Wow! This was not what I expected at all. This is what I imagine Luis Bunuel would have made if he started his career as a low budget 1980s horror director. Since the characters have several names, I’m just going to refer to them by the actor’s names.

The movie begins and we are introduced to William Dame’s character as he seems to be a mechanic for planes. Two men show up, remove a ring from his finger, and proceed to knock him out by holding a plastic bag over his head. Then he wakes up in some house dressed in a tux and we meet Catherine Dee’s character.

Next we are introduced to an old lady who appears to want him to have sex with Dee for her amusement, and then have sex with her, or Dee dies. This whole scene plays out like something surreal you would expect from Bunuel, The Twilight Zone, or the like, but then…

just as Dame is about to have sex with the older lady, we are introduced to the third main character played by M.R. Murphy. I almost feel bad for giving away the twist that the old lady is a guy, but honestly, I could keep giving away twists all I want and it would still have something more up it’s sleeve.

I guess the best way I can sum it up is like this. We start off in what appears to be reality. Then we feel like we are in something truly surreal till the mirror breaks on that to reveal a new reality. This pattern of destroying the current setup for a new one repeats throughout the entire movie till it comes to it’s conclusion. But it’s not like we see them stop, then dress up for a new part. It’s like when a character wakes up from a dream, but it’s just another dream. Except it’s not annoying.

This is the one of the most interesting movies I’ve seen all year. I know this is not a movie for everyone. It’s weird, but it’s my kind of weird. It had me thinking about The Exterminating Angel (1962) and mostly The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955).

I’m not sure what else I can really say about this movie that doesn’t just lay out the plot for you. Doing that would ruin it if you wanted to watch it and it’s one of those movies I think loses so much in the translation to words. Here are a few of the highlights and some closing thoughts, followed by the movie itself which is available on YouTube.

I guess my only real complaint about the movie is that they didn’t make it even more surreal. That, and I actually wanted it to keep going longer. I love that the movie nearly takes place entirely inside this one house. It gave it that claustrophobic feeling of The Exterminating Angel, while the resetting of the characters and their relationships kind of reminded me of The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (1972). Seriously, this movie had me thinking about Bunuel throughout it. That’s a good thing!

Not for everybody, but I was very pleasantly surprised.