Clown Train Directed by Jaime Donnelly
The sound in this film is carefully choreographed, and is timed perfectly to synchronize with points of tension to build the fear. The type of sounds, both incidental and added, are menacing.
The film starts with 27 seconds of darkness, and only the recognizable sound of a train screeching. The sound is industrial, tense, chilling, grinding and juxtaposed with the subtle added sounds of a child’s toy flute. Before we see anything, we know this is not going to be comfortable.
The opening shot in the train, has some light industrial sound, and flickering of lights, buzzing, and building of tension with the added sounds. Tapping, drum beat, winding up to something as the clown moves closer. The sounds of the clowns mouth with saliva disgusts. And his loud joke, scares us with fear.
When the clown tells his second joke – this coincides with the peak tension in the sound. This stops abruptly and is filled by the loud laugh of the clown. It suggests psychopathy. The clown is close to sitting on top of the young man and this is the point of extreme tension in the film. The ambient sounds stops abruptly as he gets up to leave. Then complete silence to signify the end.
Visual analysis
The opening 27 seconds of darkness only works due to the strong sound scape. The first visual of the train carriage has strong lines of perspective that pull the eye into the frame, to where the young man is seated. The large window on the left breaks the frame at the top and bottom, another technique to draw us in.
The lighting is dark, muted, moody, in contrast with the brightness of the clown’s wig. The artificial lighting is contrived, controlled and also creates a look of ordinariness – this could be anywhere, anytime, and for any of us…
Sequences – the alternating sequences of shots showing their responses to each other, all seem natural. These are mixed with a couple of long shots so we are clear of the physical distance between the characters. Once the clown moves, there is strong use of over the shoulder shots, some with no speaking. Much is said by them not speaking and the sporadic silence and shrill of ambient sound.
There are a couple of shots from outside the train, with the young man framed. I am guessing that this is done to show he is ‘framed’ or targeted? Another shot of the two of them from outside. I am not sure why…
Near the ending is another very wide shot and from up high, like the camera in the carriage. Perhaps this is to make us think something big is going to happen. Something is going to fill this frame. Harrowing and very clever.
We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsey, Cannes 2011)
After watching the Clown train I struggle to move out of horror genre was reminded of another disturbing scene with strong use of sound.
In this scene, the daughter has been in an ’accident’ and has lost an eye. The son, Kevin is responsible – he is best described as a ‘challenging’ child. The tension at the dinner table is palpable as the parents try to deal with their son, in their different parenting styles.
The sound when Kevin peels the fruit and chews on it has been accentuated by the film maker. The sound when he pops open the fruit, and crushes it is truly disturbing. It looks like an eyeball and It sounds like it has a hard center which he is prepared to gnash through. He talks with this in his mouth biting down on it, masticating, drooling and the sound of juices and saliva is primal and evil.
We see this from several angles too. There are front shots, close-ups of him peeling the fruit, and side shots where we see and hear him bite down on it, and juices bursting out, as if he is celebrating this.
kyoungish 