Chapter 3664

"Doctor!" Danny shouted subconsciously, "How did you get here?"

Meanwhile, the real Shiler standing nearby glanced at Mephisto's expression and knew that he must be cursing inwardly right now.

"So what exactly is going on?" Eddie, who had just reached this part, rubbed his chin with his finger and looked at Shiler, saying, "Didn't you say Mephisto wouldn't have the guts to harm humans right under Strange's nose? Then who is this guy eating the corpse?"

"Take a closer look, look at that corpse."

Eddie zoomed in on the footage again and again, then adjusted the sharpness, but still couldn't make anything out. At this moment, Venom emerged from his shoulder like a small bean sprout, shook his head, and said, "You stupid coward! Didn't you notice that isn't a human kidney at all? And the heart, the heart doesn't look right either. Although it's disguised quite convincingly, I can tell at a glance that it's not human viscera; it's more likely a pig's."

Eddie opened his mouth slightly. He rewound the video, looking left and right at the shot where the corpse appeared, but still couldn't figure it out. However, he rewound the footage further and seemed to realize something, saying, "I get it. You walked down a corridor after coming in from the entrance; I thought that was a bit strange before. This corridor was set up completely without purpose. Why would a normal cellar be designed with a corridor? Shouldn't it be more convenient to have the warehouse right after going down the entrance?"

"And you made the corridor so dark. You walked there for several minutes, and the edited footage is at least several dozen seconds long. Plus, the previous shots were also very dark, which was enough for the audience to adapt to the dim light. And the moment the door was pushed open, even if the light in the room was relatively weak, the screen suddenly brightened. The audience wouldn't be able to adapt; their vision would be blurry for a split second, making it impossible to observe the details of the corpse carefully. By the time they regained their focus, it was a terrifying jump-scare, leaving them no time to reflect. This way, you could cover up the potential flaws in the fake corpse you made."

"Exactly so." Shiler nodded and said, "I haven't introduced him to you yet; this is a great lad, and perhaps he will be the first big star to come out of our sanitarium."

Eddie looked at the ferocious face covered in blood on the screen, opened his mouth slightly, and didn't quite agree with Shiler's "great lad" assessment. In the end, he didn't voice his disagreement, purely out of politeness.

"Generally speaking, actors who have never acted in horror films need training to play roles in horror movies. Even those very experienced veteran actors, as long as they haven't acted in this genre, must undergo training. Of course, they can also practice on their own; there are techniques to it," Eddie said.

"The reason for this is that fear is the most special among all emotions. When you aren't genuinely afraid from the heart, your expressions will be too restrained, making it impossible for people to empathize with your fear; but if you use an overly exaggerated style to perform, your expressions will be too ferocious, making people lose immersion. Mastering this balance is very important."

A film critic was walking out of the cinema while holding up his phone, watching the camera recording.

"And for those actors playing ghosts or killers in horror films, there are also very high requirements. Take the most famous Sadako as an example; although she doesn't show her face throughout, only her body and a head of long black hair, her physical expression is very on-point, especially when she crawls out of the television, giving people a very strong sense of the inhuman."

"That's right, the sense of the inhuman is actually the source of the fear that villain characters in horror films can bring to people. The person standing in front of you clearly looks exactly like a human, or possesses most human characteristics, but certain things they emphasize in their performance are far removed from humans, as if a monster has put on human skin but cannot adapt to it at all. This feeling of the most familiar stranger is the best state of performance."

"I have to admit, the actor playing the person possessed by the devil in this scene grasped it very well. What's even more ingenious is that the bloody plot usually used to scare the audience was deliberately blurred by the director's team using lighting. This breaks the audience's sense of security—when blood appears on the screen, they think: 'Blood has appeared on the screen now, so what follows must be very terrifying.'"

"Their focus will be on the gore, but at this moment, what changes is not the corpse with bloody elements, but someone next to the corpse. The action this person takes is not to further deepen the level of gore, but to directly jump-scare, using the sense of the inhuman that distinguishes him from humans to completely break the audience's expectations for the next horror point, creating an unexpected kind of terror."

"I'm sure the director of this film is a master of horror. Although he hasn't revealed his identity, I suspect it might be those already quite famous directors who have changed their identities to test their true level. Alright, great director, that's what you wanted to hear. You won; you successfully scared me. You damn bastard! You will all feel the same fear as I do soon. Let's look forward to that moment together!"

"Ah, forgot to mention, the actor playing Nelson seems to be acting for the first time, and he gave me quite a surprise. I heard that he was originally a patient in the sanitarium, and the director letting him participate in the filming is really bold. Actually, I'm really curious about the behind-the-scenes story—how exactly did the director convince him to participate, and how did he make him act so well? Perhaps in the behind-the-scenes stories later, we will be able to understand all of this."

"Hey, Nelson, it's me." Shiler entered a patient room quite sneakily. Nelson, who was sitting by the bed playing a game console, was startled.

"God, Dr. Shiler? Why is it you? You haven't come by often lately; I thought you had forgotten about me."

