All About Suspense: Damian McCarthy on Oddity | Interviews

With the mannequin, specifically, it’s seated at the main table for much of “Oddity,” but you find ways to establish this sense of an uncanny energy emanating from it. There’s something creepy and powerful about the mannequin, and I’m curious what you wanted out of its appearance and positioning through “Oddity.” 

We were trying to tease the audience into wondering when something was going to happen. Because I knew he was going to sit at the table for a lot of the film, whether or not something would happen in the third act, I knew he would always be a centerpiece. Other characters would be moving around him, other horror sequences are happening and scaring people, and this wooden man would always be sitting there, seeming to be doing very little but still somehow coming across as unsettling. 

That was the challenge that I set for myself, really: could I put something visually out of place in the middle of this room and let the film unfold around it? Even the characters would get a little bit tired of looking at him, because he’s not doing anything. We shot scenes where his head would move left to right, as you see with possessed dolls in horror films, but the temptation was more to leave him sitting there as the centerpiece. He’s very much designed in that way, to look as pained and tortured as we could make him.

Between “Caveat” and “Oddity,” as well, your features are distinguished by such rich, immersive sound design. What can you tell me about your approach to that craft, and what was required to design the sound of this film, especially with all the creaking and groaning atmosphere of the house?

It was always that we were trying to keep in mind how rural the house was. There’s always this hint of an eerie wind, blowing through the house, very low. But, at the same time, we knew that we had to restrain ourselves at times, because we were trying to build up to that third act. We never, especially with the score, wanted it to suddenly become like an action movie, where all the horror would disappear and, suddenly, things would be moving a lot quicker. It was about trying to save a lot of that really creepy sound design for that third act, to have somewhere to go as we were building to it. 

Sound design, for me, is as important as the image, if not more so. If I get scared watching a film, I can turn off the sound and continue to watch it. But if you close your eyes, it’s almost worse, because you can hear it, and now you’re imagining things that are probably worse than what you’re seeing on screen. [laughs]

“Oddity” is in theaters July 19, via IFC Films.

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