Currently in the production phase, EDSS TV’s latest film, Shattered, differs greatly from Dry on a Sunday, which they premiered in the Student Centre just a few months ago. Siddharth Singh, who wrote and directed Shattered, describes the film as “a young man who experiences a series of violent episodes wherein he brutally stabs young women. The short film delves into the mind of this young man and analyses why he experiences these violent and horrifying episodes.”
The inspiration for the 30-minute psychological horror came from classics like The Shining, Psycho, and contemporary works like Black Swan, Singh says. But this time the focus will be from the point of view of the perpetrator, Roy. “My aim for this short film is to show the audience that violence is not always perpetrated arbitrarily,” says Singh. “At times, there are quite serious psychological reasons behind a person’s behaviour that are lost amidst the blood and the gore.”
Fourth-year theatre and drama major Tom Ketchum plays Roy. “Finding an actor for this role was extremely difficult. This character is quite disturbed and suffers from a number of psychological issues. I needed an actor who could project the inner anger and pain of this character through the use of minimal dialogue […],” Singh says. “Tom fell into the character’s headspace so effortlessly. In a matter of seconds he becomes so aloof, so distant, and yet so ominous.”
Singh hopes to bring a slightly new take on the horror genre, saying horror films have “become obsessed with the slashing and gashing […] plot holes are brushed over by sex scenes in graveyards”.
He hopes to add more character development to this entry in the genre, and says his inspirations are what he calls “non-supernatural human horrors” that “frighten the audience because they show us how vulnerable we really are”.
Shattered also plans on incorporating techniques that EDSS TV hasn’t used yet, such as black and white scenes and slow motion. Drawing on inspiration from Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, Singh believes that the black and white effect will create a specific atmosphere and highlight different shades of personality in the characters.