"How could that be? Nelson, we two are the best of friends." Shiler sat down beside him and said, "Believe it or not, the person you've seen these past few days wasn't me."

"Oh, not surprised." Nelson put the game console aside, tilted his neck, and said, "I thought he didn't look quite right either. He was too normal; I couldn't play with him at all. We two are still the best."

Nelson reached out and wrapped his arm around Shiler's shoulder. Shiler raised his hand and said, "You have to do me a favor, Nelson. I know you really admire those superheroes who get all the attention; maybe you have a chance to be a big star too?"

"Oh, come on." Nelson slumped to the other side, feeling a bit dejected, and said, "My parents wouldn't let me leave here. As for superheroes, I have to say, you've kept the hygiene here so well that I haven't even seen a single spider. Otherwise, maybe I'd be swinging around the sky of New York right now."

"I really didn't expect you to forget that you're afraid of heights." Shiler walked over and poured him a glass of water, saying, "There's an opportunity now; even if you don't go out, you can still be a big star. Are you willing to try?"

Nelson smiled immediately and said, "Do you have another good idea? What do you want to do?"

"It's like this, I want to shoot a horror film, a mockumentary. You should have seen James Wan's movies, right?"

"That's right, 'Saw', I really like it. I was sent here because my parents thought my illness had gotten worse after I secretly watched his movies in my room."

"Looks like you have a connection with him. I also plan to shoot a similar film."

Nelson sat back up, twisted his upper body, and said, "You can definitely do it; I think you'll become an even greater horror director than him. What do you want me to play? Jigsaw?"

"Something like that. I think you're very suitable for playing a villain, but the little puppet riding a bicycle isn't very interesting; you'd only be doing voice-over. I think your appearance is good; it's not impossible for you to go on camera yourself."

Nelson smiled shyly. Shiler looked him over—if you didn't consider his thick stack of medical records, he looked very normal, a young man with a long face and small brown curls.

"Of course, no problem!" Nelson stood up with a jump again and said, "When do we start filming? Are we leaving now?"

"Don't rush, the first thing we need to do now is to set up the venue. I've already prepared the other props, but we need to get a fake corpse to scare people. I know you'll definitely be interested in this, so let's go together."

"My god! You're the best!" Nelson pulled Shiler up from his seat, hugged him tightly, and then said, "You're the best psychologist to me! Even better than my parents! If I win an Oscar, I'll give the little golden man to you!"

"Then I'll gladly accept it." Shiler said with a smile.

"Let me talk about the plan." Shiler took out a notebook from his pocket and said, "First, we can't really kill someone to disguise the corpse... no, that won't do, Nelson, although this might make you a supervillain, do you think you can beat Spider-Man? If you don't want to get beaten up by him, it's best to take it easy."

"First, we need to go to a wax museum; only there can we find human models that look relatively realistic. Of course, a cemetery or crematorium would work too, but there definitely won't be any fresh corpses if we go now. You also know that if the time of death doesn't match, the ruse will be exposed."

"Then we need to go to a slaughterhouse to get some pig organs, heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, whatever, they have a high similarity to humans. Then get some blood. When the time comes, you just do this..."

"What on earth are you doing???" Mephisto looked at Danny and asked, "Your brother ran out like a madman, insisting that you were in danger, so I had to come over and take a look..."

"Danny! Danny!!!" Johnny's voice came from the entrance. Danny responded quickly: "Johnny, I'm here! Don't come down, I'll come find you right away!"

After saying that, he looked back, looked at the young man lying on the ground, and then looked at Mephisto and asked: "Who is this?"

Mephisto was clearly a bit dazed. He took a step back, glanced at the person lying on the ground, and said: "Seems to be Nelson, a high-functioning autistic patient who lives on the second floor."

"Sure enough." Danny walked over, helped Shiler up, and then said: "You were right, Doctor. I guess this is Mephisto's trap."

The question marks on Mephisto's head were almost becoming tangible. But before he could ask, Danny walked over, propped Nelson up, and then said to Shiler: "I'm afraid we won't be able to sleep tonight. Can you perform an exorcism on him, Doctor?"

"I'm not sure about his condition yet." Shiler shook his head and said, pretending to be in a difficult position: "I need to examine him first, then set up an exorcism ritual, but whether it will succeed or not, it depends on whether God favors him."

The group left the cellar and saw Johnny waiting anxiously above. Johnny's face was still a bit pale, and he said: "I felt that you might be in danger, so I ran out in a hurry. The security guard stopped me and called Dr. Shiler. Are you guys okay?"

"Can't say completely okay." Danny touched his arm—Nelson had just bitten him, and it was a deep bite. Fortunately, the long sleeves he was wearing didn't break the skin, but it was already bruised, and now half of his arm was a bit numb and hurt at the slightest touch.

"Don't waste time." Danny continued, "We need to find a place to exorcise Nelson now. If Mephisto returns to his body again, I'm afraid we won't be able to stop him ever again."

(End of chapter)