The Pica Towers films were a great example of how short stories with little background and minimal scenery can still be scary. Many modern scary movies make the mistake of showing and telling you too much about the characters and the rely on special effects to make the bad guy scarier.
These films use minimalism as their strength. The robots have minimal facial expressions and the simplest gesture can convey so much emotion. The scenery is simple is doesn’t involve very many camera angles and the “bad guy” isn’t shown in two of the three films. The black and white cold environments of the film immediately suggest that these are god-forsaken places where nothing good can happen and prepares you for what you’re about to see, or so you think!
The Good News had a really great opening shot where the camera starts off upside down but you don’t know it until the shot is turned right side up. This shot in itself plays on the natural instinct that humans have that we don’t like to be upside down. Then we think we get to see the bad guy in the robot that is hoisting the little robot farther up in the air. The great twist in the story line comes when the unseen killer faces who we think is the bad guy and his eyes open wide in horror.The fact that in two of the three movies we can’t see the killer makes the killer much scarier than a character the film maker could have ever created.
The camera angles and panning is another great technique that the filmmaker uses to suggest the vulnerability of the characters. In the Hounds of Flesh the director uses multiple wide angle shots from above to show how small the character is compared to the creepy environment they’re in.
The filmmaker references some natural scare tactics that most people can identify with. Again, not being able to see the killer allows the viewer to create a much scarier bad guy than they could have ever created. They also harness the scare-power of blindness in the Hounds of Flesh. Not being able to see what’s around you is a very scary idea for most people. The blind robot follows the dog to get his cane back and stumbles upon a murder scene that he isn’t even aware of. From there the filmmaker uses the wide angle birds eye shot to show his fragility.
In Pizza Sangre they tap into the fear of being watched with the shot through the rifle scope. Switching back and forth between the rifle view and the wide angle shot of the pizza delivery man on the ground creates a strong contrast in the character views for the audience. We become stressed about who might be looking through the scope and what might happen to the pizza delivery guy. To top it off, once the pizza guy has been shot the dog comes out of nowhere and starts eating the pizza. This is the same dog who appeared to be licking up the blood from the Hounds of Flesh and his presence in the Pizza Sangre begs the question, what’s going to happen once the dog finishes the pizza???