Written and directed by David Barros, a man that dismembers bodies finds his life in danger when one of the corpses isn’t really dead. Starring: Telmo Bento and João Rebelo.
One of the great and strongly effective things that filmmakers can do is to use the audience’s imagination to their advantage. It’s not solely giving them the scenes but thinking about what they’re going to naturally perceive or assume to shape how you present them, to make them more impactful. Slicer is a good example of that, David Barros clearly understands that as soon as we arrive in that room, we don’t need an explanation of how they got there or who they are. To spend time setting that up would have slowed things down and undermined the excellent tension it has going for it.
Something that’s built upon really well by the editing work, that quintessential cutting in and out as the light falters is a classic choice and continues to inspire apprehension, fear and dread. Especially when working alongside Telmo Bento’s performance which is nicely packed with anxiety, confusion and a gradually building terror. The choice to also not give him dialogue was smart, if his reaction was to yell or create this overt monologue of panic, it would have taken away from the atmosphere.
The direction has an almost CCTV or found footage edge to it, the texture it holds brings that feel of being watched. There’s a great use of movement to feed further into the tension and the visual never stays still long enough for viewers to lose the anticipation. Barros adds a nice variety to the shots, getting that good mix of close and wide to give you just enough detail without providing a simple full picture of everything. It’s a touch of obscurity that really matches the tone.
Slicer is gripping, tense and cleverly simple. David Barros quickly creates an atmosphere of fear that only builds as it goes forward. Telmo Bento does a terrific job of bringing that fear to life to draw you in further. The editing, direction and cinematography styles are all perfectly on the same page to push the intensity and anticipation.
It’s only four minutes long but it makes a strong impression, it plays upon knowing the audience will have enough experience with horror, thriller and crime cinema to let their imagination fill in the gaps and create something concise, not wasting time on backstories and excessive setup. It’s a good example of effective indie filmmaking, budget friendly locations, number of scenes, number of actors, there’s a lot of thoughtful choices which have gone into using the time wisely.
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