If you sense a bit of The Shining with a dash of Rosemary’s Baby in the new psychological horror flick Dead Whisper, and if the film sends a few shivers up your spine, you have cinematographer and MassArt Alumnus Ben Grant (‘18 BFA Film/Video) to thank. The LA-based MassArt film and video alumnus was very much in charge of the look and feel of the movie. “The cinematographer is almost like the gatekeeper of the image,” he says. “It’s their job to visually interpret the script with the director. Together, they develop the visual language.”

Grant, who also served as one of the film’s producers, credits his learning experience at MassArt for his ability to make a go of it in L.A. “MassArt really opened my mind about what filmmaking is and what it can be – it showed me how to look at the entire craft from a new perspective,” he says.

He adds that the College “lets you do what you want. If you’re really passionate about one element of filmmaking, they let you pursue that. At other schools, they make you focus on all these other elements that really aren’t going to be beneficial or help you in the real world.”

This latest movie, filmed entirely in Massachusetts with lots of evocative shadows, long staircases, and views of the sea, is about what happens to a man literally tortured by the demons of his young daughter’s death as he finds it impossible to move on without her.

Dead Whisper, which has already scored a feature in Variety, is now available to stream on  Apple TV or Prime Video. The film will be showing locally in Salem at the Cinema Salem on July 10, and in Hingham at the Loring Hall Theatre on July 11 and 12.