (it’s a slightly stiff cellophane-type material that is clipped over lights to create colored effects, the ND stuff is grayish color) and tape it to the window. An ND filter basically cuts sunlight in half, which makes shooting that much easier.
There was one glaringly out-of-focus shot where Katie looks at herself in a mirror at Wicker’s house. Shooting into a mirror is tricky, plus the scene had rather low-light conditions, which could have been a factor, but there still should have been a monitor on hand to catch this.
The film makes multiple cuts to black and white, which is rather confusing for the audience. Toward the end there is a random cut to a black and white scene which appears to be a flashback, and then the film returns to what seems like the present but where everything except a few select object are in black and white. Both of these effects fit in with the movie’s lack of structure discussed above – things that may seem creepy, but doesn’t seem to serve a clear purpose.
