Curious Stories, Crooked Symbols

Rue Morgue Cinema

R1 DVD

Rod Gudino has a very vivid imagination. It comes through in the three short stories featured on this collection. If you like your films neatly packaged with a linear development between start and ending, these stories are not for you. If you like to use your imagination to flesh out a story, or even to develop the story in your own mind from the clues provided, you will enjoy this DVD.

Through The Eyes of Edward James we see a grisly murder develop. Edward is undergoing hypnosis as part of his psychotherapy to find the meaning of the terrible dream that keeps haunting his sleep. The dream ends with a mysterious watcher outside the house, and his wife’s slashed and bloody corpse lying on the floor. What hidden secret is in his past? The stop/start narrative as the hypnotherapist helps Edward relive his dream gives us time to get the full impact of the terror he is undergoing. We see it happening through his eyes and we are just as mystified about what it means.

The Demonology of Desire is a story of a psychopathic schoolgirl who has a wish for a slave to do her every bidding. The tale contains elements of growing sexuality, rebellion and an unhappy school life. Her wish is granted and a thirteen year old boy with a crush on her becomes her slave. What she does with him is quite unnatural except to the most twisted mind.

Perhaps the most unusual is The Facts In The Case Of Mister Hollow. It is a very short section, consisting of a photo and a warning to look at the detail. The photo appears to be of a group of people who are having a picnic in the woods. A proud father and his wife and baby are posing for the camera while another man prepares a campfire. On the surface. As the camera picks out the detail the picture becomes more sinister. In the background is what appears to be a derelict house, silhouetted eerily against the skyline. The man making the campfire has a distinctly evil look, but why? The campfire itself is made from wooden stales, sharpened to a point at one end. We get only a hint from a montage of old newspaper reports shown at the start of the film.

And so it goes, with each detail forcing the viewer to revise the story in their own mind. We never find out if our mental picture is right or wrong and at the end of the film we are left with a feeling of suspense and more than a little horror at what the film has hinted at. I have never seen this technique before but letting the viewer construct their own story from the clues provided is a very powerful tool.

The film has the usual “making of …” but has many other extras including the original screenplays and storyboards and a commentary by Rodrigo Gudino that is, in many ways, just as interesting as his films. This DVD is definitely for the thinkers among the horror fans.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 3 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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