We recently got to interview the editor of the new horror sensation’Oddity’. Check out our interview with Brian Philip Davis on how his editing played a part in one of the scariest films of the year.
• How did you get involved with Oddity and what sold you on the project?
Katie Holly, one of the producers I had previously worked with on Boys from County Hell, contacted me about Oddity. I thoroughly enjoyed the script and was a fan of Damian’s first film, Caveat, since it debuted on Shudder, so I was eager to meet him. During a quick Zoom call, it became clear that Damian and I shared similar interests and would work well together on the film. However, I was still tied up with another project at the time. Fortunately, Damian agreed to wait for me to start the edit a few weeks after they had already completed principal photography.
• How did the editing process help with the film’s pacing and jump-scares?
Oddity is a bit of an ensemble piece involving a lot of different characters, so we found that we were moving scenes around quite a bit and restructuring to make sure that the story was told in the most entertaining way possible. For example, the scene of Olin at the door with Dani was not intended to be the opening; in the script, it was much later into the film. Also, there are a few twists and turns that come along the way, so we found ourselves exploring different ways of revealing those and at different points. I’m a big believer in something that Walter Murch has said before: that the screenplay generates the material that you use to make the film; you’re not necessarily using it in the same order. My editor’s cut (or ‘assembly’ as some people call it) will always be the scripted version of the film, but once the director comes in and we really start to interrogate the different ways in which we can tell the story the film reveals itself. With Oddity, the material was definitely all there, and we probably had more than we needed. I don’t think there was a single line of ADR in this film, which is pretty rare.
With the jump scares, we were really trying not to make them feel cheap; they had to be earned. We spent a lot of time going over these moments, trying to get them exactly right, and Damian has a really good sense of when a scare is working or not. We got to the point where we were just adjusting frames and moving sounds slightly left or right. There is one moment in the film involving Yana (played by Caroline Menton) in her bedroom with a camera, and we end up getting two jump scares in a row. This was something that took a bit of work to get the timing exactly right so that the audience can settle their nerves ever so slightly after the first scare before you immediately hit them with another. You can become ‘edit blind’ after you’ve been working on something for a while, so one useful thing was testing the film with an audience in Dublin. That screening went really well, and it was reassuring to us that the film was actually scary and worked in the way we intended.
• What conversations did you have with Damian Mc Carthy about his vision for the film?
Damian has a unique tone that comes across in his scripts. There are extremely unsettling and scary moments throughout, but there is also a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor in his work that I could see even from watching Caveat. After working with Damian for a couple of weeks, I could see that we share a similar sense of humor, so we worked well together to mine the right moments from the footage to include in the film. I think tone can be a bit of a subjective thing, and for me, it’s more like a gut feeling as to what fits or doesn’t fit in a Damian Mc Carthy film.
We were also living together during the edit, which was kind of different. I live in Belfast, and Damian lives in Cork, which is a 4-hour drive, so we both met up in Dublin and cut the film at Egg Post Production. We were sharing accommodation, which was a little daunting at first, considering I’d never met Damian in person, but after a short while, we were getting on like a house on fire. We’d be walking to and from work together, so I think there was a conscious effort to not talk about Oddity all the time. We’d talk horror, watch movies in the evenings, and Damian was also working on other scripts, so there was a nice balance.
• How excited are you that this is going to be playing in Cinemas?
Watching films I’ve worked on with an audience is my favorite part of the job, and I’m really glad people will have the opportunity to see Oddity on the big screen with a crowd. It’s been getting some great reactions. I just came back from an amazing screening at Galway Film Fleadh. It was a late-night screening full of jumps, screams, and a lot of laughs. I’d forgotten how funny the film is – it probably gets more laughs than some comedies.
• What was your reaction when this film was announced it was going to be screening at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival?
I was over the moon to hear that Oddity will play at Fantasia. It’s such a great showcase of the best genre films on an international scale, and I’m honored to be involved in one of the films this year. The crowds are always so passionate; they love horror, and really, that’s who we were always making this film for.
• What are you hoping audiences will get out of Oddity?
Ultimately, I hope that audiences feel the same way I do about the film. I think it has a unique creepy vibe, lots of scares, a surprising amount of laughs, and great performances. It’s a horror that’s unpretentious and doesn’t take itself too seriously. It works like an old EC Comics story – and they don’t make a lot of stuff like that anymore. I guess as filmmakers, we make films that we want to watch, and I hope there are enough other like-minded people out there who’ll enjoy watching them.
