[Film Review] Psychosexual (2021)

When looking at cinema through an experimental lens, it allows the audience to witness film in a slightly different way, with a more open mind.

When we force the conformity of cinema onto a picture we can often find that it doesn’t fit the mould and therefore we find it difficult to understand the purpose. French cinema has often given breathing room to more developmental works, and when looking at Craig Podmore’s short hallucinogenic horror film, Psychosexual, it’s clear that with a brief that stated ‘Films Confiscated From a French Brothel’, the influence was generated and resulted in this graphic short film. 

One woman reminisces on her past relationship with a man; however his figure is distorted and he happens to be more than just a mere mortal, he is the representation of death itself. What happens when a woman falls in love with the shadow of death? In Psychosexual the theme of eroticism and how it affects the human psyche is explored. 

Shot in black and white, the opening sequences provide a surreal dreamlike state in which we witness the woman dance naked in the woods, whilst painting the word ‘love’ across her stomach. The camerawork twists and turns, creating a dizzying effect on the viewer that naturally forms a distortion to the viewing experience and allows the viewer to become entwined in this fantasy world. The film quickly takes us to the scenes involving ‘death’ and it’s clear here that Podmore took some inspiration from Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali’s experimental 1929 film Un Chien Andalou as a series of bizarre montages fill the screen and we bear witness to the man masturbating, and teasing with the idea of self-mutilation and castration. It is during these scenes that we understand the relationship between the man, death, and the woman in the woods - it was one of lustful sin, exploration and balancing in danger. 

For a self-shot independent project, Psychosexual, really encompasses an aura of the experimental and leads the viewer quickly into a tormenting and teasing nightmare. It feels reminiscent of E. Elias Merhige’s experimental film Begotten but on a much smaller scale. There is certainly development needed in terms of ideas and plots, and a need for more on-screen gore or violence to give the film an edge within such a realm of cinema. However, Podmore shows an understanding of arthouse cinema and looks to promise more strange works in the future.

RELATED ARTICLES

---

---

GHOULS GANG CONTENT

EXPLORE

---

MORE ARTICLES

---

---