Editor Brett W. Bachman, ACE, has been busy in recent months, cutting several feature films that share themes across horror, psychology and romance. He partnered with British/Australian filmmaker Bryn Chainey on Rabbit Trap, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year. The film follows a musician and her husband, who move to a remote house in Wales, where their music disturbs local ancient folk magic and brings a nameless child to their door.
He teamed up with writer/director Drew Hancock to cut the psychological thriller Companion, which stars Sophie Thatcher, and hit theaters in January too. And Bachman reunited with director and past collaborator Josh Rubin to cut
Heart Eyes, the rom-com/horror film that was released in time for Valentine's Day back in February.
Here, he shares details on his editing process and how these three projects were unique in their own right, but also had common threads.
Brett, can you start by walking us through your editing set-up?
"I usually work with Avid Media Composer, and if I’m on a feature, I’m typically in a 3.1 sound mix. I spend a lot of time working with audio; typically about 50 percent of my time. I can’t feel confident about submitting a rough cut to a director or producer unless the sound mix feels pristine. The idea of having a missing crossfade, or someone hearing an errant pop is one of my editor-specific nightmares. Aside from the obvious technical benefits, a polished soundscape allows my director and those early audiences to focus intently on the story and the cut. I tend to avoid temp music for the first assembly.
"In the last few years, ScriptSync has become crucial to my workflow. I don’t use it as much in the early stage of the assembly. I’ll typically utilize selects I made while watching dailies. But once we’re in director’s cut, it has saved me hours of labor each week. If my director wants to see performance [alternatives], we can fly through them immediately.
"I don’t think I’m very picky when it comes to space. Give me a decent-sized room with a window, the biggest OLED you can find, and I’m good."
All three films you worked on recently are unique takes on the horror genre. Could you tell us a bit more about your previous credits and how they prepared you for your work on these three films?
“Modulating and controlling tone was our biggest challenge on these films, particularly Heart Eyes and Companion. These are genre-hybrid films, and they often oscillate between absurdity, tension, terror and sincerity — all in the same scene sometimes. That is a difficult challenge, and sometimes it takes several cuts to get it feeling balanced.
“In any film that has tonal shifts, you have to have a firm control of the material: what to include versus what to omit versus what to restructure. That requires emotional awareness and an ability to monitor and be conscious of your own internal reactions while watching dailies and the cut. Additionally, you have to trust your instincts if something feels aberrant. That’s a bit of a skillset I’ve learned to develop after 20-plus features, and I often have to remind myself that this is a process. Sometimes it takes months for the movie to find the right wavelength.
“Two projects come to mind that really prepared me for these. I worked with Mike Flanagan on The Fall of the House of Usher, and that was an eight-hour miniseries that demanded sharp pivots in tone. The show could be deeply satirical – but it was grounded emotionally, and it featured intense moments of violence and terror, like our acid rain sequence in ‘The Masque of Red Death’ episode.
“Secondly, Werewolves Within was my first time working with the director of Heart Eyes, Josh Ruben, and it utilized a very playful editing structure that was entirely built around rhythm. We worked for a long time on developing a pleasurable flow with that edit, controlling and modulating timing, performances, needle drops and sound effects to make the film feel buoyant and entertaining. Although Heart Eyes is not as ‘zippy’ as Werewolves, it still maintains a very playful rhythm, despite being quite brutal at specific times. I liked to say that it feels like it’s constructed like a pop-song – it’s meant to entertain and put a smile on your face, but it’s deceptively complex in technical orchestration.”
Rabbit Trap premiered back at Sundance. Were there any strategies to kept viewers emotionally invested?
“Conducting small friends and family screenings, and listening to audience feedback was key to the editing of Rabbit Trap. The film is enigmatic, and we ask the audience to draw a lot of their own conclusions. I liked to compare the film to the works of David Lynch and Nicolas Roeg. It will not give you all the answers. It’s a film that is deeply rooted with a melancholic sense of the sublime.
“Internally, we would often talk about the difference between ambiguity and confusion. How do we steer the film away from confusion and reward the audience for participating in figuring out details on their own? It’s a film that puts trust in the audience. There were earlier cuts of the movie that were even more abstract – more intercutting, more dream sequences, and it was too much for some of these earlier audience members. After we’d screen the movie, we’d hop on one-on-one phone calls and ask audience members about their unique reaction to the movie. It generated very helpful feedback, and we were able to see a few trends that informed what to address in the edit. Generally, we used this feedback to simplify the movie. It was a constant balancing act, but a very rewarding one. It’s a very bold movie. I haven’t seen anything like it in recent memory.”
For Companion, you worked alongside co-editor Josh Ethier, ACE. How did that collaboration work?
“Companion was shut down halfway through production due to the strikes. The shoot resumed several months later once things got resolved, but there was a new complication in the post schedule: my wife was due to have twins halfway through director’s cut. I’ve known Josh Ethier for several years and he was my first pick to sub in for me while I was away for my six-week paternity leave.
