By JORDAN VON NETZER
Horror audiences have seen the psychotic, obsessive babysitter character in films like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Hush and more recently, Netflix’s The Babysitter. Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s new film, SPOONFUL OF SUGAR, also explores this concept but takes it to another level.
From the official synopsis: “A disturbed babysitter experiences a sexual awakening while using LSD to alternatively treat a seemingly ‘sick’ child from a family with dark secrets of their own.”
The film is a wild visual ride, thanks to cinematographer Nick Matthews, who did everything from putting Vaseline on the camera lens to shooting at three frames per second. Recently, Matthews gave RUE MORGUE an in-depth look at the making of SPOONFUL OF SUGAR.
What scene in SPOONFUL OF SUGAR was the hardest to film? Why?
DP Nick Matthews
One of the most challenging scenes in the film was a surrealist erotic fantasy that places the audience into the character’s sexual imagination. Aside from the fact that it was freezing, we were using a large amount of blood to rain down on the characters and the camera. We shot it at a high frame rate with a lot of strobing white and red light that I wanted to feel like orgasmic bursts of color that feel primal and murderous. As we were starting to frame it up, it just felt too present tense, so we painted the lens with Vaseline. This involved solving a number of technical challenges to pull off the 360-degree dolly shots while hiding and protecting all our tools and rigging.
Was there a scene in the film that you didn’t think was going to be difficult that ended up being very complicated?
In one scene, we needed to show a character’s burial. While shooting someone being buried in the ground seems easy enough on the page, most locations won’t let you just destroy the ground for your dead bodies! So our approach involved a bit of a cheat using three flats covered in dirt, with dirt as set dressing. By cleverly shooting this little set we created the illusion that we shot someone buried six feet under.
What led you to decide to shoot part of SPOONFUL OF SUGAR at three frames per second?
LSD and psychedelia are part of the narrative, and we shot those scenes with a variety of techniques to play with space and time. Three fps and 270-degree shutter give a similar effect to the step printing in Wong Kar Wai’s films and is very dreamy. We only used that for one of the earlier tripping scenes. Elsewhere, I ended up breathing on the lens in between every take and lens whacking [removing the lens from the camera] to visually recreate the out-of-body experience of the characters. This was a technique that I’ve used on a few music videos, so I had played with the effect before but wanted to use it to tell our story.
Do you have a favorite memory from shooting SPOONFUL OF SUGAR?
There’s a mostly single-take scene in the film with highly stylized lighting and complicated blocking that involves the death of a major character. Every time you capture something like that and are successful it feels like a huge win for the entire team. It takes so many people to pull off oners all working together – and you really just have to get lucky and have everything work together. That scene is one of my favorites in the film because it tells the story in this unbroken way that makes the violence more terrifying and real – like you’re actually there. That was a favorite moment and one of the last scenes we shot in the movie.
Is there anything you would like to tell us about the cinematography of SPOONFUL OF SUGAR that we might not know?
Tonally, the film moves from softer light with deep shadows to shafts of light and color separation for the surrealism. We used a unique and limited palette of ambers and lavender blues after being inspired by a few photographers. I ended up using this lavender to fill in the shadows with LED bulbs in clamp lights covered with my gaffer’s grandma’s silk pillowcases! And we tried to shoot as much daytime work at dusk in a way we would light to create a more surreal feeling.
Our grip and electric team was only three people, and one of those was our B-camera operator. We could not have made this movie without those MVPs: gaffer Nate Tomson, B-camera operator Ethan David Sanchez and key grip Mason Malone.
What sort of camera did you use for SPOONFUL OF SUGAR?
Nick Matthews and director Mercedes Bryce Morgan
Our director, Mercedes Bryce Morgan, shoots with two cameras to keep performances unfolding in an organic way, but our budget only allowed us to shoot with one Arri Alexa Mini. To give us a second option, I decided to purchase the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K because I had tested the camera and sensor on previous projects. It’s got slightly less dynamic range than the Alexa, but the color science and resolution make it easy to match with a higher-end camera. This is a $2,000 body capturing images that cut easily with a $40,000 body. I used a set of Zeiss Superspeeds on the Alexa and a set of vintage Nikons on the Blackmagic, and then we filtered both sets to help match them. I think that we’re living in an exciting time where anyone can afford the sort of gear it takes to make a film.
What excites you about modern horror filmmaking?
Horror is an inherently visual genre. The camera often has a voice, and atmosphere is key to the way the audience is shocked and bewildered. Modern horror is a safe space for us to explore what makes us primal animals and how that plays out in the macabre and the erotic. It’s a place we can talk about the ills of society and what’s so disturbing about modernity. It’s for those of us that feel like we see things differently. I think we’re all scared of the unknown, and the imagination is the greatest way to incite fear. Modern horror films are giving us access to all these emotional states and moral quandaries in a way that no other genre accesses.
What was the first horror movie that made a lasting impression on you?
Jaws was a film I saw in elementary school, and it scared the shit out of me and my siblings. We were terrified to get in the bath, let alone the ocean. It continues to be a favorite and masterpiece of tension building.
What advice would you give to aspiring horror cinematographers?
Take risks and make mistakes. That’s how you’ll find your voice. Watch a lot of films, and identify what you love about them. Then go tell your own stories your own way. The medium is expanding in exciting ways, and the best is yet to come.
I know there have been a ton of reboots of the classics, but is there another horror title you would like to see rebooted?
That’s super tough, but I think Cronenberg’s The Brood or Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure would make incredible reboots.
SPOONFUL OF SUGAR is now available on Shudder.
