The Existential Horror of David Cronenberg's Camera

Watch the short: • CAMERA Short Film | TI...

[@zenwolf6073]

The children were eerily competent with the equipment. I realized that to Cronenberg, young film crews must look just like that to him, while he just keeps getting older and more faded with no way back, no way to connect with them. The old actor can't go play with them, he is too old to bother any more.

[@CyberneticCupcake2]

As a child obsessed with filmmaking, watching both behind the scenes documentaries and stories of children making their own films/videos, I can definitely feel the palpable horror of a little film crew on the move while you're on the decline.

[@tylerwellman337]

3:51 "Preserve the past, poison the present" I think we all do this when reminiscing old footage or talking about the past. It's easier to dwell on the good things we remember from that time while forgetting the day to day struggles. Romanticizing the past can feed into a feeling that the good times have already come and gone, and we will never be able to get back to that time. For the elderly especially, I would imagine those emotions to be magnified. Somewhat haunting.

[@happybat1977]

I might be off on a limb here, but I can't get over that this old man is not alone. His house is full of movement, this beautiful diverse active eager group of children who are just desperate to make art. He is not forgotten - they want him to be part of their movie. And it's not his move, that part of his life is over and he is doing the work of accepting and mourning that - but he is not forgotten either. There was (to me) a warmth in that final scene, that he could accept his own death in the face of new life. On the other hand, I haven't seen all that much Cronenberg.

[@JoliArtist]

This is still “body horror.” Seems the actor is horrified by the aging of his body, & that the camera is capturing the very process he fears-aging for an actor. I watch this & think what’s so horrific about aging? Think of an actor like Anthony Hopkins. Brilliant in ever phase of his life, & as he has aged, he exudes sheer mastery of a craft he has carefully formed. I feel like an actor like Hopkins would perhaps revel at the opportunity to teach the young the nuances of his craft…storing his secrets under the glass of their memories & through the lenses of their future work. A type of immortality. I think the only thing horrific about this is the actor’s mindset. He’s speaking for himself. Trapped in images of himself in the past, he can’t appreciate the beauty of his form in the present moment. His face is still beautiful…shaped by years of honing his craft. But he can’t see his beauty. He’s horrified by his age. & horrified by the young-who he envies-capturing him in a body he now hates.

[@dooglesledoogs4221]

Not to be understated, that final closing shot through the serene lens of the 'Old camera' was impressive acting from Les Carlson. You could feel the somber and melancholy in his voice, the acceptance of it all.

[@sadicalradness6927]

I feel sad most about the fact that we fear ageing so deeply. Even the young fear ageing. We have fought so much as a society to be able to age.

[@ithicathegreat8107]

This made me feel forlorn. I don't know if it was because of the contrast of decay versus youth, Carlson's poignant performance, or just the concise nature of this dissection that put me in a specific frame of mind. Whatever the answer, it just gave me this profound yet specific sense of sadness. The only other time I've felt this way was when I'd watch the slow effects of dementia take hold of someone, or passing through old dilapidated buildings/neighborhoods. The pain of nostalgia without any of the fondness of remembrance. An absolute bummer of a film that I'm extremely grateful to have seen.

[@robbieboydudeguy]

What I love about this is that it’s like the residual acceptance after the stages of grief. Grieving for the past, the moment that has died, and accepting the new terrifying cycle of life that has changed so much before this man’s eyes and every child around him will go towards that same fate no matter what he does. The camera will grow old. The moment will die. And life said encore. That’s why I love this short film, and how simple it is in getting across this buried message within the film industry. Thank you!

[@sadicalradness6927]

I did an exercise involving this short only a few months ago. Our class was given the script of the short, with most of the action lines and the director's name removed, and told to envision our own version of how we would direct it. None of us were familiar enough with the short to recognise it from the script. The group I was in pitched a one-take that slowly went from extreme closeup to wide-shot at what we described as "an excruciating pace", where the speaker seems at first to be a standup comedian performing to an audience from a stage, but as we zoom out we see he is on a film set. We did pitch that the speaker should be a well-known actor, and that the film crew be children. A friend of mine pitched something almost exactly like the original film. As a group almost entirely of would-be writer/directors under 25, I guess we didn't latch onto the fear of ageing so much as the artificiality lent to the monologue when the opening dialogue is repeated at the end after "action". In the original, the camera switches from what looks like a digital camcorder to the old film camera we've been seeing the kids use. In our film, we had the speaker break down into hysterics over the course of the monologue and quickly snap out of it when someone called cut. I have never worried so much about myself ageing or dying, but then I'm still young enough that birthdays are positive milestones. I have worried about authenticity in my filmmaking, about what I should or should not put on camera, about what snapshot of my mental state my filmmaking might be and what it means to filter all of that through the inherent choreography and inauthenticity of the process of producing a film. I also think we all felt more like the kids than the actor; there's probably something to say about the fact that we were a bunch of young people remaking this script given what its themes are.

