[SHORTS REVIEW] Unedited Footage of a Bear (2014)

 

OR

Title: Unedited Footage of a Bear

Genre: Horror / Surrealism / Fantasy / Drama

Company: Adult Swim

Directed by: Alan Resnick   

Year: 2014

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: TV MA

Buy on:  N/A

WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE!

The short starts off with some cameramen filming a bear out in the wild.  But then suddenly, the short switches to a commercial called "Claridryl" and the commercial shows a woman named Donna taking the prescription drug and saying that her life has been better ever since she took Claridryl.  But then, the short starts to become a bit dark as Donna starts to see an evil version of herself out in the streets and her evil self tries to attack the real Donna.  Once Evil Donna leaves the real Donna in the streets, things take a dark turn once Evil Donna takes over Donna's life.

So, after I watched TOO MANY COOKS, I wanted to check out more of Adult Swim's Informercial series and man, was "Unedited Footage of a Bear" a wild ride!  Unlike "Too Many Cooks," "Unedited Footage of a Bear" doesn't have that much humor in the story, as the story is about a woman dealing with the side effects of the Claridryl drug and how it has a negative impact on her life.  What I really loved about this short was how the story switched from being about a bear to being about a woman dealing with a drug addiction.  This sudden switch in the story really made this short so interesting to watch and I was actually shocked by how dark this short got once Donna's hallucinations got worse as the short goes on.  This was also one of the weirdest shorts I've seen, besides "Too Many Cooks," as we, the audience, can't really tell what's real and what's not real as Donna starts hallucinating everything going on and we can't tell if the actions that she has committed throughout this short was really Evil Donna's doing or her own doing.  I also loved the fact that this short shows the realistic side effects of drug addiction (albeit in a weird way) as it's rare to see a short that parodies commercials tackle such a tough subject in such a creepy and effective way.

My main issue with this short was that it was pretty confusing.  I understand that this short is probably looking into Donna's madness as she becomes addicted to Claridryl.  But at times, I can't tell what's really going on with the story.  Like, is Evil Donna real or is she a figment of Donna's imagination and Donna was the one who was committing the horrible acts throughout this short?

Overall, "Unedited Footage of a Bear" is one of the most intriguing and dark shorts ever created by Adult Swim.  I would recommend this short film if you were a fan of "Too Many Cooks" and you want to watch another Adult Swim informercial that has a dark twist to the story.

• Too Many Cooks

• Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions

• Quasi at the Quackadero

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[MOVIE REVIEW] The Pied Piper (Krysar) (1986)

 

OR

Title: The Pied Piper (a.k.a Krysar)

Starring:  Oldrich Kaiser, Jiri Labus, Michal Pavlicek, Vilem Cok

Genre:  Horror / Fantasy / Romance

Company:   Kratky Film Praha

Directed by: Jiri Barta

Year: 1986

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: TV MA

Buy on:  Amazon

The film starts off with the people of Hamelin doing their daily tasks when suddenly, a large group of rats come and invaded the village, causing mayhem for the townspeople.  The leaders of the town tried to find a way to get rid of the rats when they suddenly meet up with a mysterious man, who stated that he will help get rid of the rats if the town leaders pay him money.  The town leaders agree to this and the Pied Piper ended up getting rid of the rats by using his flute to send the rats to their deaths.  After that, the Pied Piper falls in love with a young woman who is very innocent.  But then, things start to go wrong when the town leaders refused to pay the Pied Piper and so, the Pied Piper decided to take his revenge against the town of Hamelin.

So, for years, I have been watching and reading lots of darker and edgier takes on various fairy tales; but I had never seen a darker and edgier take on "The Pied Piper" before, until I saw this movie.  This movie was such a dark yet entertaining experience for me as I just loved how dark this particular story got as the film goes on.  There were so many dark moments in this film, like how the Pied Piper deals with the rats or how depraved the townspeople really are and those dark moments really made this film stand out to me.  I also loved the bizarre and disturbing designs of the characters and the town of Hamelin itself as everything looks so disjointed and the animation style reminded me so much of "The Nightmare Before Christmas."  Another thing that I loved about this film was that it showed us just how corrupted the townspeople were.  In the original fairy tale, the town leaders did refuse to pay the Pied Piper, but the story seemed to be lighthearted, at least until the end.  Here, the town leaders are corrupted themselves and we get to see just how disturbing and depraved they really are, and it helped upped the bleakness of this film.  I also loved the design of the Pied Piper himself as he is not portrayed as a jolly guy like he usually is in other interpretations of the fairy tale.  Instead, he is portrayed as a creepy and silent man whose only goal is to take down the rats to get his money.  However, I do like the fact that the film tried to give the Pied Piper a softer side as he falls in love with the innocent woman.

One of the issues that I had with this film was that the first half of the film was pretty slow.  Even though the first half of the film was introducing us to the townspeople, it wouldn't be until the halfway point of the film where the Pied Piper shows up and it was a bit of a slog to go through the first half of the film.  I also found the characters of the innocent woman and the fisherman to be a bit bland in comparison to the rest of the townspeople as they don't really have much in personalities other than being more innocent than the townspeople.  I actually wished that they had developed the fisherman and the innocent woman a bit more in this film.

Overall, "The Pied Piper (Krysar)" is one of the best and darkest adaptations of the "Pied Piper" story!  Even though the beginning was very slow and the characters of the fisherman and the innocent woman weren't that well developed, the dark atmosphere and the unique animation really made this film a treat to watch and I would highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to see a darker and edgier take on the Pied Piper story.

• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Corpse Bride
• MirrorMask

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[SHORTS REVIEW] Too Many Cooks (2014)

 

OR

Title: Too Many Cooks

Genre: Horror / Surrealism / Fantasy / Comedy

Company: Adult Swim

Directed by: Casper Kelly

Year: 2014

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: TV MA

Buy on:  N/A

WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE! 

So, the short introduces the Cook Family and the short basically started out as a spoof on the sitcoms of the 1980s and the 1990s.  But as the short goes on, it turns out that a certain serial killer has entered the show and he starts turning everything upside down...

So, when I heard about this short through Adult Swim, I was wondering about why everyone was talking about this short and why this short went viral on YouTube.  So, I finally checked out this short and man, was this short awesome and crazy!  What I loved so much about this short was how it subverted your expectations.  When the short first started, it was basically an affectionate parody of the sitcoms from the 1980s and the 1990s.  But as the short goes on, it suddenly turns into a surreal short full of horror elements, especially once the serial killer enters the scene.  Also, I loved how the short takes it time to build up the horror elements throughout the short and really made the tension in the story quite intense. Another thing that I liked about this short was the music.  The music essentially replays the theme song "Too Many Cooks" over and over again throughout the short.  Even though this would be something that would annoy many people, the repeating music actually helped made this short really stand out as the narrative is dictated by the theme song.  While the theme song sounds very catchy and lighthearted, it actually becomes much more disturbing once the theme song starts playing throughout the more morbid scenes of this short.

My only minor issue with this short is that it can be a bit confusing to understand, due to the short not really going into details about the characters' backstories.  Now, I understand that this short is not meant to be something deep (at least, on the surface).  But, I can't help but be curious about the backstories of these characters, especially of the killer.  I actually had to look up information about the killer in order to understand his character a bit more.

Overall, "Too Many Cooks" is easily one of the best Adult Swim shorts I had ever seen!  The fact that this short managed to subvert your expectations in such an intriguing and frightening way really made this a treat to watch!  I highly recommend this short if you are a fan of shorts that have unexpected plot twists and catchy theme songs!

• Face Like a Frog
• Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions
• Quasi at the Quackadero

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