Spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet streamed Vicious via Paramount+ subscription, so be warned, and don’t answer the door!
I’m always impressed when a horror film’s sound can provoke visceral audience reactions as successfully (or more so) than the visuals, and The Strangers helmer Bryan Bertino’s 2025 movie release, Vicious, is indeed one of those movies. Currently streaming after originally being set for theaters, Vicious puts Dakota Fanning’s Polly in the middle of a single-location nightmare, and one of Bertino’s smartest moves here (beyond the A+ casting) was limiting the music to match the narrative, so that Fanning and the sound design take center stage.
More On Vicious
Director: Bryan Bertino
Writer: Bryan Bertino
Cast: Dakota Fanning, Katrhryn Hunter, Rachel Blanchard, Devyn Nekoda, Mary McCormack
Runtime: 98 mins.
Rating: R for strong bloody violence, some grisly images, and language.
Review: Read our Vicious review here!
Which means, of course, that any time someone’s flesh is being sliced or blood is squelching, those noises are as up close and personal as can be, which can make for some very disturbing scenes. Case in point: Polly suddenly losing her breath, choking, gagging and retching up a key that she definitely never swallowed in the first place. I had the pleasure of talking to Bryan Bertino after Vicious debuted at Fantastic Fest in Austin, and I had to ask how much of that scene hinged on Dakota Fanning’s instincts, as opposed to his direction. As seen in the video above, here’s what he told me:
I mean, look, something like her gagging is all Dakota, and is all her being willing to push herself way farther than, even when I wrote it, I had imagined that she would be willing to go. I ended up gagging off-screen because it felt so real, and you’re almost like, ‘We should give her a safe word, because we won’t be able to tell…’
Let me tell you, hearing those quick, rattled gasps turning into gutteral heaves was just below reaching “Too Effective” when booming out of the theater’s speakers. Moments like that turn the smells of popcorn and hot dog grease from friends into enemies. So I can see why seeing and hearing Fanning’s performance would have caused such a reaction.
He continued, championing the actress for going above and beyond in her portrayal of Polly, and for her ability to go to those dark places at a moment’s notice.
But like, yeah, she was so committed from the beginning that it really opened up the doors of what we could do as filmmakers. Because she knows herself and knows what she’s capable of, you could have her breaking down sobbing and then instantly turn on a dime, or then start to choke or sob, and then I call cut, and then we’re ready to go again. It was such a gift to have somebody so committed, and I think that really comes through when people watch the movie.
I kinda wish I’d asked exactly how committed, since that shot lingered on her as she gagged a few times before the key finally dropped out of her mouth. Did she really have the key in there the whole time? Was it dropped from the other side of her face? Was it a CGI key?
I also asked Bertino which scene was the most disturbing one for him to film, and while some fans might think he’d bring up a shockingly violent scene involving a face stabbing or a digit being chopped off, he pointed back to Fanning’s gagging scene, given how authentic it was compared to faux violence and gore. In his words:
The gagging is, honestly. I don’t like to listen to people choke, so I think that might be. I have a really bad gag reflex. I watch everything now, and over the course of my career, I’ve cut off enough [body parts], I’ve stabbed people that there’s not much anymore that actually bothers me in the same way.
That said, Bertino did bring up another scene that provided more of an emotional disturbance rather than anything bloody or supernatural: Polly’s phone call with her father.
So I don’t know, I mean, I think I end up reacting more to the moments that I find feel the purest, like if I’m gonna tear up or get emotional at my monitor, it’s usually from… Her on the phone with her dad and hearing his voice for the first time, like, grabbed me in a way, every time we were watching. It was just like, the feeling that that would elicit for a person, I think would be a pretty terrifying and emotional moment.
As someone whose father died back in 2001, and as someone who’s had both good dreams and nightmares about seeing the man again, I was taken aback by that scene in a way that was unlike anything else in the movie. I obviously knew it wasn’t really Polly’s dad, but I could 100% empathize with her for wanting and wishing for it to be real. Grief sucks, especially when it involves fucked-up boxes with hourglasses and weird demands, and keys that rise up from one’s guts.
The bar has now been set for any and all upcoming horror movies when it comes to having main characters aggressively gagging on supernatural keys, as well as for evil mirror reflections and other genre movie tricks.
Vicious is currently streaming among other excellent horror movies on Paramount+, and here’s hoping everyone is living nice and happy lives after everything that went on, even though that seems about as likely as Polly’s dad calling me right now. Ooh, hold on, I hear my phone buzzing somewhere…
