Opus & ASMR Horror

Okay! ASMR is not for me. At least, not ASMR created with eating food. I didn't even know what ASMR was a couple of years ago. I had to have a younger cousin show/explain it to me. But I do understand that it is an entire genre of social media video. One of my children even loves to watch certain ASMR videos of someone eating different candies and sweets. Example:

As someone who is often subject to sensory overload, eating ASMR is just too much for me! It makes my skin crawl, while for others, it can be a satisfying sensation/experience.

This kind of ASMR is more my speed:

Opus captures the horror and oddity of ASMR with food

For me – and in film studies, we can look closely at the following two scenes from A24's Opus to understand how filmmakers create tension, unease, and horror

Trying to understand ASMR through verbal explanation actually helped me to make the connection as to why the video style lends itself well to horror. ASMR stands for "autonomous sensory meridian response; a term used to describe a tingling, static-like, or goosebumps sensation in response to specific triggering audio or visual stimuli. These sensations are said to spread across the skull or down the back of the neck and, for some, down the spine or limbs. When experiencing ASMR sensations, some people report pleasant feelings of relaxation, calm, sleepiness or well-being" (nebraskamed.com).

So before we revisit two ASMR-inspired (intended?) scenes from Opus, we can already think about:

1. Why might "tingling" or "goosebumps" in response to audiovisual stimuli be a meaningful process to understand for horror filmmakers?
2. How do "sensations...down the back of the neck" relate to horror and fear?
3. What does it suggest about the Levelists and Moretti's enclave that ASMR sensations might cause "pleasant feelings of relaxation, calm, sleepiness or well-being" for them?
   1. Does Ariel share this experience?
   2. Do you? Do we?
   3. What is the point the film might be making about ASMR? And how it relates to wellness and holistic feeling culture/aesthetics/etc?

Here's another ASMR video from YouTube you might reference as an example to consider alongside the scenes from Opus:

Opus's ASMR Dinner Scene

The sequence really seems to begin when Jorg turns to Ariel and says, "first rule," which begins the passing of the loaf of bread. I typically think of ASMR as sound-induced, but the sound of teeth ripping bread only crescendoes for a brief moment. Green also uses editing, cinematography, and mise-en-scene to emphasize the sensory experience.

What does the editing, angle, and distance suggest about this bread passing ritual? And whose perspective is this?

What other cinematic techniques are used to emphasize the suggestion you came up with?

Does the sound highlight or contrast with this suggestion?

ASMR and the Diving Ritual

Now the sound is DISTINCT. Describe it in as much detail as possible (assuming you can stomach the scene).

How does the distance and editing create tension and suspense? How do they work together with sound to create disgust?