I came to this film hoping for an atmospheric, dark movie along the lines of Nekromantik and other twisted films. "Subconscious Cruelty" tries hard to be such a film, but it tries way, way too hard and fails pathetically.
"Subconscious Cruelty" is like a 15-year-old boy's concept of a dark movie. The entire film is a montage of scenes that are supposed to be disturbing or gory. Every moment is so in-your-face and trying so desperately hard to impress you that it all feels godawfully phony and amateurish. The ABSOLUTE WORST aspect, however, is the downright dorky and embarrassing narration that doesn't shut up until halfway through the film. Every single line feels like something from a goth teen's deviantart page. The film opens with the line "Reality. (dramatic pause) It traps us in a monotonous deadening cycle." A later scene features a man mugging at the camera as he narrates "Imagery is built on a constant thread of depravity and horror." With the constant droning of these laughably stupid lines, the film is more likely to torment you with secondhand embarrassment instead of horror.
Even if you ignore the narration, everything else is amateurish and eye-rolling too. The filmmakers couldn't come up with any actually-creepy camera shots, so they try to compensate for this in various ways that all fail. The lighting throughout uses garish primary reds & blues, making the film feel like Creepshow or some other uber-campy flick instead of a gritty horror piece. The later parts of the film use spastic MTV-style editing that will annoy you more than anything else. You get lots of extreme closeups to hit you over the head with how spooooky the imagery is supposed to be, when really a more naturalistic approach would be way more impactful. The fourth segment of the film has loads of static and industrial noise screaming over the soundtrack, idiotically ruining any chance of being scary or disturbing.
The film's sexual imagery also just feels like "edgy" teenagers' performance art. The creators seem to think that the sight of phallic objects, some guy blandly doing it, and missionary position sex are totally shocking and mind-blowing. Some moments throw fake blood on the so-called actors, which isn't exactly impressive. It's all too clear that this movie was made by very naive people awkwardly trying to be edgy and dark.
Do yourself a favor and skip this movie. It isn't hit-or-miss, it isn't a cult movie, it isn't shocking, and if you're a gore hound it isn't fun. It's just plain stupid, and it fails on every level. You have better things to do.
"Subconscious Cruelty" is like a 15-year-old boy's concept of a dark movie. The entire film is a montage of scenes that are supposed to be disturbing or gory. Every moment is so in-your-face and trying so desperately hard to impress you that it all feels godawfully phony and amateurish. The ABSOLUTE WORST aspect, however, is the downright dorky and embarrassing narration that doesn't shut up until halfway through the film. Every single line feels like something from a goth teen's deviantart page. The film opens with the line "Reality. (dramatic pause) It traps us in a monotonous deadening cycle." A later scene features a man mugging at the camera as he narrates "Imagery is built on a constant thread of depravity and horror." With the constant droning of these laughably stupid lines, the film is more likely to torment you with secondhand embarrassment instead of horror.
Even if you ignore the narration, everything else is amateurish and eye-rolling too. The filmmakers couldn't come up with any actually-creepy camera shots, so they try to compensate for this in various ways that all fail. The lighting throughout uses garish primary reds & blues, making the film feel like Creepshow or some other uber-campy flick instead of a gritty horror piece. The later parts of the film use spastic MTV-style editing that will annoy you more than anything else. You get lots of extreme closeups to hit you over the head with how spooooky the imagery is supposed to be, when really a more naturalistic approach would be way more impactful. The fourth segment of the film has loads of static and industrial noise screaming over the soundtrack, idiotically ruining any chance of being scary or disturbing.
The film's sexual imagery also just feels like "edgy" teenagers' performance art. The creators seem to think that the sight of phallic objects, some guy blandly doing it, and missionary position sex are totally shocking and mind-blowing. Some moments throw fake blood on the so-called actors, which isn't exactly impressive. It's all too clear that this movie was made by very naive people awkwardly trying to be edgy and dark.
Do yourself a favor and skip this movie. It isn't hit-or-miss, it isn't a cult movie, it isn't shocking, and if you're a gore hound it isn't fun. It's just plain stupid, and it fails on every level. You have better things to do.