An Absurd Trip

You’ve probably watched a movie where an actor is asked to fall down. Usually it’s shot and/or edited in such a way to hide the fact that either a) a stunt actor was used b) special padding was involved or c) the fall was never actually performed.

In Joe D’Amato’s home invasion horror film, Absurd, a mash-up of The Exorcist, Halloween and The Shining, Annie Belle plays a nurse and in-home caregiver to a young girl (Katya Berger) in traction. On her long walk through the woods to the young girl’s family home, to add tension to the drawn-out scene, the script calls for her character to trip and fall to the ground. Always the professionial, Annie falls down in convincing fashion.

I’ve watched this clip one-hundred times and it looks more are more “real” each time. Today, a minor stunt like this would likey require several safety contracts, a stunt coordinator, and a medical team on standby. Or more likely, it would be done using computer graphics to replace a stunt performer’s face with Annie’s, or worse, created entirely with a computer generated human wireframe.

Never forget what they took from you. Thank you, Annie, for putting your body on the line for your art.