Of course, how effective this is in “Leave the World Behind” hinges heavily on how convincing the deer are. Fortunately, Sam Esmail had three exceptional crew members who helped to bring the scenes with the animals to life seamlessly. “It’s a testament to Chris Harvey, my VFX supervisor; Dione [Wood], my VFX producer; and Alec [Hart], who’s on the VFX team,” he explained.
“They knew that we wanted to make the deer feel as real as possible, and they were on set,” the “Leave the World Behind” director went on. “We had mock-ups there so that the actors had something to play off of, and we made sure that the lighting on the fur [was] as accurate as possible.”
Those painstaking details go a long way to making the growing threat of the deer more frightening and unsettling as the film goes on, and they also add to the growing mystery that powers the events of “Leave the World Behind.” While there are plenty of other aspects of the movie that are likely to have viewers squirming with anxiety and dread, the film’s eerie wildlife is definitely one of the most memorable parts of the Netflix thriller.
