{"id":15371,"date":"2022-12-15T21:00:58","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T02:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/?p=15371"},"modified":"2022-12-14T15:38:48","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T20:38:48","slug":"shocktober-2022-shorts-and-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deeperintomovies.net\/journal\/archives\/15371","title":{"rendered":"SHOCKtober 2022 Shorts and Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Beholder<\/em> (1983, Chris Sullivan)<\/strong><\/p>\n

A restaurant scene and a street preacher, in constant states of absurd transformation, first-person camera flying through it all. Sound is field recordings, or a good approximation. Blobby watercolor, with inspired animation, comparable to Bill Plympton. Sullivan made a few shorts then got to work on his 2+ hour feature Consuming Spirits<\/em>, which was recently on Criterion.<\/p>\n

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\nThe Fall of the House of Usher<\/em> (1984, John Schnall)<\/strong><\/p>\n

One problem with reading Poe aloud is that “acute illness” sounds like “a cute illness.” Usher House looks like an American suburban house from outside, but still has a butler. Ol’ Rodrick is worried about his sick sister, whom he maybe buried alive. The musician here can’t match the spoken phrase “the wild improvisations of his guitar.” Calm, soft candle-lit drawings with some good closeups. Schnall turned in the occasional short for the next couple decades, worked on Sesame Street, lives in New Jersey. These were both from the “Animation of the Apocalypse” video.<\/p>\n

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\nHideous<\/em> (2022, Yann Gonzalez)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yann stages a talk-show transformation to four songs by The XX, or technically from their singer’s solo album. So it’s a music video EP. We need more stuff like this.<\/p>\n

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\nThe Telephone Box<\/em> (1972, Antonio Mercero)<\/strong><\/p>\n

I knew the general premise (man gets trapped in telephone box), but always imagined it as a cheap-looking b\/w short, not this eye-popping Prisoner<\/a><\/em>-era color. What seems like a stupid accident escalates when a procession of townsfolk can’t free him from the box, then apparently a phone-box truck arrives to fix the mistake, but nope, they pick up the box with man inside and cart it impersonally to a warehouse full of phone boxes with men trapped in them. Feels like a metaphor for oversized companies that set stupid procedures in place which keep merrily humming along even as they wreck people’s lives, but maybe this Comcast telephone hold music is influencing my thoughts.<\/p>\n

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\nAlso watched an episode of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared<\/a><\/em>, and need to see the rest.<\/p>\n

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\nI feel like horror is underrepresented on the year-end lists, and deserves its own award show, so here are the 2022 SHOCKies nominations<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Best Writing:<\/strong><\/p>\n