Clown train

In the film Clown Train how does sound contribute to the atmosphere of this film? Describe what you heard? Can you make reference to another genre film and how they utilise sound to create tension and a unique filmic space?

I think that given it’s horror genre, the sound defines the film; without any kind of atmosphere, the film would lose the mystery that holds the viewer; it’d likely come across as a comedy about a clown playing tricks on a stranger without it’s score

Its kind of like a slow build, and it makes us wait, makes us stay tuned, until it culminates to the clown’s joke where it stops completely, allowing for his ugly laugh; the joke itself is intelligent–highlighting the circumstances to the character (circumstances we are aware of) to see how it affects him

I think the way some sound is interior and other sounds heard are exterior (such as while the clown’s laughing, there is a cut to a medium of him laughing and we are outside the carriage) ultimately isolates and confines our protagonist, emphasising the circumstances, instilling in us fear and empathy–which is what I think horror is about for an audience

I think most short films build more towards a small moment in time, rather than uncovering a plot like a film would; and the sound in this film totally supports it’s moment in time; I think the moment in time is usually a realisation by a character or the audience, and in this case, it’s for the audience–when the clown states ‘I’ll tell you on Friday’, it highlights to us that yes, like we figured, like we were afraid, this clown is sadistic, and it is ironic that our protagonist misses this piece of dialogue; we’re not sure if he realises he is being followed

The way the film uses sound reminds me a lot of Christopher Nolan’s noir film Memento; in Memento, we see a character struggling to understand who killed his wife, and throughout the film, as characters are delivering important piece of information to Leonard (and to us), supporting score highlights if that information is relevant or false information used to trick Leonard; the score culminates at the end of the film where Lenny and the audience realise the circumstances behind his wife’s murder, just like in Clown train