In the realm of atmospheric horror, the art of editing plays a pivotal role in crafting tension and delivering impactful scares. Brian Philip Davis, the editor behind the psychological horror Oddity, offers a fascinating glimpse into his creative process and collaboration with director Damian Mc Carthy. Having previously worked on horror comedies such as Boys from County Hell and Let the Wrong One In, Davis explains how stepping into a more straightforward horror project brought new challenges while still allowing him to draw on his comedic roots to balance moments of levity within the film’s unsettling narrative. His deep understanding of tone, pacing, and the visual language of fear makes his work on Oddity both distinctive and memorable. Alix Kingray sits down with Davis to go into his work on the project.

How was the editing of Oddity different than previous films you worked on? Were there any similar trends you carried into this film?

I’ve mostly worked on horror comedies before on films like Boys from County Hell and Let the Wrong One In, so Oddity was probably the first straight horror that I got a chance to work on. Although thinking about it, it does have a lot of moments of humor, so maybe my previous experience actually helped with that. Damian (the director) and I actually share a very similar sense of humor, so we got along well from the beginning of the process, and I managed to tune into the tone of what he was going for pretty quickly. I’d already seen his debut film, Caveat, before meeting him, so I had a fair idea of the kinds of stories he likes to tell and the way he likes to tell them.

We all know about the Wooden Man. How did you come about working with the director to make him just the amount creepy for the audience?

The wooden man was probably one of the unique challenges we faced in this film. This is a wooden mannequin that is brought by Darcy (Carolyn Bracken) into the home of Ted (Gwilym Lee) and Yana (Caroline Menton). The mannequin is terrifying, thanks to some amazing work by Paul McDonnell and the team, but we still wanted to keep it intriguing and not see too much of him. We were worried that the more you saw of this thing, the less scary it might become, so we definitely took an ‘Alien’ approach to our monster. Also, in the sound design, we experimented a lot with how this thing might sound. Aza Hand, the sound designer, knocked it out of the park, but even in the edit, Damian and I spent a lot of time searching for the right sounds. One thing we tried was something that they did on the Patrick Swayze film Ghost, where they used the sounds of crying babies but slowed down, which I can confirm is one of the most disturbing things you could ever hear.

There are so many pieces of this film that take place in the dark (I know this because I had to close all my blackout curtains to see the film in the entirety)! But how did you use this to work with the pacing of the film?

I think we’re all scared of the dark, probably from some in-built primal defense mechanism we all have. In Oddity, we definitely play a lot with that, like when Dani is out in the yard hearing noises or when she’s back in the house checking the corners, suspecting someone might be in there with her. I think, as an audience, the darkness gets our imagination running wild, so for us filmmakers, sometimes it’s better to let the audience do that work in their heads and come up with something way scarier than anything we could put on screen. In terms of the pacing, we are just trying to be very restrained, make sure there is enough time to build the scares and let the audience think about what may or may not be happening. Editing is not just about knowing when to cut but also knowing when not to cut.

In Darcy’s shop, it’s predominantly covered by shadows except in the chair where her lamp shines. Did you do the this for even more dramatic effect knowing she is visionally impaired to emphasize the haunting of each item in her shop?

The film was shot by Colm Hogan, who was responsible for the great lighting, so that’s probably something that he kept in mind. Nik Panteris was the colorist on the film, so he worked with Damian and Colm at Egg Post Production in the grade to make things pop. The dailies that I was receiving already looked amazing so I was really fortunate to have such gorgeous material to work with.

There are a lot of emphasis of squares in the film – the courtyard of the house,  chest, attic door. I know this was no accident – for you what was the significance in showcasing this?

To be honest, that’s not something that I noticed, but now that you mention it. Maybe it’s a Damian thing. He certainly has some recurring themes that have popped up in his first two films, and I’ve read the script for his third, which we hope to work on next year. I know that he’s keen not to overthink too much about his signature moves because he doesn’t want to feel boxed in.

How did you approach presenting such distinct dual performances by Carolyn Bracken?

I had been cutting the film for a number of weeks and hadn’t even realised that these two characters were played by the same actress. I think that’s a testament to how great her performance is in this film and how she was able to embody these two sisters and make them different. I think Carolyn brings such an authenticity to both roles. One of the earliest scenes to be shot is a scene from the end of the film when Darcy is on her knees, and she’s berating Ted. As soon as I watched the rushes for that scene and saw what she was doing, I knew that we had a movie.

Where do you look in the history of Irish film and folklore for inspiration in your creative contributions?

I always strive to watch as many films as possible, and when I started working on Oddity, I likely gravitated subconsciously toward films with a similar vibe. I remember re-binging the Tales from the Crypt series and seeking out old anthologies like Hammer House of Horror and Ghost Stories for Christmas. I watched a great documentary about anthologies called Tales of the Uncanny and another one about folk horror on Shudder called Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched. I try to watch at least one film every evening and not just horror – I’ll watch anything.

From an editing perspective, how did you balance creating smart atmospheric horror with producing serious jump scares

We have a lot of jump scares in this film and we were really trying not to make them feel cheap; they have to be earned. We spent a lot of time going over these moments trying to get them exactly right and Damian has a really good sense of when a scare is working. We got to the point where we were just adjusting frames and moving sounds slightly left or right. There is one moment in the film involving Yana (played by Caroline Menton) in her bedroom with a camera, and we end up getting two jump scares in a row. This was something that took a bit of work to get the timing exactly right so that the audience can settle their nerves ever so slightly after the first scare before you immediately hit them with another. You can become ‘edit blind’ after you’ve been working on something for a while, so one useful thing was testing the film with an audience in Dublin. That screening went really well and was reassuring to us that the film was actually scary and was working in the way we intended. Since the release, I’ve noticed there is one jump scare involving a tent that seems to work for everyone across the board. It’s a moment you kind of know is coming, yet people still jump, so I take that as a nice compliment.