‘Little Bites’ Cinematographer Andy Patch on How ‘Apocalypse Now’ Inspired the Look of Spider One’s New Film
How far would you go to protect your child? Would you let a demon monster feed off your body in exchange for your child’s safety? These are the questions asked in Spider One’s new film Little Bites starring Krsy Fox (Terrifier 3), Jon Sklaroff (A Violent Man), Chaz Bono (American Horror Story), Barbara Crampton (Jakob’s Wife), Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Bonnie Aarons (The Nun), and Elizabeth Phoenix Caro (The Christmas Chronicles). Fresh off its Fantastic Fest premiere, Little Bites marks the third feature of the Powerman 500 frontman, following 2022’s Allegoria and last year’s Bury the Bride.
Little Bites follows Mindy, a young widow and mother, who desperately tries to protect her daughter Alice from the grips of a fiendish, flesh-eating monster named Agyar. Mindy has been secretly sacrificing her own life by allowing the creature to slowly feast on her body as she keeps Alice hidden away at her grandmother’s home.
Serving as the DP of Little Bites is Andy Patch, who has been a longtime collaborator of Spider One and Krsy Fox. Andy has a likeness for slow-burn horror/thrillers, so after reading the Little Bites script, it didn’t take a lot of convincing for him to sign on. Spider wanted the look of the film to resemble one from the 1970s, so “it was important to shoot everything in a way that would have been shot then, specifically by avoiding any camera tech that they wouldn’t have had at their disposal,” Patch says.
When discussing how to approach the looming figure of Agyar, Spider simply said, “Think Marlon Brando from Apocalypse Now”, which was the only direction Patch needed. The end result is a frightening creature constantly lurking in the shadows. We spoke to Patch about everything from how they shot the blood-filled room finale scene to having the legendary Cher as an executive producer. Read the full interview below!
Dread Central: What attracted you to Little Bites?
Andy Patch: When I first heard about this project, Spider gave me the rough pitch about the overall concept, pretty long before he started writing it….it might have been around when he was doing Bury the Bride, if I recall correctly. I was immediately interested.
I loved the tone and vibe he was going for, as well as the fact that it’s strongly thematic and clearly about something more than just the immediate story itself. At the time of filming my wife and I were expecting our first child, so the weight of that upcoming massive life change was both exciting and terrifying to me. So it was really interesting to be in that headspace while filming this movie. I don’t know if it helped my anxiety, but it probably helped the movie!
Personally I love slow-burn horror that leans into some bigger themes and isn’t afraid to get weird at times. I loved the Agyar character on the page and couldn’t wait to see what a talented actor would bring to this since really it could have gone in so many different directions. Also I knew Krsy Fox was going to steal the show as this character since I’ve worked with her so many times before. I knew she’d be amazing at carrying this film with her performances.
DC: Did you watch any films to get inspiration for Little Bites?
AP: There were a few that I actually did watch, and I ended up pulling a lot of stills from Shotdeck to share with my crew, so they knew exactly the direction I was going in. Two films that I actually referenced quite a bit were two newer movies: Saint Maud (2019) and Relic (2020). Both are just absolutely gorgeous movies, yet don’t feel distinctly modern in any real way. We cinematographers are always trying to light a scene without ever giving off the appearance that it was lit, so as to keep you engaged slowly in the world of the story… and I really think these films did a great job with that.
DC: What were your conversations like with Little Bites director Spider One during pre-production?
AP: Spider is a child of the 70s, so quite a bit of our conversations revolved around this time period. It was important to shoot everything in a way that would have been shot then, specifically by avoiding any camera tech that they wouldn’t have had at their disposal (save for our LED lighting, of course).
We shot his last film Bury the Bride in about seven days, which in retrospect was absolutely insane and I’m surprised that we even did that. Because of that, we had very little room for variety in our camera angles, as we ended up shooting about 90% of the movie handheld, at eye level. We basically had to get through our days. While I was happy with most of it, we really wanted to break away from that as much as possible. Barely any of Little Bites was handheld, and we were able to do more dolly moves, overhead shots, various low and high angles, and booming up/down shots as much as possible. This might seem like a minor thing, but just having that extra few days really allowed us to get that little bit of extra variety we both wanted as much as possible.
DC: One of the producers of Little Bites is the legendary Cher. What do you think stood out to her the most about this story?
AP: I wish I had a little more firsthand knowledge of this. I know the script was sent to her probably less than a year before we started shooting, and I was told she certainly loved the script. Since I never had any direct interactions with her at this level, I don’t want to speak too much out of turn. But my assumption is that the themes of this script would speak to anyone with children. Not only is it about the hardships and sacrifices of having children, but it’s really about the lengths we would go to protect them. I don’t think I’d be wrong to say she responded to that.
DC: Did Cher have any notes about the cinematography?
