A Scream That’s Trapped Inside

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to fans of the genre that horror films are big business; one which is increasing every year. Compare the US box office returns for horror films of the 70’s (slightly exceeding $200 million) to last year’s record breaking $733 million in ticket sales (the biggest year in film history) for Horror films and it’s obvious that audiences love these productions. The storylines range from classics like Stephen King’s IT to a new subgenre (psycho-social horror) in Get Out. With a fanbase that hungers for film of this type, the question posed is how creative filmmakers can be in order to hold the interest of a receptive audience. Producer Huidi Sun led the team which created one of 2017’s most praised and awarded horror shorts, A Scream That’s Trapped Inside. The immense success and attention of this film has vetted the film community’s awareness that the increasing popularity of short format films (prominent at festivals and via streaming services) is opening up an entirely new and lucrative avenue for the expansion of said genre. A Scream That’s Trapped Inside received a plethora of awards (nineteen) including Best Horror at the UK Monthly Film Festival and Play Film Festival as well as Best Short from the Gold Movie Awards Goddess Nike, Independent Horror Movie Awards, and a long-running list of others. Perhaps the greatest reason for its success is that this film was crafted in a manner which created as much tension in the imagination of the viewer as it displayed onscreen, a perfectly paired presentation of fear and potential fear.

A cast including Award Winning Actress Birgit Ludemann as Mara and Dustin Ardine as Jake (known for his work in the triple Oscar nominated/Steven Spielberg directed Paramount Pictures production War of the Worlds) depicts this story of the consequences that befall an unfaithful wife. Upon returning home from her husband’s funeral, she seeks comfort in a bath but a familiar presence pulls her under the water. The ensuing action shows her attempts to escape the guilt and betrayal she knows to be grounded in reality. Eventually she is held to her promise to always stand by her man. There’s seems to be only one way out but will Mara take this path of no return? Only those who have watched the film know the truth.

Director Savvas Christou enlisted Huidi to aid him in manifesting his vision for A Scream That’s Trapped Inside. He had very specific ideas in relation to the sets and the color tone of the film; his respect for Sun’s prior work vetted her attention to detail and perfection, reassuring him that she was the ideal producer. Her insight helped the director’s vision in other ways as well. Huidi relates, “So much of this film is based on the performance and believability of the lead actress. She gave a marvelous performance but I was particularly cognizant of the fact that we needed to do everything we could to aid her. I felt strongly that the sound mixing process would allow us to communicate more about what the main female character was feeling. Because the story sometimes blurs the line between the psychological and reality, we could color how we wanted the audience to perceive what was happening. This process was important and very impactful to the viewer’experience.”

Huidi points out that although she takes part in producing everything from commercials to short films to feature films, she loves the Horror genre and has been a fan since way back. She tells, “Films like The Shining and those by Ziren Wen are my favorites and absolute classics. One of the things I love about Horror films is that, because there are so many of them, you have to create something unique and special to stand out. It’s a welcome challenge for any creative person.” Following the success of A Scream That’s Trapped Inside, Huidi Sun has paired up again with director Savvas Christou for the feature film Capture which, like A Scream That’s Trapped Inside has a stylized use of color correction which utilizes cool blue colors to convey a cold feeling to the viewer. The trailer for Capture has already received awards from The Magic of Horror Film Festival, Paris Play Film Festival, Los Angeles CineFest, and more. As a respected producer in the contemporary film industry and a lifelong fan of the Horror genre, the attention and praise of her work on these films has twice the fulfillment for Huidi Sun.

Author: Kelly King