Actor Matthew Gray Gubler, who plays Dr. Reid on Criminal Minds, spoke about his experience directing and envisioning the latest episode of season 10.

Criminal Minds Renewed For Season 11?

In an interview with TVLine, Gubler went into some detail about working on the episode, titled 'Mr. Scratch,' and the inspirations that went behind it. The interviewer suggested that villain in the episode evoked Scarecrow from Batman and wondered if that's what Gubler was aiming for. While in his response Gubler acknowledged the similarity he revealed that his actual inspiration was none other than Dracula as portrayed in the cult European film, Nosferatu.

"Oh, thank you! It's interesting, I never thought of that, with the gassing [and preying on fears].... I'm sure that on a subconscious level I did," he said. "I'm a big fan of every version of Batman, and especially the Batman villains, but that just occurred to me. I was more influenced, truthfully, by Nosferatu, by F.W. Murnau.... All the shadow work in that."

Fans Will "Lose Their Minds" With Episode 21 Of Criminal Minds

The visual treatment of the UnSub was also very much in line with how Nosferatu was eerily captured, mostly in shadows and silhouettes. With this Gubler also revealed that he was trying to do something different, something not seen as much in television.

"It's funny, I do what is normally not done on TV, which is trying to show less," he said. "I want the audience to lean forward, I want to have him softly whispering so the audience has to be on the edge of their seat to hear what he is saying, and thus be hypnotized themselves. It's a tactic I've always tried to employ with directing anything - and it's especially effective in this episode."

'Mr. Scratch' aired on CBS on April 22.

Watch the preview here:

Tags
Criminal Minds, CBS, Television