We continue our exploration of cinema in search of worthy and exceptional works that will rouse the attention and appreciation of metalheads interested in other mediums where the spirit present in metal music might also manifest. Part 1 can be viewed here.
German Expressionism is the film movement most adequate to capture the language of shadows, treating the realistic portrayal of reality as secondary to the bare representation of fears, desires, instincts and the night realm that lurks beyond diurnal appearance. This early masterpiece by Carl Theodor Dreyer, regarded today as one of the masters of the filmic arts, doesn’t strictly belong to that movement but considerably incorporates its spirit and actualizes it with more modern techniques and trends (such as the use of sound besides the soundtrack and (sparse) spoken dialogue instead of the silent film format), while still sticking to some earlier elements like intertitles. Like the aforementioned movement from Germany, which produced famous classics such as “Nosferatu” and “Faust”, this film engages in the depiction of phantasmagoria irrupting into the realm of daily life and the invasion of darkness and the dead into the world of the living as main character Allan Gray, a student of the occult, wanders through eerie sights and places in a plot involving murder, vampirism and the intervention of the spirits and forces from the netherworld.
An effective example of cinematic surrealism, staying true to André Breton’s description of the movement (or rather method) as “pure psychic automatism” in its incredibly well-done probing of the “id” and its realms of dreams. What this approximately 14-minute short film accomplishes particularly well is the pervasive, underlying sense of unease typical of the encounter with forces beyond the grasp of the rational mind. The main character, played by director Maya Deren herself wanders anxiously through the dream-nightmare-scape where familiar rules don’t apply and nothing can be taken for granted, unsure of where to go and impelled by a vital impulse. Distressing sights occur, such as the cloaked figure with a mirror for a face, objects shapeshift and the aura of menace manifests pervasively even when seeming moments of relief (like the encounter of a man, possibly a lover) briefly occur.
Rightly and ironically considered the best adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s film is vigorously executed and unflinching in its depiction of the famous character’s descent into madness, the plot recontextualized in a medieval Japanese setting but maintaining the thematic core. Like the work that inspires it, the adaptation is grand in the scope of its themes and the wide spectrum of emotions it explores.
This straightforward but vividly realized folk horror tale (a “genre” that is experiencing a recent revival with popular and well-received films such as “The Witch” and “Midsommar”) slowly and skilfully unravels its mysterious premise to the logical conclusion. Until that moment, the viewer borrows the perspective of police sargent Neil Howie, sent to a secluded island to investigate the murder of a young girl. The deeply Christian officer is disturbed by the fact that the islanders still practice the pagan cult of their Celtic ancestors, and the bizarre environment in which he finds himself becomes more menacing as his suspicions become increasingly eerie. Where the film excels is in the narrative format similar to that of “mystery” thrillers where information is only gradually deployed, inciting the viewer to take guesses and formulate hypothesis like the equally befuddled protagonist. Also of note is the magistral portrayal of the heathen community, led by the iconic Christopher Lee, and the uncanny influence it exerts on the main character throughout his quest that only gradually reveals the sinister tones of horror. Besides, the ending’s potential predictability for some does not detract from its power.
Given our stated goal of exposing obscure and lesser know works, this inclusion might feel like a cheat on the grounds of David Lynch’s acquired celebrity not just in underground cinema where he started out but in the relative mainstream as well. Nevertheless, we feel like this would be too grave an omission since we’re dealing with possibly the best depiction of a nightmare on film. The viewer is thrown into a relentlessly bleak, oppressive and seemingly post-apocalyptic industrial hellscape directly powered by the lowest regions of the unconscious, whence come all sorts of incarnated fears, phantasms and absurd situations, at times almost resembling a deranged black comedy. A unique and essential touchstone of this corner of dark cinema.
We’ll use this short to represent the niche Russian movement known as “necrorealism”, a raw and crude style mixing absurdism, surrealism and a focus on the morbid, decaying and the transience of matter. Partly a parody of the narrowness of Soviet Realism, it refers mostly to the works of Yevgeny Yufit and related artists that essentially created montages of macabre and disorienting situations, often involving acts of madness and taking place in the snowy woods, in a style reminiscent of 1920’s avant-garde cinema like that of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí. The grainy black-and-white, analogous to the lo-fi production of many black metal albums, contributes to the sense of beholding something ancient and primitive that was not supposed to be watched or maybe even known.
The ever provocative and controversial Lars von Trier has crafted a masterpiece in his intensely nihilistic art horror film. Concerning a couple who retreats to a cabin in the woods after the death of their infant from their negligence, this is one of those cases where symbolism is precise and capable of striking exactly the primordial archetypes and emotions it clearly aims for. As the mother undergoes therapy by the psychologist husband and both gradually come to embody the archetypal essences of male and female (we shall point out that the characters are simply referred to as “He” and “She” in the credits), madness eventually comes to enrapture them through an hallucinatory descent into the irrational language of the forest. There’s nothing gratuitous about the film’s arthouse presentation, which actually brilliantly serves its thematic purposes – notice, for example, how the crowd’s faces during the funeral are blurred to focus exclusively on the couple’s grieving faces. Without a semblance of doubt, one of the best movies in the horror genre of recent years, perhaps of all time.
The last work by Russian director Aleksei German is an immersive voyage through a world of filth and revulsion. Its setting is the medieval age of another planet (altogether identical to Earth and human civilization in that stage, in one of those thin science-fiction premises often used in allegory) where earthly scientists are sent to, one of them being the main character, worshipped by some of the natives as a God. The impressive, brutally arresting visuals of the film, and the visceral way the viewer is transported to this world, would be enough for a recommendation, but the quest of Don Rumata (our protagonist) is to be fully experienced in all of its implications if one wants to absorb one of the boldest visions of last decade’s cinematic output.
