The Backwater Gospel (2011) - Backwater is doomed by the regular visits of the undertaker. The town priest and the faithful think that a merry non-religious tramp brings the death that follows living in an improvised shed in the middle of the town. It looks like when he sings the undertaker visits. But is he the one to blame for their misfortune?
The style of animation used here is very effective and has a gritty, rough quality. The animation is disturbing in its own way, creating a life-like mixture of zombie, wood and human that completely work for this film. The story sucks viewers in, and the set up is eerie. The undertaker, or death, visits a small town and sparks a mass panic that spirals into a dark commentary on religion and other ways that people attempt to explain or escape death. Bo Mathorne may not be a household name now, but if in his future efforts he can manage to display the creative prowess found in his debut animated short, The Backwater Gospel, it’ll be only a matter of time before he’s revered among the elite short film makers of our generation.
I enjoy the work of The Coen Brothers as well as Paul Thomas Anderson, especially There Will Be Blood. Sergio Leone’s classic westerns were an inspiration for the particular project and Danny Boyle’s films have some qualities about them I really like. Animation-wise there’s not a lot of feature length films I’m truly mad about, but short films like The Pearce Sisters by Luis Cook, Crater Face by Skyler Page and The Eagleman Stag by Mikey Please have made a big impact on me.
Directed by Bo Mathorne
Starring: Zebulon Whatley, Lucien Dodge, Phillip Sacramento, Robert Bennett
Dji. Death Fails (2012) - Agent of Death Dji has to take the soul of a dying man! Dji. Death Fails (2012) - Dji is an unusual death. The Dark Knight has appeared in a different form. No, he is not white and fluffy. Dji is just terribly unlucky. All he has to do is to take the soul of a dying man. Bu [...]
Welcome To Britannia. Together We Stand Alone. Leonard is being held in a bunker and Dr. Sam visits him, spewing largess like breathing. James Hyland as Dr. Sam is the key to this short film’s success. With only three players in the short Hyland does the bulk of the talking and as the auditor to M [...]
Classic zombie filmWhile traveling to New York, the young couple Madeleine Short Parker (Madge Bellamy) and her fiancé Neil Parker (John Harron) are convinced by their new acquaintance Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer) to stay in Port Prince and get married in his mansion. However, Beaumont felt in [...]
Classic fairy tale with some Edgar Allan Poe feel and contemporary context with reminescence of recent pandemic!In a fictionalized animated fairy tale, a winemaker managed to produce the finest wine in the whole world. When Death herself requests to taste this fine divine liquid, winemaker learns th [...]
A cinematic tour de force, Wonderful Experimental Documentary!Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi (1983) is a film with no actors, no storyline, and no dialogue. The only things we see during the experimental documentary's 87 minutes are natural landscapes, images of cities, and real people going about t [...]
Progressive Western FilmIn a saloon in the old west, a young man sits down opposite an older man; the air carries tension as the two talk and soon it becomes apparent that one of the men is Death and that the other, Fabiano, has come to challenge him.Created by Brazilian artist Edson Oda, this mixed [...]