PLANET FURY - FAMILIAR

Familiar (2012) Directed by: Richard Powell Written by: Richard Powell Produced by: Michael Jari Davidson, Zach Green, Ryan Louagie, Richard Powell Cast: Robert Nolan, Astrida Auza, Cathryn Hostick "After 45 years of existence, my life is about to begin." Such are the internal thoughts of a very bitter John Dodd. John is a tired man. He's been married for many years, and has helped to raise a daughter well enough that the girl is about to move out on her own. Unbeknownst to his wife or his daughter, John is exceptionally unhappy, and is looking at this milestone as a moment when his social obligations are complete enough that he can flee for the hills and live out the rest of his life on his own. Much of this is expressed through internal ramblings through John's mind. In an I Stand Alone style stream of consciousness, we hear just how awful the man's perception of his world has become. He hates his wife. He hates his daughter. He hates it all. This is in contrast to his external behavior; his wife obviously loves the man very much and has no idea anything is amiss. John is a little tense - true - but there is just no outside hint as to the stark depth of John's intense unhappiness. His plan to flee suffers a blow when his wife happily announces that she has become pregnant. John's internally rambling exponentially ramps towards intense hysteria. He is trapped to raise yet another child with this woman that he loathes so very much. Trapped for rest of his life. Something must be done! I'll leave it to your own watching of Familiar to see exactly what that something entails; however, John's desperate actions are not the only twists of the film. An even bigger question is the nature of the nagging, hate-filled voice that resounds through John's head and pushes him to do some damned awful things. Just how much of this influence is hallucination and how much is freaky horror is entirely up to interpretation. This is one thing I appreciate about Familiar and other films that follow allow a similar freedom; the viewer is left to their own reasoning and fancy to determine exactly what happened. Brad Anderson's excellent Session 9 comes to mind as being vaguely similar, at least in general premise. How much of what John sees and hears is outright insanity? How much of what he sees and hears is, well, something else entirely? While the film does have fun with dropping clues towards one interpretation or the other, ultimately it is entirely up to the viewer's own perception to decide what really went wrong with the very troubled John Dodd. While beginning with misleading normalcy, Familiar eventually explodes with absurdist gore-laden horror that makes a hell of a punchline. It's hard not to cringe as you watch John's last desperate attempts to control the awful voice inside him, and the effects involved are gruesomely effective. These effects are quite obviously, and wonderfully, practical in nature and are very well done. I do not typically review short films and this is unlikely to become a habit; however, Familiar is a bit of an exception. This is a surprisingly good little film that nearly begs for a feature length interpretation. Familiar is likely to entertain any fan of absurdist horror. Nailing that sort of over-the-top yet still effective gore is not easy to do, and Familiar does do it well. Familiar is currently being screened at film festivals. If you enjoy the wonderfully weird and Familiar is being screened anywhere near you, then be sure to enjoy this strange and well done short film