I didn't find it a horror movie so much as a very extreme kind of mad science ghost story—I really have trouble classifying it as cyberpunk, seeing as its scrap-metal infections are much lower-tech than even dial-up internet, nozzles and barbs and wires, bolts and pistons, power drills. There is television, but I don't remember computers. Memories are scribbly videotapes, grainily replaying. I doubt there was any budget for effects, but even if it was a deliberate choice, the director uses stop-motion with his live characters to uncanny effect. I should explain the film is black-and-white, extremely lo-fi—much of it has the same cut-up second-generation look I associate with punk films like The Blank Generation (1976) or Jubilee (1977). And yes, there is a high level of graphic violence, sexual and otherwise; for whatever reasons, it didn't bother me. Possibly it helps that almost every time you see blood, it's a cartoonish ink-bomb explosion that looks more like a misfiring pen than anything from a human body. Possibly it's that the film has its own deadpan, surreal humor; nothing else explains the cheesy '50's doo-wop that swings periodically through the otherwise industrial soundtrack or the way the screen flashes "GAME OVER" as the last of the credits scrolls off. I don't know how often I'd rewatch it, but I was really glad to have seen it this time.
Thanks so much for the follow-up on Craig Arnold--your posting about the book made me go back and read your original entry and comments. So cool that someone who knew him swung by to comment.
I hope they see the book.
That was indeed a good Wondermark.
The rollover text!
And good to see your writeup of Fairy Tale: A True Story here, where a new array of people will be able to read it.
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I didn't find it a horror movie so much as a very extreme kind of mad science ghost story—I really have trouble classifying it as cyberpunk, seeing as its scrap-metal infections are much lower-tech than even dial-up internet, nozzles and barbs and wires, bolts and pistons, power drills. There is television, but I don't remember computers. Memories are scribbly videotapes, grainily replaying. I doubt there was any budget for effects, but even if it was a deliberate choice, the director uses stop-motion with his live characters to uncanny effect. I should explain the film is black-and-white, extremely lo-fi—much of it has the same cut-up second-generation look I associate with punk films like The Blank Generation (1976) or Jubilee (1977). And yes, there is a high level of graphic violence, sexual and otherwise; for whatever reasons, it didn't bother me. Possibly it helps that almost every time you see blood, it's a cartoonish ink-bomb explosion that looks more like a misfiring pen than anything from a human body. Possibly it's that the film has its own deadpan, surreal humor; nothing else explains the cheesy '50's doo-wop that swings periodically through the otherwise industrial soundtrack or the way the screen flashes "GAME OVER" as the last of the credits scrolls off. I don't know how often I'd rewatch it, but I was really glad to have seen it this time.
Thanks so much for the follow-up on Craig Arnold--your posting about the book made me go back and read your original entry and comments. So cool that someone who knew him swung by to comment.
I hope they see the book.
That was indeed a good Wondermark.
The rollover text!
And good to see your writeup of Fairy Tale: A True Story here, where a new array of people will be able to read it.
Hah. Thank you. I hope so!