FILM GUTTER REVIEWS: CathARTic (2011)

Dir. Devanny Pinn, USA, 23 mins

It's time for another dip into the world of short films this week, and a look at a movie from an underground horror icon in the shape of Devanny Pinn. I immediately recognised her name as one of the voices from Jimmy ScreamerClauz's psychedelic Where The Dead Go To Die, and our recently reviewed Nude Nuns With Big Guns, but she's featured in more than 50 other horror movies over the years. This short movie remains her only directing credit – with IMDB listing only a forthcoming untitled documentary in the works – and having watched this one that feels like a bit of a shame. Like many first movies, it's not perfect, but it certainly has a lot of interesting ideas and something to say. So let's find out just how CathARTic it really is...

The story itself follows photographer Nila James, who is renowned for her work in photographing the recently dead, somehow capturing the beauty in those dark moments. The work is certainly controversial, but she's also out there wanting to push things further. Alongside this thread of story we see a women tied up in a basement and being abused by her captor, as well as a man wandering around filming all those scenes. These two elements combine when Nila meets her old professor, and he says that he's going to be involved in a truly innovative and cutting-edge art project. Nila is fascinated by the opportunity, where she find herself introduced to the female victim and her captors that we've already seen...

While CathARTic only runs for 23 mins, it actually packs in quite a few ideas and takes a lingering look at the importance of art in all its forms exploring violence and perhaps courting controversy. As the purveyor of a weekly column on extreme horror, there are a number of conversations and concepts in here that certainly appeal to me. The effects don't always look great – including one scene that feels a bit out of place – but generally don't jolt too much, most of the acting is good and there's definition ambition and scope here. For a short film this one even has a decent surprise at the end, not exactly a twist but certainly not something I was expecting.

It's not one of those short films that makes me think there'd be a whole lot more to explore – in fact a significantly longer runtime might make some of the concepts feel a bit stretched here. It's small but remains nicely formed, and while obviously made on a budget I think it does a good job with it. Although Pinn certainly seems to have switched more focus to her acting since this one was made in 2011, I wouldn't at all mind a return to the director's chair for more shorts or maybe even something more substantial in the future. I'll keep an eye out for that unspecified documentary for sure...

RATING: 7.5/10. Art that considers the idea of art is often a challenging area, and can feel a bit too on the money in some cases. While one or two scenes here might feel a bit much in that regard, it generally does a good job of considering the role of darkness and violence in art in general and looking at how far artists can and should push things in that regard. All pretty relevant territory here at Film Gutter for sure, and not one that often gets explored in this sort of depth. CathARTic is certainly an interesting experiment as a short film, and I'm happy to award it a very creditable 7.5/10.