The Bezos bots glitching and trying to block me from renting Johannes Grenzfurthner’s Masking Threshold should’ve been a warning: “Stay away… You’re not welcome…” If only I heard it in my head as King Diamond’s voice from Mercyful Fate’s “Desecration of Souls” I would have been golden. Alas, I turned back only to a become a pillar of salt. Salt for slugs in this misadventure of the mind.
One of my “things” about film is show, don’t tell. Let the visuals take the lead. Film is a visual medium. Cases in point being openings of There Will be Blood and 2001: A Space Odyssey. If those are deemed too grandiose being big budget spectacles, how about the opening sequences of low budget gems Jordan Graham’s Sator or Lodge Kerrigan’s Clean, Shaven? Masking Threshold tells a whole lot along with its visuals.
Sometimes less is more. Sometimes dead is better. But, I digress. Obviously I don’t mind a dialogue driven movie at all, take A24’s The Humans. A play brought to the screen with visual flair recalling Polanski’s Apartment Trilogy. The close quarters cat and mouse game of The Interview. And because Masking Threshold is delving into a protagonist’s perception of his medical condition: Memento.
As one can see from the trailer, Masking Threshold follows a man with tinnitus documenting his makeshift home laboratory experiments to find a cure for what ails him. And yes, you probably heard that in Foghorn Leghorn’s voice.
With that brings another problem. Incessant narration in a grating voice. And that is a huge distraction when there is So.Much.Talk. With the constant yammering I wonder if this would work better as a podcast or best to be read?
The trailer essentially gives the story and set up. Where it goes is predictable: a bad place. Not truly cosmic or body horror in a conventional sense. The body cosmic this is not, rather an exercise of an obsessive’s descent into madness.
Sorry, people, not everything where a protagonist goes insane or where there is an unreliable narrator is Lovecraft inspired. The device was around long before and after the Providence, Rhode Island slender man.
The premise of Masking Threshold is intriguing, and, unlike many found footage films it is well shot and edited. You don’t get shaky cam, poor man’s cinema verite. Here a viewer gets micro/macro footage, steady shots and quality sound design as this narrator’s investigation goes under microscope and microphone. While being treated to the protagonist’s lab observations (and personal interactions) as he describes them, their validity, whether grounded in reality or derangement, is of little consequence. Forward to termination.
Seen far better and far worse but would not recommend a trip to the movie theater for Masking Threshold. I will keep an eye out for what Johannes Grenzfurthner does with his most recent flick Razzennest. He does display a strong visual sense and style and with Razzennest it appears he has tapped into a fascinating premise with none other than Joe Dante on board for a movie structured around a commentary track recording of the titular film. Sure, it’ll be heavy on narration so chances are it could be a hard pass when all is said and done.
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This week Into the Necrosphere has a deep dive with Necromaniacs Mike Hill and Mike Scondotto on their top 6 1990s black metal releases.
I will not spoil their choices, but, for what it is worth, this is what I would roll: 1) Ved Buens Ende - Written in Waters 2) Bethlehem - Dictius Te Necare 3) Samael - Ceremony of Opposites 4) Impaled Nazarene - Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz... 5) Abigor - Verwüstung / Invoke the Dark Age 6) Blasphemy - Fallen Angel of Doom.
Let us move away from the 90s and push armageddon with DWELLERS OF THE TWILIGHT VOID and embrace the resurrection of Black Math Horseman.