“True, nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am, but why will say that I am mad?! The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute.”

- E. A. Poe

Title intro of The Tell-Tale Heart

A man driven to madness by his obsession with an old man's "vulture eye" murders him and is ultimately undone by his own overwhelming guilt, which manifests as the imagined sound of the dead man's still-beating heart.

This title sequence introduces the main protagonists with ghostly animations and sets the mood for the film's atmosphere. The subtle movements are reminiscent of a cat sneaking up on its victim - just like the younger man in the short story.

Based on the tragic short story about a gentleman who, fearing the wrong eye of his older companion, murders him one night and hides the body under the floorboards, the strategic placement of the title suggests a cross-section of a room.

Pluto the cat, a protagonist of the short story The Black Cat (1843), also appears here. The Gothic-style lettering and the illustration, which resembles a pen and ink drawing/etching, refer to the classification of Poe's works as "Gothic" literature.

Death and decay are represented here in colour by a cold green, while the strong red represents life on the one hand, but also the manic, paranoid behaviour of the younger man.

Poster for The Tell-Tale Heart

“Nevermore”

This allusion to Poe's poem The Raven (1845) is stylistically modelled on Füssli's Nightmare (1781). The background is colour-coordinated with the bedroom of the doomed old man and its greenish sheen is reminiscent of the poisonous arsenic that is said to have adorned Napoleon's wallpaper in exile on St. Helena and ultimately caused his death.

In the film, the painting can be seen above the old man's bed, watching over him like a harbinger of death.

Approach

First test of the title intro

Painting process in Procreate

Painting process of the poster illustration

The painting process of Nevermore

Digital sketch of the painting

Mail
Instagram
LinkedIn