Analog Medium

When the sharp, piercing sound of staccato violins swells over a minor-key score in a movie theater, it’s a tell-tale sign that a jump scare is coming. While it’s an effective tool to startle movie-goers, filmmaker Tom Campbell (The Bends) strives to truly unsettle his audience, without all of the usual horror devices that might simply catch you off guard, in proof-of-concept short Analog Medium. Following a musician duo who retreat to a rural estate to record their latest track on vintage reel-to-reel tape, something ominous is captured in playback that will lead one of them down a disturbing path. A film that ingeniously utilizes soundscapes in place of practical or special effects, Analog Medium conjures fear from your very imagination. 

Before you hit play, grab your headphones and turn off the lights – this one is best experienced in the dark. Admittedly, I watched this short in the afternoon and was still scared to be home alone afterward – so prepare to be spooked. Analog Medium is the kind of storytelling that fills you with unease and makes goosebumps erupt along your arms. It’s the kind of film that will give you the uncanny impression that the things that go bump in the night might be more than just the wind playing tricks on your senses. 

“Hopefully it’s those quiet, lingering moments that creep under your skin and stay with you” – Campbell discussing his approach to creating tension and fear.

For filmmaker Campbell and writer Adam Spellicy, it was important that their characters feel relatable and their situation grounded in order to make the film’s supernatural elements believable. Gone were the obvious haunted house tropes of the genre, replaced with a more nuanced story of a musician couple that were simply trying to go about their business and record a few folk songs. The idea that there was another presence in the house was therefore hard for both of them to accept, no matter how much it escalated for the film’s lead. In order for the scares to work, Campbell needed his audience to feel like this could happen to them. “It wasn’t about discarding the familiar, but recontextualising it in a way that felt fresh and unsettling in its realism,” Campbell tells Short of the Week.

The success of Analog Medium lies in its ability to use sound as both a plot tool and an entity all of its own. In Cambell’s film, sound becomes the bridge to that presence that we can’t see and therefore can’t control; a horror in and of itself. The fear of the unknown is amplified in the dark, especially when there’s no guiding score to dictate how we should feel. Instead, the audience is immersed in the character’s experience, left to navigate the growing unease just as they do.

“The most unsettling fear comes from what your imagination can conjure up”

“To be honest, I’ve always felt that jump scares are cheap and easy – they rely on startling you, not truly scaring you”, the director explains. Adding that he believes “the most unsettling fear comes from what your imagination can conjure up. The fear of the unknown is far more powerful than anything we could ever show on screen, especially with a short film budget.” With this in mind, Campbell chose to let the scenes breathe, allowing the tension and suspense to grow naturally in the silence. By giving the audience the space to process the situation, the fear becomes much more personal and therefore much more creepy.

Taking an unconventional approach to his filmmaking process, Campbell cast Australian singer-songwriter Phoebe Go in her first acting role, brining a natural authenticity to her character. She was joined by Sean Keenan, an actor with musical roots, who plays her partner on screen. Instead of traditional rehearsals, the two actors lived together for a week, jamming and writing songs to build a genuine chemistry. At the end of that week, they visited Mikey Young, a Melbourne garage music icon, at his studio, where he recorded their tracks as he would for any other band. 

Phoebe Go puts in a captivating performance as a singer haunted by a strange presence in the house.

However, when it came time to film, all the music and singing was played live, adding to the environment and overall set experience. In fact, their singing is the only music in the film, aside from the unnerving soundscapes, created by sound designer was Emma Bortignon, known for her work on the Australian horror hit Talk To Me. Bortignon and her team recorded the live music on set and seamlessly blended it into the atmosphere of the house. “There were hidden microphones everywhere!” Campbell reveals. “Emma even created organic ambient drones from the sound of the wind turbines, which became a kind of psychological score, weaving the environment into the emotional fabric of the film. It was all about making the sound as real and immersive as possible.”

Subtle, yet effective Analog Medium is an incredible work of ingenuity that we hope will freak you out as much as it did our curation team. Having screen at the Melbourne International Film Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival, Campbell created as a proof-of-concept for his upcoming feature, Murder Ballad, which he is set to direct later this year. “The short was a chance to explore the tone, atmosphere, and visual language of the feature, as well as to test some creative ideas that will shape the final film”, he explains. Adding that he believes the short “served as an important step in bringing the world of Murder Ballad to life and laying the groundwork for the full production.” We certainly agree.