Kitchen Sink

Hey, it was nothing but an eventfully enjoyable 15 minutes; throughout which I had no idea where this was going. Alison Maclean's Kitchen Sink is the type of horror that makes the short length horror category worth devoting some time to.

I'm never pulling anything out of my kitchen sink again!

A bizarre, captivating and truly excellent piece of New Zealand gothic. In suburban New Zealand, a woman finishes the washing up and discovers some strange little hairs in her sink. She pulls and pulls and something flies out of the pipes. And it grows....and grows....Kitchen Sink is a dark comment on suburban neurosis, as well as an excellent critique of horror films and the 'woman in peril' genre. Filmed in black and white, viewers may be reminded to some degree of Eraserhead. A little masterpiece.

Here's an odd-bod of Australian suburban horror. As a woman yanks on a vine-looking umbilicous, she reveals a monkey-addled child which quickly (upon H20 - Gremlins ripoff) turns into a full-size mancub, complete with hair from top to toe. She begins a lenghty shaving session with his entire body. Disturbed by his lack of movement (particularly in her bed, which she jumps conclusions and drops him into) she encloses him in a man-size ziplock and walks away. He paws and she cuts him loose, revealing the romantic within. As creepy and looming music plays, they kiss and an ending of unbelievable gore and savagery rolls. Not simply a hoot of a horror short, but a terrific atmosphere as well. The Director is currently shooting "Jesus's Son" with Billy Crudup and her assistant, Kimi Takesue, teaching my filmmaking class at Temple showed "Kitchen Sink" to us. Saturated darkness on top of a brooding situation (on of implausability but not lacking in its own cramped fear) make for a quick fix of camera trance and zone-pleasure. Worth your time.

This film caught my eye because it reminded me of Eraserhead, being in Black & White and having eerie sound. A woman pulls a hair out of a sink plughole. It continues to grow longer and wider, until a strange foetus emerges, and is flung out. The woman puts the object in the bath. She returns to it later to find it is now a large, excessively hairy man. She shaves the man completely, but he seems dead. She puts him into a plastic bag. He awakes, and she kisses him. Then she makes a fateful error. Worth a look.

The first time I saw this twisted but wonderful little film I was maybe 12 years old. I remember seeing it on television, probably broadcast as a filler after a feature film or something. It made a significant impression on me then and when I watched it again this week, it made an even greater one.

Canadian director, Alison Maclean, has created a wicked little masterpiece with this film. The way some of the shots in this film linger on dangerous moments proves her mastery of suspense. Without giving anything away, Maclean manages to show just enough of certain things to keep them unsettling and creepy.

The film is about obsession and the problems associated with dwelling on some tiny, nagging thing. The protagonist cannot leave well enough alone and so brings the real horror of the film upon herself.

This is definitely one to watch for a great example of how to create suspense.