Week 25.41 - Socials Roundup
06 Oct - 12 Oct 2025: Evil, Cat People, Lisa Frankenstein, Rosemary’s Baby
Week 25.41 posts include spooky shots from Evil (2019-2024); Cat People (1942) times two; Lisa Frankenstein (2024); and Rosemary’s Baby (1968).
Cat People
This iconic jumpscare codified an entire editing technique: The Lewton Bus is named after Cat People writer/producer Val Lewton, who would go on to use the same concept in many of his future works.
Literal Foreshadowing
Cat People’s edit is all about creating a feeling instead of mimicking reality, and it also plays a lot with shadows, such as this wonderful scene opening shot where the shadow of a canary bounces between the paws and mouth of a painted panther, before showing us the canary in context of the room and Irena, who is (unbeknownst to her so far) at the beginning of her transformation.
Just for kicks, we’ve zoomed+slowed it in the bottom clip, the better to appreciate this quite-literal foreshadowing.
Speaking of cool things in black-and-white . . .
Lisa Frankenstein
This cut from colour to black and white does a few things at once: nods to Lisa’s namesake; visually reminds us Lisa uses classic old films as escapism; insinuates (with makeup / hair / etc changes) we’re in a dream sequence; transitions to a whole new scene.
Rosemary’s Baby
This impressively staged scene (it's only two setups!) features one of cinema's most simple yet iconic shots.
When 'Satanic mastermind' Minnie (Ruth Gordon) learns that Rosemary (Mia Farrow) is pregnant, she makes a phone call to her friends/coven.
It's a simple, static POV shot that matches Rosemary's eyeline with the subject centre frame — but because Minnie is partially obscured, we (the audience) instinctively lean to the right, trying to look around the door to see what's happening.
The shot turns us into active participants.
Evil
Evil’s shots can be homages (as when they recreate one of the most iconic establishing shots in horror) and body-horrifying (as with this triple-match-cut from a mouth to a needle to an eye), but they can also be playful!
Episode 2.03 “F is for Fire” has fun using lighting fixtures and children’s paper decorations to create horns and halos over four of its main characters.
The way the party banner gives David horns in wide / medium / closeup is great, but my favourite is how the porch lights give *both* Ben and David halos, while leaving poor Kristen out of the fun . . .
possibly because they give her horns in the next scene with the chandelier, but just as possibly because actress Katja Herbers is a good bit shorter than Mike Colter and Aasif Mandvi, so blocking her under one of the ‘halos’ would have been more difficult.
