Supernatural film thrills packed audience

‘I See Them’ screened at Kuch Khaas.

ISLAMABAD:

While I See Them might not be high on originality, it had enough scares up its sleeves to keep a jam-packed audience at Kuch Khaas engaged on Monday.

The 30-minute-long suspense-thriller, featuring novice actors, is about four teenage girls who spend a couple of nights camping together. Things go wrong when one of the friends brings her stepbrother along. They get even worse when the girls summon a ghost to reminisce their convent years, but inadvertently summon their untimely death.

“It was a good first effort by the director and it did scare me at times, which is the point of watching such a movie,” said Sabra from The City School.

Madeeha Raza, who directed the film and acted in it, said the scenes were shot at 4am in summer due to the heat. “It was quite gruelling with the awkward timings and the hot weather, but my team was cooperative, even though they are still young.”

She said she took advantage of the eeriness of the H-9 area and shot her scenes at a graveyard and in a thicket. In fact, the choice of location is perhaps the film’s strongest aspect, as Islamabad residents can easily identify the place and subconsciously associate all the urban legends associated with it, giving more texture to the horror.

Though Raza has a long way to go before she discovers her directorial style, as a first attempt, she has managed to produce an entertaining film.

She said she developed an interest in filmmaking when she enrolled in a workshop at Kuch Khaas in 2010. She went on to pursue her masters in filmmaking at Beaconhouse National University. The film was her thesis project during the programme.

“I got an A for my thesis, which gave me the confidence to show my film to a wider audience,” she explained.

Due to low budget, Raza was forced to borrow inspiration. For instance the sound scores are taken from the popular TV series Lost. However, she hopes that her next project will give her more financial and artistic freedom. “In all likelihood, it won’t be a film, but instead a documentary,” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2012.