2 reviews
Dante On Acid
I'll say one thing about METACHAOS and that is it certainly lives up to its name . I caught this on a short film website and the write up was kind enough to give the definitions of both meta and chaos , though the two words don't normally get joined together . Don't even start to think what sort of premise a film with a title of METACHAOS might be about because no one has bothered with narrative here . There is no story and the animation concentrates on horrific , grotesque , nightmarish imagery coupled with a soundtrack best described as a cross between a wailing choir , experimental industrial rock and techno . I watched this on my laptop with the lights out and my headphones on and seeing this in the dark is the only way to watch it for its full effect .
This is a totally divisive animated short and it should come with a warning . So I'll spell it out - if you're a stoner or someone who drinks to excess don't watch it under any type of substance stronger than nicotine or caffeine because your laptop will be drowned in a tidal wave of vomit . The lack of any storyline might also be a turn off to some . I rather enjoyed it in a strange unexplainable sort of way but I doubt if I'm in any hurry to rewatch because it is rather distressing . In fact if Dante overdosed on magic mushrooms this would be his vision of Hell and imagine being stuck in there for all of eternity ? So say your prayers and hedge your bets just in case
This is a totally divisive animated short and it should come with a warning . So I'll spell it out - if you're a stoner or someone who drinks to excess don't watch it under any type of substance stronger than nicotine or caffeine because your laptop will be drowned in a tidal wave of vomit . The lack of any storyline might also be a turn off to some . I rather enjoyed it in a strange unexplainable sort of way but I doubt if I'm in any hurry to rewatch because it is rather distressing . In fact if Dante overdosed on magic mushrooms this would be his vision of Hell and imagine being stuck in there for all of eternity ? So say your prayers and hedge your bets just in case
- Theo Robertson
- Apr 21, 2014
- Permalink
An all-out assault although it is strongest in its quieter moments
I'm not really sure how to describe this film because it isn't really a film that one can say what happens. It is very much an experience and we find ourselves in a world of horrific, blackened and fragmented humanoid figures, scrabbling around in a black, windy wasteland. At the core of this wasteland is a structure made up of squares and all in white, two things which mark it out from the outside world. Inside we see everything is white and peaceful, with humanoid figures floating in silence. This continues until the white structure is penetrated by three black humanoid figures, causing a massive chain reaction outwards, affecting everything.
The film really kicks into gear when the explosion occurs but to speak for a moment of the time before this. At the start we have some very unsettling images and sounds and I found it both repellent but yet compulsive to see the figures and the landscape they inhabit – even the white structure seemed spooky and odd. This basic feeling is retained just about when the film kicks up a gear – heavy music comes in to give energy and the whole film becomes a mass of shapes and figures expanding and changing in and around the basic "rules" we have already seen. Some of it gets too close and becomes rather meaningless shapes – these are visually good to watch but for me the film is never better than when it has a connection to the body horror and familiar shapes of humanoids but is doing very strange things with them.
It is worth watching this on a decent screen and with headphones on, because it is very much about the experience and it is an assault on your senses throughout. It works as such, but for me personally it was the familiar and unsettling that worked better than the out and out brutal chaos that it gets to.
The film really kicks into gear when the explosion occurs but to speak for a moment of the time before this. At the start we have some very unsettling images and sounds and I found it both repellent but yet compulsive to see the figures and the landscape they inhabit – even the white structure seemed spooky and odd. This basic feeling is retained just about when the film kicks up a gear – heavy music comes in to give energy and the whole film becomes a mass of shapes and figures expanding and changing in and around the basic "rules" we have already seen. Some of it gets too close and becomes rather meaningless shapes – these are visually good to watch but for me the film is never better than when it has a connection to the body horror and familiar shapes of humanoids but is doing very strange things with them.
It is worth watching this on a decent screen and with headphones on, because it is very much about the experience and it is an assault on your senses throughout. It works as such, but for me personally it was the familiar and unsettling that worked better than the out and out brutal chaos that it gets to.
- bob the moo
- Apr 19, 2014
- Permalink