KATRINA QUIROLGICO

THE trick about horror films is that it is less about what the viewer can see onscreen, than what the director chooses to leave off-camera. The killer lurking around the corner, the monster that might appear in the mirror, the body stashed in the closet. What we can see often borders on the banal: a man walking the alleyway, a woman fresh out of the shower; what we cannot contains the phantasmagoria of the psychological drama that keeps us in suspense in our seats, and suspended in the tale. We call this latter negative space — everything that surrounds the main action in the proscenium. It is in the negative space where power is wielded in a horror film. And in the international arena, it is in the negative space where true dealings take place. After all, thrillers and international politics share one thing: dealing with the unknown.

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