Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet streamed Vicious via Paramount+ subscription, so be warned, and don’t answer the door!
I’m always impressed when a horror film’s sound can provoke visceral audience reactions as successfully (or more so) than the visuals, and The Strangers helmer Bryan Bertino’s 2025 movie release, Vicious, is indeed one of those movies. Currently streaming after originally being set for theaters, Vicious puts Dakota Fanning’s Polly in the middle of a single-location nightmare, and one of Bertino’s smartest moves here (beyond the A+ casting) was limiting the music to match the narrative, so that Fanning and the sound design take center stage.
00:00Look, something like her gagging is all Dakota, and it is all, you know, her being willing to push herself way farther than I, even when I wrote it, I had imagined that she would be willing to go.
00:15And, you know, you almost, you know, I ended up gagging on, off screen, like, because I, it was so, like, it felt so real, and, like, you're almost like, we should give her a safe word because we won't be able to tell.
00:30But, like, yeah, she was so committed from the beginning that it really opened up the doors of what we could do as filmmakers because she knows herself and knows what she's capable of.
00:46And that, you know, you could have her breaking down, sobbing, and then instantly turn, you know, on a dime or then start to choke and, or sob, and, and then, and then I call cut and then we're ready to go again.
01:02And it was, it was such a gift to have somebody so committed.
01:07And, and I think that that really comes through when people watch the movie.
01:10That's, the gagging is, honestly, I don't like to listen to people choke.
01:16So I think that might be, I have a really bad gag reflex.
01:20I, you know, I watch everything now.
01:24I've, I've, over the course of my career, I've cut off enough.
01:28I've, I've, I've stabbed people.
01:31I've, there's not much anymore that actually bothers me in the same way.
01:38And so I don't know.
01:40I mean, I think, I think I end up reacting more to the moments that I find that feel the purest.
01:46Like those are the, you know, if I'm going to tear up or, or get emotional at my monitor, it's usually from, you know, like her on the phone with her dad and hearing his voice for the first time, like grabbed me in a way.
02:04Like, even every time we were watching it, it was just like, the, the feeling that that would elicit for a person, I think would be a pretty terrifying and emotional moment.
02:15Like, it's just like he's, like I know, like I don't think so.
Be the first to comment