How Underrated 2021 Horror Movie Achieved Its Trippiest Visuals Broken Down By VFX Artists

VFX artists break down how the underrated 2021 horror movie The Night House achieved its trippiest visuals. Directed by David Bruckner, the film follows Beth Parchin (Rebecca Hall), a widow who discovers terrifying secrets about her late husband and the home he designed for them. Along with Hall, the cast of The Night House includes Evan Jonigkeit, Sarah Goldberg, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Stacy Martin. Despite praise from critics, mostly for Hall’s performance and the use of original jump scares, audience reactions towards The Night House were mixed, and the film had a rather underwhelming box office.

In Corridor Crew‘s latest video, VFX artists revealed how bizarre visuals from The Night House were created. As Sam explained, effects designer Patrick Horvath previously shared behind-the-scenes details on social media, concerning the apparition Beth saw inside her home. Sam noted how depth was added to certain sequences, and that when it came to the head-shape in the hallway, a set was designed specifically for that image. Read some of the comments regarding The Night House‘s visuals and check out the video itself below:

“It’s all about, like, getting the depth. That’s like the first step. You want to have like a little shape in the background, and then you figure out your foreground shape. So the door shot, part of the background is, you know, shaped and then there’s actually like a small frosted section on the glass in the foreground that moves and then brings it into alignment.

“All these shots so far require some decoration in your pre-existing set, but the last one is a whole set built from scratch for that shot. And you can see like the designs, they’re like, ‘Alright, how do we create the face silhouette? Okay, where are we putting our paintings?’ So, that’s all built out to create the silhouette practically.”

Why The Night House’s Visuals Are So Effective

In one of the most memorable scenes from The Night House, after hearing strange noises, Beth begins to explore the basement, confronting a specter, presumed to be her husband. Though she sees its head turn, the question is whether the apparition was real, or an optical illusion. Corridor Crew watched the sequence, and Sam explained how “that’s like custom 3D printed molding that was specifically designed to resemble a face silhouette.” They also revealed that lighting was used to make the figure’s shape more noticeable.

The Night House features other unique visuals, including Beth’s visions of the replica house and the moment she realized what had actually been haunting her was not Owen. That entire sequence near the end of The Night House sees Beth holding an invisible presence before getting attacked. It is eventually revealed that Nothing was responsible for the strange occurrences within her home, and the shadowy figure can be seen on a boat in the final minutes.

It’s interesting to hear VFX artists discuss the imagery from The Night House, and explain how some of the effects were achieved. The apparitions featured in the movie are unique, and their depiction required some unique techniques in turn. The 2021 horror movie has given genre fans a lot of exciting moments, and learning about their creation makes them even more impressive.

Source: Corridor Crew