Trash Arts Killers Volume 1

Now here's a twisted leftfield deeply disturbing absurdist collection of short films if I ever saw one. From the Trash Arts production stable and currently streaming on VersusMedia this macabre anthology explores themes from the masked corners of the human mind and will put cracks in the thin veneer of our outdated industrialised society.

Running at just over an hour it demonstrates just what is possible with a camera, a co-operative, and unbound imagination. This is not your multiplex 12A spandex CGI fest, obviously; rather grass roots risk taking fringe filmmakers with a self to express unhindered and (quite possibly) unhinged.

First up is Angel of Decay - essentially a vlog by a Ted Bundy fangirl documenting her slide into mimicry of her hero and beyond. If you ever want to know what to pack in your murder kit, this is the one to watch. Certainly lives up to the Killers moniker, plural.

Angel of Decay

After a brief insert of a plastic doll autopsy (which continues to be intercut throughout the first few shorts) we have Court of Conscience. If you've ever wondered if the soapbox loons foretelling end-times and apocalypse should be respected then this film has your answer. A simple idea, well, executed.

Court of Conscience

Then we have Arrows with a one-shot slow-cinema opening scene and an implied botched heist before we see our protagonist casual and confident strolling through the woods licking revolvers as you do. We find ourselves a masked antagonist and after a quick chase sequence the score is settled with a game of chance - namely Russian roulette. There's probably a deep multi-layered metaphor in there somewhere.

Arrows

Moving on to Here's Johnny we are left to imagine the circumstances and context of any storyline as this short jumps straight into the staple horror shower scene. Next time you're in the shower you might want to keep your wits about you and your clothes on.

Here's Johnny

Submitting to Desire we are presented with what is probably the most visually striking film of the bunch. Its abstract narrative arc is left to your own interpretation and anything unsettling is down to your own cognitive biases. Featuring blue steak, squished fruit, bondage, and music steadily building to a thrashing climax there's clues and cues to tie it all together into a coherent study of that suggested by the title.

Desire

Making you even more wary of the landline telephone, The Call sets a scene of a big local news story - so why does our protagonist keep getting calls from a double-glazing salesman questioning her sanity? A tale of ratcheting guilt until pushed over the edge.

The Call

A great use of available light in Southbank which documents the last minutes of life of the main character with a cameo from none other than Death - well this is Trash Arts Killers after all. With an emotive use of music we are in the moment with the lead with disregard for whatever came before and for whatever may come.

Southbank

Rounding up we have Attraction which explores a couple's relationship anniversary and psychological fallout when the relationship is not all you want it to be. Do you continue with the relationship or do you break up with unknown consequences.

Attraction

All in all an entertainment filled hour that should help keep you awake at night! Trash Arts Killers Volume 1 is streaming on VersusMedia from 26th January 2018.

Full disclosure: the ASMR Dolls sections are submissions from my own productions at ASMR.Show

Selecting The Right Tripod For Your Smartphone

Everyone shoots photos and videos with their phone nowadays right? Who wants to carry a tripod around everywhere? If you do need a tripod which is best for you?

Here's one airninja's take on specific tripod requirements:

☴ MJM Film Review: INVITATION TO HELL

This is possibly Michael J. Murphy's best known work, certainly in the pre-cert world of video nasties.

It's got a lot to like but at the same time it didn't all hang together that well for me. I appreciate the atmosphere and commend the edginess. The soundtrack alone throws me right back to the VHS era.

A girl turns up to a fancy dress party but is then held captive as part of a bizarre ritual. Simplistic, but there is also a subtle subplot going on if you care to watch the embedded full film below.

☴ MJM Film Review: THE LAST NIGHT

Originally part of a double bill with Invitation to Hell, this film The Last Night shares technical issues associated with its age. No formal previous archiving beyond what can be found on the recent Murlyn channel, founded almost a year after the director's untimely death (he was 64). Sadly this means what the kids would today call "potato vision" where high-detail is non-existent. The technical issues are compounded by lo-fi audio limitations and a production issue with the camera itself which Murphy explains in a later interview.

The story revolves around two escaped convicts who hide in a theatre during the last night of an amateur stage production of Murder In The Dark but invariably get discovered by the staff and cast.

The convicts obviously have to ensure their own freedom endures by murdering various people in (some very) cold blood. Some of the methods of dispatch really are grisly and bear Murphy's unmistakable signature - as does the production design, particularly the convicts' appearance after re-appropriating a blazer, waist-coat and tie they find.

If you can see past the technical limitations of what's thought to be the only surviving version of this film (likely originated from a 240P Scorpio Video pre-cert VHS transfer) it's an enjoyable, disturbing, psychologically terrifying film - with a great synth soundtrack like only that 1980's pre-cert video nasty era can deliver.

Watch the film embedded below or head over to the main channel for a browse.

☴ Book Review - Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

Ishmael is a very simple, quite short, book. Whilst some highbrows deplore the style, I found it highly accessible and slightly whimsy in a Philip K. Dick dark undertone kind of way: a telepathic gorilla instructs the protagonist on how the state of the world came to be, why, and what can potentially be done about it.

The structure of the book is such that it follows the rules of cliffhangers and revelations, withholds key parts of the narrative to keep you reading.

The story presents a concept that will stay with me. The idea that, what if our entire civilised culture is enacting upon erroneous perceptions that are so deeply ingrained in how we do things that to question them is absolute heresy. That there is an alternative, and by the way here is one such alternative you could begin enacting as an individual today; now.

Difficult to go beyond the surface without spoilers, but it presents a hypothesis and suggests a practical, easy, effortless solution. It might even contribute to your well-being and improving positive mental health. And/or put you in the mood to re-watch The Matrix.

If you don't want the toil, why not herd?

Value people and life, not things. Don't seek to conquer; rather participate in nourishing. Prepare the world for the future rather than consume it for the now. The usual hippy shit, then explains why such mind-sets fail to get traction (bear in mind the book was published in the early 1990s).

Whilst this book undoubtedly belongs in the "New Age" section alongside David Bohm, Rupert Sheldrake and, ahem, David Icke - it rethinks contemporary dominant global culture in ways that make logical and rational sense - in the context of a conversation with a gorilla.

Why review this book on a blog about compact capability? Because only the outlaws are truly free.


Ishmael on Amazon UK