Movies

The Eerie Cinematography Similarities of ‘Raising Arizona’ and ‘The Evil Dead’

Travelling POV shots are an ambiance-creating hallmark.
Nicolas Cage Raising Arizona
Twentieth Century Fox
By  · Published on November 13th, 2017

The Coen Brothers always keep their low-budget horror teeth-cutting in the heart of their films.  Think about the nightmare absurdism that is Barton Fink’s descent into a fiery hotel hell. What you might not realize is specific cinematographic techniques (and equipment) make their films kin to those of Sam Raimi — most specifically, Raising Arizona to The Evil Dead.

Both share a shaky, moving POV shot that disrupts and upsets the perspective of the audience, hopping over obstacles and telling us character traits through nothing more than speed, direction, and route.

Philip Brubaker takes us through archival footage and interviews, along with shot-by-shot comparisons, explaining why these films are so similar and what kind of effects these filmmakers elicit from them.

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Jacob Oller writes everywhere (Vanity Fair, The Guardian, Playboy, FSR, Paste, etc.) about everything that matters (film, TV, video games, memes, life).