18. The Outwaters
Rakuten. First time watch.
What did God do after he created alternating periods of light and darkness? He called it a day! (Ba dum - tiss).
Well, in the case of these filmmakers they called it ‘The Outwaters’. This found footage film starts out with a noisy incoherent call full of screaming to a 911 operator who’s pleasing to be told what is going on. In the background there are photographs of our characters with notes saying ‘not seen since 08/08/2017’. Notes on the screen then explain that all the footage to follow was found on memory cards. Sound effects then play (which sounds more like a cassette tape being loaded rather than an SD card being slotted in but whatever), and the film begins.
We meet some creative young people who are going out to the Mojave desert to film a music video. They’re seen smoking weed, coke is mentioned, and one of them makes a comment that if you take acid it is stored in your spinal fluid and if you’re then in an accident or something the release of this stores acid can cause a flashback. They’re all seen drinking some booze out of a round bottle with a floral pattern which I’m thinking was maybe supposed to resemble a peyote button or something, hinting to me that they’ve all now taken acid so might be at risk of a flashback. They then set out to the desert…
What follows is a lot of shoogly camera work and mad sound effects. A lot of it takes place in the pitch darkness with the only visible parts of the screen being a small circle of light from a flashlight which flys madly around the screen. It’s hard not to compare this to some recent ‘noise and vision’ type of film like “Skinamarink”, but this is almost trying to make some hybrid with “Blair Witch Project”.
If I’m watching a film alone I tend to watch it in the dark with headphones on. The shots of complete darkness to brilliant light had me frequently blinking or closing my eyes until my pupils adjusted and the mad sudden sound effects had me fidgeting with the headphone volume.
I’m not sure if I enjoyed this one, but I keep mulling it over so it’s definitely left an impression.
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