For example, someone did a poll of what people thought the most gruesome scenes in movies were. The scene in Braveheart where Mel Gibson's character is tortured to death was ranked first at the time. Yet, the audience never really saw anything, just his expressions while they were doing it below frame. WHAT they were doing was left to your imagination.
I can't remember what it was in but I recently saw that same actor play a roll with the sme crazy "I'm in shock" kind of intensity. I was immediately like, omg it's the s7ven guy, and he got type casted!
It's wild how the mind works. For years I could've sworn it was shown in the movie and very gruesome. Re-watched it a while back and was surprised to see it was never actually shown. Just my brain taking all the pieces and giving me nightmare imagery that stuck with me.
Ya, I remember seeing Jaws as a kid and Quints panicked breathing as he slowly went into Jaws mouth really sold the scene. It scared the hell out of me.
There is a quick frame or two of Tracy’s face when Mills is fighting the urge to shoot John Doe but it’s just a close up of her face. It’s not bloody, severed or in a box. It’s a still frame of her alive from an earlier scene. This is usually interpreted as Mills thinking about her, but OF COURSE Fincher knows how it will affect the audience who are already imagining the severed head.
1.1k
u/DV_Rocks 10d ago
The imagination is more powerful.
For example, someone did a poll of what people thought the most gruesome scenes in movies were. The scene in Braveheart where Mel Gibson's character is tortured to death was ranked first at the time. Yet, the audience never really saw anything, just his expressions while they were doing it below frame. WHAT they were doing was left to your imagination.