By Matt Rogerson
In September 2018, Beyond The Void ran a feature on up-and-coming director Robin Shanea Williams (refresh your memory here). Read on, as Matt Rogerson checks back in with Robin, and shares news of her latest exciting project.
Robin Shanea Williams is the writer and director of horror shorts Contamination (2014), and Paralysis (2016) and co-writer of Nikyatu Jusu’s truly innovative vampire featurette Suicide By Sunlight (2020).
One of the most engaging facets of Robin’s work to date has been the DIY ethic which ensures that each narrative, each image, each frame is the product of an auteur voice, a singular vision made whole with a number of complementary creatives both on and behind the screen. It is very pleasing to see this aspect continue with her latest project…
A Precise Understanding of Darkness
Logline:
An artist suffering with chronic pain seeks the help of a mysterious healer, with horrifying consequences.
Synopsis:
Marlowe, an artist, unexpectedly loses her job as an art director and her chronic pain becomes excruciating. When Marlowe seeks out her neighbor, Reva, a mysterious healer, disturbing events emerge as Marlowe’s pain fades away. Soon the bizarre occurrences cause tension in her marriage to her husband Daniel. When Marlowe’s mental state starts to decline, she begins to question her perception of reality as terrifying visions unravel her and a strange, dominating voice takes over.
As with Robin’s previous solo works, A Precise Understanding of Darkness mixes the very real with the supernatural. In this case, the ‘real’ is the sort of chronic pain suffered by people the world over, yet rarely understood by the outside world as it is one of many ‘invisible’ disabilities. It makes sense, therefore, that Marlowe’s tale be told in this single location horror, ideally suited to the sort of indie budgets that have recently given us gems such as Josh Lobo’s I Trapped The Devil and Travis Stevens’ The Girl on the Third Floor. Chronic pain is a condition that essentially shrinks its victim’s world to the four walls of their home, and you can expect this to be explored alongside the psychological/supernatural knife edge suspense of events set off by the intervention of the mysterious Reva, which promise to turn Marlowe’s claustrophobic world upside down.
Robin has recently completed the concept trailer (photographed by Michael Cooke, editing and sound design by Nikolai Berger), in order to raise funds for what could very well be her feature-length directorial debut.
Q&A with Robin Shanea Williams
Q: Hi Robin, thanks for speaking with me again. So, the concept trailer! I’ve watched it a few times now and I find it to be quite infectious! Once again I find your work evoking expressionism, surrealism and the ‘Apartment Trilogy’ of Polanski. What were your influences when writing the script and putting the trailer together?
A: I was definitely influenced by the Apartment trilogy. As I develop as an artist I realize that I’m drawn mostly to exploring isolation, loneliness, and internalized psychological terror. I think much of this comes from own fears and my very real anxiety disorder that I’ve lived with for much of life. Additionally, films like The Invitation which in my opinion is a masterclass in suspense and psychological horror and Paranormal Activity which is such a creepy little one location film served as major inspiration and influence. I’m pretty obsessed with the unknown. So finding ways to combine the psychological with the supernatural is my personal creative sandbox.
Q: The first thing that struck me about the trailer is how eerie and unsettling the atmosphere is, and a big part of that is in how you use silence. It is palpable, deafening if that were possible…was that the intention?
A: Completely. I think silence can be terrifying. I find that a lot of films use way too much music to set tone and convey what they want the audience feel. If you really want your audience to experience dread and suspense, I think it’s crucial to play with silence. I’m not sure how successful I am but it’s my goal – to really use silence as a way to experience my work especially in this piece.
Q: Tell me a little about your shooting and framing techniques
A: Since this is a concept trailer and we had a tight budget. I had very little time to draw the audience in to the world I am creating. So I decided the first couple scenes would feel starkly real. Marlowe’s painful spasms should feel as raw as the experiences I’ve had or anyone who has suffered with chronic pain has experienced. Then once she is “healed” by Reva, I wanted us to quickly spiral into a nightmare. I kept telling my DP and later my editor that I wanted it feel like a nightmare you can’t wake up from. Just as warped as possible.
Q: I understand the intention of this trailer is to use as a tool to secure funding. Can you tell me a little bit about what you are looking for: estimated budget, are you seeking to bring different producers on board or just financiers?
A: We are definitely looking for interested producers and financers. We’d love to make this on a very small budget. It could be done for about 50k which is considered a shoestring budget. We also have cast in mind – and I’m open to ideas and possibilities. I think what’s most important is to be true to the work I’ve created. Horror has room for diverse voices. I think I’ve created something special with this concept trailer and with my feature screenplay. I just need funding to bring it to light.
Thanks Robin for your time, and best of luck!
It won’t have escaped anyone’s attention that the world is a changing place at the moment. The global pandemic has paused most industries, including the movie industry. However, as lockdown measures begin to ease and our countries seek both a recovery in public health and an economic recovery, financiers and producers will be looking for smart, high-concept, low-budget features that can be assembled, shot and put out into theatres, streaming and VoD services quickly. In this writer’s opinion, this is one such project.
In addition, the continued marginalisation of Black people (and more specifically racial profiling, horrific brutality and murders at the hands of the police) has done more than create a hashtag. It has prompted calls for long overdue changes in the way we approach everything in society, from our political and cultural systems all the way down to representation in film and television. 2020 has brought us some excellent female-driven genre films (such as Natalie Erika James’s ‘Relic’, the Nicola Maines-starring ‘Bit’, Shana Feste’s Run ‘Sweetheart Run’ and of course the Elisabeth Moss-starring feminist retooling of Universal’s ‘The Invisible Man’) and in genre film created by People of Colour (Malik Vitthal’s ‘Body Cam’, Aneesh Chaganty’s ‘Run’ and of course the much-anticipated Candyman remake directed by Nia DaCosta and Gerard Bush’s ‘Antebellum’ starring Janelle Monáe).
However, there remains room for more diverse voices in horror cinema and Robin Shanea Williams is one such voice. With a single-location, small cast, microbudget horror that promises psychological terror and supernatural thrills, we hope that hers is one project that will be fully realized and on our screens by the next time we have the pleasure of talking with her.
Matt Rogerson
Robin’s concept trailer can be viewed below, and she can be contacted at rswill722@mail.com. Please ensure you observe social distancing rules as you beat a path to her door to help get what looks to be a very entertaining debut feature produced and on our cinema and television screens!
The son of a VHS pirate, Matt Rogerson became a horror fan at a tender young age. A student of the genre, he is currently writing his first book (about Italian horror and the Vatican) and he believes horror cinema is in the middle of a new golden age.
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