AP: She didn’t although I would have loved some! I haven’t had a chance to speak with her directly, although I’d certainly welcome that. I have heard that she loves the way it looks though, so I’ll take it!
DC: When you first read the script, did you automatically start visualizing the look? Or do you go back and storyboard scenes out? What does your process look like?
AP: Usually when I first read the script, I’m really trying to just focus on the story. This is the only time I get to read the script for the first time, so I like to really allow my first impressions of the story to be uncluttered by too many logistics. Although while reading, I do like to get a sense of the scale of a shoot. It helps to just know the size of the project. If I know something has a limited budget, but then I see 10+ locations, multiple characters, stunts, etc., I get very nervous. But generally speaking, I try to just be immersed in the story, as I know I’ll be reading the script many more times.
After this, I really just like to dive into the creative, this is always the fun part. This usually involves lots and lots of references, and a lot of diving into Shotdeck, which is an incredible resource. It’s all cataloged movie still frames that include all proper credits and technical aspects. And they have A LOT of movies on there.
DC: Were there any scenes in the film that weren’t quite working, that you had to pivot on? Cinematography wise.
AP: Well, there are always a few adjustments, changes, and compromises that you make in just about every setup, but usually it’s nothing major if you’re prepped and prepared. The one scene in particular that ended up taking a 180 was the finale with all the blood running down the wall, in which we introduced some strobing light effects.
This one was kinda nerve-wracking! We had shot a few moments of this scene in that downstairs room, which didn’t include any sort of lighting gags, effects, or anything. We simply had a relatively standard lighting setup. It was all working and the performances were incredible, but I could also tell that Spider wasn’t quite getting what he wanted.
After throwing out a handful of ideas, he suggested that we introduce moving, strobing, RGB-colored lights to shift the tone in the opposite direction. This took me a second to wrap my head around since this was a totally new idea that I hadn’t fully visualized in the context of the story! I guess I’m a classic over-thinker.
However, when you’re in the middle of the shoot with a schedule like ours, the luxury of time is practically nonexistent, so you really have no choice but to trust your director and go for it. Thankfully it all turned out great, and with the addition of the fake blood in VFX, I’m glad we went in that direction. Lessons learned? Trust your director, and be willing to adapt.
DC: The lighting in the grocery store scene is significantly different than the lighting at Mindy’s house. Was this to signify how dark and depressing her life has become in comparison to the outside world?
AP: Oh yes, very much so. We never really establish how long the Agyar character has been feeding off Mindy, but we can definitely tell this has been going on for a long time. It’s possible that he first appeared when Alice was born, but it’s also clear that her condition has been getting worse as she’s deteriorating fast.
So with that, we wanted to give the impression that she’s been holed up in the house for a long time, and going out in public is a very rare occurrence. I would imagine being in that headspace the lights would be bright, oppressive, and extremely uncomfortable. This is why she’s all covered, wearing a hat and glasses, almost as if she’s becoming something of a vampire creature herself.
DC: The viewer never really sees Agyar’s whole face or body for that matter, because of the lighting and use of shadows. Can you talk about this approach?
AP: Absolutely. That came directly from Spider when he sent me the script. He simply said, “Think Marlon Brando from Apocalypse Now.” He really wanted that crack of warm tungsten light to be the only light hitting him, which gave Agyar (played by Jon Karloff) the ability to really embrace his portrayal of the creature-like thing residing in this dark cave-like environment.
In doing this we also really had to finesse our actor Jon’s head position to exactly where it needed to be with the utmost precision. There are a few moments in the film where the light is perfectly divided down the middle of his face, and he still maintains the slightest eyelight in both eyes. I think moments like this are deceptively simple. While it seems straightforward, the difference between bad and perfect is inches.
DC: What horror film has really stood out to you in the past few years? Why?
AP: Oh gosh my favorite question! Well, since I think the horror scene has definitely had a little bit of resurgence in the last few years in the new crop of slow burn “elevated horror” or whatever they call it. There str all the great A24 films that probably don’t need mentioning, The Witch, Hereditary, Talk to Me. Then there’s The Wailing, Barbarian, The Ritual, It Follows… There are sooo many good ones. I’d say my absolute favorite though would have to be Mandy.
Mandy is so beautiful, sad, campy, poetic, trippy, and classic all at the same time. Not quite sure how he was able to balance all the different tones and moods within the same film, as well as create such a unique universe within that film. Whenever that soundtrack comes on, I just get transported back to that world, and I just want my brain to live in that film for a little while longer. It’s a massive achievement and I’ll never not mention it when talking about my favorite movies.
I’d also like to mention a little lesser-known film because it was so great. I saw the 2012 stop-motion movie, The Apostle, recently and I absolutely loved it. I’m a huge fan of stop motion (and animation in general), so I’d recommend that one to horror fans looking for something a little different.
Little Bites is available now on Shudder.
Categorized:Interviews
