Educational Media Reviews Online

Provocateur’s Experiments in Terror 3 feels like an homage to silent film although 3 of the 4 short films included have either voice-over or sound emanating from dialogue. The three that stand out are Ben Rivers’ Terror! (2007, 24 minutes shot on Beta SP); Mike Kuchar’s Born of the Wind (1961, 24 minutes shot on 8mm film); and Manuelle Labor by Guy Maddin and Marie Losier (2007, 10 minutes shot on 16mm film).

Terror! Is a document about slasher/zombie/massacre films made by someone whose background includes having worked as a film programmer at the Brighton Cinematheque for 10 years prior to making this film. It essentially catalogues and compiles imagery that is similar in a number of disparate films by beginning with such common narrative structure devices as investigating strange sounds, walking alone in the dark, or searching for a friend. It continues with a collection of shots of characters running away from imminent danger and finally those where the victims do not escape. Taking narrative construction to task, the film also allows the viewer to experience shocker endings. As a compilation of filmic devices the film provides us with a framework for analysis and a deconstruction of the narrative and visual styles in these types of films.

Born of the Wind has been preserved by Anthology Film Archives with a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. Mike Kuchar, George Kuchar’s twin brother, provides us with a typical Kuchar production full of cinephilia and this particular one has a lovely two-color Technicolor appearance and their regular roster of actors. Both brothers were interested in watching films and were influenced by numerous films and genres, particularly campy sci-fi and horror. This is rather evident in Born of the Wind which is a vampire/mummy/alien with a flying saucer/silent film amalgamation. Interestingly enough this film was made on the heels of the release of Hitchcock’s Psycho whose influence is rather strong at the end of the film.

Manuelle Labor uses the visual techniques of films from the 1920s and 1930s with hissy, scratchy soundtracks to emulate the period of silent films. Madden has done this in previous films and it is a standard way of making people understand that what they are watching is an “old” film even though the films never looked or sounded that way when they were new. Although a co-direction, it is a Guy Maddin film: quaint and grotesque at the same time. As the title may suggest the film is about a woman giving birth to a pair of hands (provided by Madden, according to the credits in the film).

The bonus film, It Gets Worse is called a “one-reeler bonus” and is 32 minutes long. The producers should know better that silent one-reelers were 10 minutes long, the length of one 35mm reel being projected. It is another misuse of imitating (laughing at) silent films. The Psychotic Odyssey of Richard Chase is a 6-minute biography of the 1970s serial killer Richard Chase. Its derivative style taken from Todd Haynes’ Superstar, uses Barbie-like dolls to illustrate the voice-over accounts of Chase’s life and desensitizes the grizzly nature of the crimes with dolls covered in blood-like matter. The film is probably meant to convey the notion of clever distanciation in relation to the horrors of true crime but it simply comes across as a silly, amateurish, juvenile imitation of Todd Haynes. Satan Claus was shot on 16mm in 1975 but its transfer to video, which looks like third generation VHS at Extra Long Play speed, takes away from any of its cuteness. The director’s blurb about it makes it out to be a lot scarier and interesting than it actually is but it’s actually quite sweet. It’s not clear why Loma Lynda: The Red Door (Excerpt) was included. It is a 10-minute excerpt of a 40 minute film (according to the IMDB), that at the time the excerpt was made was not completed and was supposed to open in 2008. It is apparently a prostitute’s revenge. The excerpt included on the disc is obviously lacking in completeness and its style is indistinguishable from so many other films of this genre.

Experiments in Terror 3 is only recommended for Terror!, Born of the Wind and Manuelle Labor.