Los Angeles, CA – March 7, 2018 – “Picked up for global distribution by TriCoast Worldwide, the haunting psychological thriller gained great momentum with its recent presence at Berlinale’s EFM,” stated Karakaya from LRM.
“It is often said that if you want something badly enough, you find a way to make it happen. This is certainly the case for the British director/writer/producer, Gary Sinyor, who had his heart set on creating a suspense thriller since his film school days,” opened LRM’s Jenny Karakaya.
Gary Sinyor, known for his great humor what resulted in comedies such as ‘The Bachelor’ (1991) featuring Renée Zellweger, has now successfully transitioned twelve years later into the thriller genre – “a dream project” – with his intensive, haunting psychological thriller, now known to a global audience as ‘SCARED BLIND’ (a.k.a ‘THE UNSEEN’ in the U.K.).
Photo: from LRM.
‘SCARED BLIND’ is an intelligent and riveting psychological horror that captures the dark, emotional heartbreak of grief and loss through its distorted and blurry visuals. The film was originally released in cinemas last December under its original title, ‘THE UNSEEN’ – a title only used for the U.K. campaign, which terrified audiences with Sinyor’s unique cinematic approach. Internationally, the film is titled ‘SCARED BLIND’.
“Picked up for global distribution by TriCoast Worldwide, the haunting psychological thriller gained great momentum with its recent presence at Berlinale’s EFM,” highlighted Karakaya as ‘SCARED BLIND’ made its debut at Berlinale 2018 with representation by TriCoast Worldwide CEO’s Strathford Hamilton and Marcy Levitas Hamilton.
LRM’s Karakaya landed an exclusive interview with Sinyor at Berlinale 2018, as he revealed his inspiration behind the film and its script and several-behind-the scenes during his twelve-year journey of creating ‘SCARED BLIND’.
Sinyor divulged his inspiration for ‘SCARED BLIND’ began with the idea of a woman suffering from panic attacks, eventually turning her blind. Sinyor utilizes distorted and blurry visuals to uniquely capture the dark, emotional heartbreak of grief and loss, as the audience becomes blind as well. Sinyor believed, and successfully created his unique cinematic approach to such the powerful topic, especially with the aide of extensive writing and research.
More specifically, Sinyor explained his longtime interest in the human brain – its concept, its mistakes, and what it should be capable of. Describing the human brain to be “wired” to do specific things, like having a cup of coffee or engaging in conversation, ‘SCARED BLIND’ is about what the brain isn’t “wired” to do – like “potentially blaming yourself for the death of a child,” said Sinyor – an unfortunately, realistic tragedy.
Pinned as a psychologically-twisted, slow-burner film, ‘SCARED BLIND’ follows the story of a wealthy couple, Gemma (Jasmine Hyde) and Will (Richard Flood), whose lives are shattered with heartbreak and grief with the untimely and tragic death of their son.
“The script had a lot of light and dark going on within the film, so you could switch the light on and off, given that there was periods of blindness that added to the tension of the cinematic scale of it,” said Sinyor.
Will finds himself weeping with his son’s teddy bear clenched his hands, unable to cope with the sudden accident of his son. When Will begins to hear his son’s voice gust through the home’s hallways into his now empty room, Will questions his sanity when he begins to suffer from paranormal episodes.
Meanwhile, Gemma is blind with grief and guilt, blaming herself for the tragic accident. She begins to psychologically unravel with continuous, horrifying panic attacks that results in blindness, or amaurosis, a visual impairment with a quick and unpredictable onset and no physiological explanation.
“She hasn’t just lost the child. She has worse than lost the child. She’s blaming herself. So what her brain is doing is closing down the shutters. And that’s why she has panic attacks,” stated Sinyor.
Praying for mended hearts and to forget the past, the heartbroken couple re-locates to their friend, Paul’s (Simon Cotton) remote, country guesthouse, where the couples getaway becomes nothing but quiet and peaceful, but full of trouble, betrayal and breach of trust.
“The film is a carefully calculated, riveting rollercoaster of emotions, forcing the audience to experience the blind episodes through Sinyor’s unique filming techniques,” wrote Karakaya.
‘SCARED BLIND’ is a brooding and disturbing film touches on the every day, relatable themes of love, grief, and the overall frailty of human beings. Sinyor emphasized the clear dilemma between Will and Gemma – “one will say, ‘No, there isn’t. This is not happening.’ And the other going, ‘Maybe there is.’” – which provides the audience with two differently perspectives accompanied by visually haunting cinematography, full of blurry and distorted visuals.
Keeping his directing style simple and without overly technical camera moves, ‘SCARED BLIND’ was shot almost entirely through the point-of-view angle, hooking the audience as they embark with Will and Gemma on their horrific tragedy.
“The reason why you get dragged into the story, and you’re trying to work out what the hell is going on, is because the camera is almost always looking at people’s faces. And so I’m talking to you, and you’re talking to me, and camera’s back and forth, which means that when you talk to someone, you have a habit of believing them, right? If I put the camera over there and you’re watching them, then it’s entirely different,” said Sinyor.
Sinyor began the twelve-year journey of ‘SCARED BLIND’ when his daughter was about four years old, allowing him to create subjects he could relate to, especially in his conscious decision to not show the death of the couple’s young son.
“I didn’t want people to associate the face with the voice. I thought it would be too painful for people to constantly be reminded of a sweet child. I thought that it was better that that was in our heads, the audience’s heads, and leave that to the characters. They knew what their child looked like,” Sinyor told LRM, as he then emphasized the film’s desire to engage with the audience’s imaginations.
And to Sinyor, that’s exactly what cinema is all about – to be able to draw personal conclusions.
Sinyor stated, “I’m not going to give you everything. You do some of the work, get your brains working, make your own imagination to make connections about what you think might be going on. I’m not going to tell you until I decide to tell you,” wrote Karakaya.
‘SCARED BLIND’ is an engrossing and intelligent psychological thriller that captures a couple battling the unbearable grief, pain and loss, yet captivates watchers, eager on their toes to find out what happens next as they subject themselves to Gemma’s amaurosis, as their personal line between reality and psychosis is blurred.
“I would call it a bit of a psychological twister. The film kept you sort of on the edge of your seat waiting for the plot to unravel,” raved Karakaya.
‘SCARED BLIND’ contains a star-studded cast that truly encapsulates the raw and emotional performances of their roles, including Jasmine Hyde (‘Runt’, ‘The Truth Commissioner’), Richard Flood (‘Killing Kennedy’, ‘Crossing Lines’ series), and Simon Cotton (‘The Rise of the Krays’, “’Godless’ short).
Watch the trailer for ‘SCARED BLIND’ here: https://vimeo.com/253687550 and for more information, please visit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2042692/.
Special thanks: Jenny Karakaya from LRM. Read the full article here: https://lrmonline.com/news/exclusive-lrm-interview-with-gary-sinyor-director-of-scared-blind/.
SCARED BLIND (2018, 108 min.) Written and directed by Gary Sinyor. Editor: Paco Sweetman. Cinematographer: Luke Palmer. Original music: Jim Barne. US. English. Magnet Films 5. TriCoast Worldwide.
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Magnet Films 5
About TriCoast Worldwide:
TriCoast Worldwide is a premium International sales agent, representing the best of US and internationbal films at all the major film markets. Sister company to TriCoast Entertainment and TriCoast Studios, the company is located at the Studio facility in Culver City, Los Angeles.
Founded by: Strathford Hamilton and Marcy Levitas Hamilton.
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