In pre-internet 1987, Conor and his dog Sandy live a life of seclusion, lost in the slow-rendering graphics of early Macs and televisions aglow with late night horror movie marathons. But when he begins playing OBEX, a new and mysterious, state-of-the-art computer game, he finds himself trapped in a low-tech, but high-stakes analog hellscape as the line between reality and game blurs.
After film festival debuts starting at Sundance last year, OBEX is now available to watch streaming in the US and abroad for a relatively low rental cost, and can be pre-ordered on DVD or Blu-ray in the US from Oscilloscope Laboratories for shipment this summer. Fans of surreal tales with a touch of humor, animation and clever visual storytelling, early consumer computer/video tech, and/or the first generations of video games should strongly consider checking this movie out.
Though the above-quoted movie description from Oscilloscope mentions ‘horror’ and ‘hellscape’, this is better described as fantasy, one even with SF elements that starts off on the darker side of the genre but then becomes more akin to epic fantasy up to the happy resolution of its ending. Throughout it maintains a surreal atmosphere with touches of wry humor and a blend of high contrast B&W filming with sparse dialogue against striking visual sequences and animation.
These are the hallmark features (and exceptional talents) of what director Albert Birney does. Aside from writing and directing OBEX, Birney also stars as the protagonist Conor, sharing the screen only with only a couple other credited cast members: Callie Hernandez as Mary (who exists for the first half of the movie only as a voice off-screen) and Frank Mosley as Victor, a man with a television for a head who Conor encounters within the realm of OBEX during the second half of the movie. And the two halves of OBEX each play very distinctively.
The first is set within the isolation of agoraphobic Conor’s home. His contact with the outside world is limited to conversations through the front door with his neighbor Mary (who delivers his groceries). For money he has placed ads in various papers for people to send him five dollars and a photograph of someone for him to render into a “computer” portrait that he can print and send back to them. He can turn on a record, place the photo in front of him and focus, rapidly keying the appropriate black text and blank space through his Macintosh keyboard for dot-matrix printing.
Within one of the outlets he advertises Conor notices an ad for a new immersive video game that incorporates visuals and biographical information of an individual into the game play. He films the required material and sends in his order, but when the game arrives he finds it fairly underwhelming and limiting. However, the supposed antagonist of the game whom his character is meant to slay, Ixaloth the demon, enters Conor’s reality from the video screen and kidnaps Conor’s beloved dog and only companion, Sandy. This drives Conor to leave the protection of his home to find and rescue Sandy.
This portion of OBEX almost seems to be going in the direction of horror film, with unsettling moments where the 4-bit Ixaloth appears within Conor’s home in a manner evocative of Videodrome. In the scenes of this half of the movie Birney establishes his character’s personality, talents, and limitations in perfect fashion while also demonstrating the connection with Sandy. The video game of OBEX beautifully symbolizes Conor’s isolation visually. He is a character with limited area to explore, only able to interact with his pet and his “Kingdom” but being blocked from going further onto another screen.
Once Sandy is taken, providing a push for Conor to leave and explore, the tone and style of the movie shift for the new setting. Conor now meets Mary at a shop (later also encountering an elf-like form of Mary) who provides him with the materials needed to start his journey and quest. Here there’s a switch from a story that could go the horror direction of a man fighting against a demon that has invaded his home and threatens his loved one to an epic fantasy quest, that immersive game that Conor was advertised.
En route to Ixaloth’s castle to rescue Sandy, Conor is faced with dangers like skeletons, but also meets a traveling companion, Victor, the RCA Victor model TV he watched as a child who now lives (as a man with a TV head) in the afterlife of OBEX, this land where a good TV can abide, watching humans in reward for all its past service of humans watching it.
Though there are still dark, spooky moments in the second half of the movie (such as a human whose flesh winds off to the skeleton beneath that then attacks Conor), it plays more to surreal humor within the fantasy land rather than surreal horror. The parenthetical I typed in the last sentence sounds disturbing as I typed it, but it’s visually done with animation akin more to something from Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python days.
In fact, a film of Terry Gilliam is a somewhat apt comparison to make for this, even if not completely accurate. Terry Gilliam meets Hundreds of Beavers meets Alexander Payne. Or something like that.
I would highly recommend OBEX. As I viewed it I saw the tonal/setting shift toward the middle of the film as something to critique. But the more I think about it the more I realize it’s a perfect decision, a jarring transition for the viewer that mirrors the effects that events are having on Conor himself.
Go check this out.