“The week before I was to take my hiatus, Josh came into the editing room for a few days, and sat with Drew and I to get a gauge on the movie. That week was a lovely cohabitation as Drew and I continued to work, and Josh was able to shadow us. He picked up on the tone that we were narrowing in on and came to understand the playfulness that was taking shape in the edit. We were experimenting with 1960s love songs, some structural lifts in the second act and finding the right comedic balance – never too silly, but never too grim.
“Josh ushered the edit through the last few weeks of director’s cut, and through our first screenings with New Line and Warner Bros. He deftly guided the film through the recruited screenings and put a strong stamp on several sequences in the movie. He was instrumental in picking some needle drops that occur late in the film, and he and Drew narrowed in on finalizing the pace of the film, especially in the epilogue and the transition between the second act and third act.
“After my paternity leave was up, I returned to the movie for the final week of picture editing and studio notes. By this point, Josh had become an important part of the team and we guided the film through finishing stages together. I had a fantastic time working with him and hope to do it again soon.
“When you have a co-editor, I think it’s extremely important that ego never enters into the equation. If the process becomes laden with ‘your cut versus my cut,’ then you’ve lost sight of what matters. Our mutual work should always be about supporting the director in a shared effort to find the film.”
Companion features a duo of exciting young actors - Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid. Are there any particular scenes or moments in the film that stood out to you during the edit?
“Everything in the movie hinges on Sophie and Jack. This is a film about toxic relationship dynamics. If their chemistry and relationship isn’t believable, the film doesn’t work. We were so fortunate to get them.
“In terms of picking performances, my process involves two things. The first is having a knowledge of where we are in the movie. Why is this scene in the movie? What changes in the scene? What’s the subtext? Where are we in the character’s arc? Having a knowledge of those criteria helps me to look for the right cues in a performance that feel appropriate for the scene’s context.
“The second is taking detailed notes while watching dailies. I want to be open to anything that pings an emotional reaction in me, and sometimes that includes surprises like improvisation, or even an actor flubbing a line. Sometimes that makes it in if the context is right! I try to be very aware of my first emotional reaction to dailies, looking for subtle cues in a performance that allow it to stand out above the others.
“One of my favorite scenes in the movie takes place about 25 minutes in. It’s a long dialogue scene between Sophie and Jack after a pivotal plot twist that reframes the entire story. In essence, it's the prelude to a breakup. There’s a genuine sense of tenderness and sadness between both characters as they realize their relationship has come to an impassable obstacle. We ask the audience to emphasize with both characters, to try and relate to both of them, which creates a dilemma. That adds depth to the conflict.”
Heart Eyes is another genre-bending horror film that combines rom-com elements. How did you balance the film’s contrasting tones?
“Great question! That all comes down to sincerity and empathy. Genre blends could easily become a gimmick if the emotions of the characters aren’t grounded. I like to imagine that Companion and Heart Eyes are sibling movies, even though they are entirely different creative teams. At their heart, they are both stories of romance and relationships, while utilizing pretty complex but playful tonal balances. These films rely on the chemistry of their two respective leads and allow the audience to connect with the characters on a real emotional level.
“It’s important that emotional stakes need to be played for real. If interpersonal relationships in the film become too outlandish, forced or exaggerated, you lose your engagement to the characters and the movie falls apart.
“In regard to Heart Eyes, Olivia Holt (Ally) and Mason Gooding (Jay) are the foundation of the film. Director Josh Ruben and I knew that the most important scenes are the early courtship scenes. The audience must have a genuine emotional investment in these two. That way, when the film throws these two into mortal danger, you are much more involved in the outcome. Scenes are difficult to make truly scary and tense unless you have an emotional investment in the well-being/safety of the characters.
“Even in the more horror-driven scenes, which can be a bit more technically complex, it all comes down to your ability to empathize with the characters. Creative decisions should be made to reinforce our ability to connect with them and their response to obstacles.
“All three of these movies - Rabbit Trap, Companion, and Heart Eyes - are about couples in trauma. At their core, the success of these movies depends on the audience’s ability to connect with these couples through their respective stages of courtship, crisis and termination. My job would be impossible if it weren’t for the sensitive and insightful scripts, talented actors and the directors that oversee the entire team. If I’ve learned anything from this experience, it would be the importance of treating these on-screen relationships with sensitivity and care. You must try to develop empathy for all your characters. That will give them depth and the much-needed verisimilitude to fully enrapture your audience.”
What else do you have coming up?
“I’m very excited that one of my previous films, The Toxic Avenger, has been announced for a theatrical release later this year. It’s insanely fun. It’s big, bombastic, a total riot and a crowd pleaser. We’ve had some incredible screenings at Fantastic Fest and Beyond Fest in Los Angeles. Radioactive mops, henchmen in chicken outfits and Elijah Wood doing a cross between Quasimodo and Riff-Raff from Rocky Horror. It’s more out-there and farcical than Heart Eyes and Companion. It’s weird, outlandish and has an ‘everything and the kitchen sink’ approach. However at it’s core, it’s a sweet story of a step-father attempting to connect with his step-son. This is a film that is proudly on its own wavelength and I absolutely love it for that.”