[@AcolytesOfHorror]

this is all super fascinating, what a cool assignment

[@JoCoyote]

The close-ups, the choice of subject, the depth of the shadows and the creases in his face. The light, washing bleakness over the whole thing. I think I might argue this is the banality of body horror, the actual *meat* of Croenenberg’s more ott horror stripped away to show the skeleton beneath: his horror is always, ultimately, about the death of the body.

[@aallerton]

Yes, the death of the body and the inability to escape from the body.

[@sufferinginheaven]

OKAY I THOUGHT THAT WAS YOU IN SILICONE VALLEY!!

[@minerva_luna]

Had never seen that short film but it made me feel uneasy to say the least... From the very beginning. Specially the shots with the children. Don't really know why...

[@horrorfromthehillside4646]

I think the uneasiness could be due to the failed actors tendencies towards pedophilia.

[@analeticiagallardo2314]

Damn. That was depressing. But I liked the your comment at the end. "The Faustian bargain of being on film- preserve the past poison the present" I often feel like that when I look at old fotos, we all want to cheat death in some way but I would imagine it must be magnified so much for great film stars. I just watched that doco Val Kilmer made and seeing him be sick and loose his ability to speak was such a sad reminder of mortality when in my head I still see him as a young Jim Morrison or as Doc Holiday - two ppl that wouldnt suffer the consequences of age.

[@umbradomini]

Thanks for introducing me to this video within a video. Also your dark but poignant commentary really strikes the overall tone and is so well written and presented.

[@brainjefferson9348]

This actor fellow definitely has a lot of grandkids though

[@olivinhaolivetti]

Thank you for introducing me to this amazing piece of art. Your channel is one I think of when I think of why I still use this website haha

[@bruisedhelmet8819]

The children attempt to catch ideas and notions beyond their understanding in tools and devices they mostly perceive as toys. They fumble behind the camera unaware that give the right circumstances an immortal is being created. But its only immortal once it has been killed, by whatever means.

[@thegirlwiththetortoise3038]

Your videos are always so well made.

[@harrisonhaine1199]

Really made me think. Great video!

[@servomoore]

Damn, wish I had stumbled across a 35 mm Panasonic motion picture camera when I was a kid! Did find a 35 mm print that had been thrown out behind a movie theater once during a garbage cleanup. It was the Brady Bunch movie.

[@specificsoup]

This was a wonderful video, and I've been hungry for more good content about Crimes of the Future sooo you've uh sold me on your Patreon!!

[@im19ice3]

nice. i did feel creeped out, i'm personally not afraid of death but the contrast of the children and the old man made me feel a dread that i try my best to ignore, the inevitability of forgetting what it was like to be them... no flashes of tenderness can make the alienation subside, and i do fear as i age the reach of that discomfort will extend to people beyond children, that the approach of death is but the distancing from the living.

[@rockymccork5992]

this video is BEAUTIFUL

[@ThatDangDad]

Never heard of this but even this short journey into it made me EXTREMELY uncomfortable in a hard-to-articulate way.

[@christelcarlisle1247]

Chilling!!!!

[@AcolytesOfHorror]

:o

[@PotatoPothado]

Well done.

[@thewal1ofsleep]

I'd love to see you make a video delving into Videodrome.

[@ericjourdain892]

Well that was kinda ghastly, especially featuring Barry Convex from Spectacular Opticals...

[@JoeLaRocca]

I think this movie is about the Panasonic DVX 100b

[@lovettdeleted]

Hi Mr Horror, I was curious if you've done an analysis on Egbert's The VVitch? On your patreon? I've never been able to truly grasp the message of that film and I'm so curious to hear what you think of it.

[@mahrinui18]

Companion piece to Teaching Jake About the Camcorder by Brian David Gilbert

[@timboulder]

I like the film. 10/10

[@Acostapus]

Old man in a chair

[@filmvagabond7032]

So glad the thumbnails are back to normal because the last one was so confusing, If I weren't subscribed I wouldn't have clicked on it. Very cluttered compared to all your simple POV character shots I've come to know you for

[@eldraque4556]

genius😶‍🌫

[@everforward5561]

I honestly don't feel saddened by it. It's just the march of time, that's all.

[@voteforscience]

Love is the only thing that grants us immortality.