Colorful Lighting Elevates Film From Gratuitous Slasher to Arthouse Giallo
Vibrant hues transform micro-budget feature, Die!, into an award-winning, psychosexual thriller depicting the murder of inebriated teenagers by an unknown killer.
Alexandra Fennell’s $837 freshman effort began like many independent genre fare. “I was watching a lot of super old slashers like The Burning and The House on Sorority Row,” explains Fennell, “And then my cousin was all like, ‘I totally wanna’ be in a movie!.’ She didn’t mind getting naked and so it all just started to come together, you know?”
When asked about her use of bright reds, yellows, and blues, Fennel recalls an incident with a box of paint and a homemade firework that nearly halted their production, but ultimately became an important part of the film. “So my boyfriend’s stupid roommate threw a cherry bomb into the house and it landed in all our paint supplies. Next thing we knew, it looked like a Pride parade in our living room. And all our lighting equipment was totally covered. I was super pissed at first, but it actually turned out to be pretty sick.”
The serendipitous bombing ultimately led critics to compare Fennell to lauded Italian filmmakers after its premiere to an applauding crowd at the Sundance Film Festival.“Die! is a rainbowed love letter to the Giallo films of Bava and Argento,” wrote film critic, Leonard O’Hare, who championed the film during its successful festival run. O’Hare’s passion for Fennell’s indie effort drove him to challenge any negative reviews on IMDB message boards. In a thread titled “This movie sux,” the critic responded, “Perhaps the filmmakers’ clever homage to Italian cinema is above your head.”
Less than a year after filming began with paint-covered lights and her scantily-clad cousin, Fennel is in talks to direct a follow up, tentatively titled Die Again! Anxious to kickstart the sequel, Fennel is already preparing for the future by looking into the past, “I’ve started watching those Euro movies the internet told me about. They’re pretty boring and weird, but I’ll probably use the orange blood next time.”
