Photalgia review

By Simon Thompson

I’ve always had a strange desire to see a movie which somehow combines Alexander Payne’s Nebraska with Henry Portrait of A Serial Killer, a desire that I thought would sadly be too niche to turn into reality – until I saw Michael McCallum’s Photalgia, a short film which has done the impossible and scratched that particular itch.

Photalgia focuses on an elderly artist (William C McCallum) in his studio, who is impelled by a strange source of light to committ unspeakable actions, which for the sake of brevity and spoilers I’m going to allow you to draw your own conclusions about.

Visually Photalgia is a controlled yet beautiful exercise in black and white, the sparse nature of which really brings out the desolate tone that McCallum is trying to communicate to the audience. The striking opening shot of the sky is demonstrative evidence of how good a technical filmmaker/ visual stylist Michael McCallum is. McCallum’s use of tight angles when combined with the cramped interior, lack of cuts, and the industrial score helps to create a mood of feeling trapped.

When I think about what a work of horror is trying to achieve atmospherically I use a distinction I like to call the Silent Hill school vs the Resident Evil school. The Silent Hill school of horror uses claustrophobia, quiet sounds and misdirection to indelibly traumatise an audience, whereas the Resident Evil school of horror by contrast is as bombastic and loud as small child after four consecutive bowls of golden nuggets and two glasses of Sunny Delight. Photalgia very much falls into the Silent Hill school and it is all the better for it, with McCallum being strongly aware of the Lovecraftian technique that most of the time ambiguity is better than making a big song and dance about whatever it is you’re trying to scare the viewer with.

To conclude, Photalgia is a short, sharp, and well directed short film that stays with you after watching it. What it lacks in plot it makes up for with strong visuals and well-chosen score, if you’ve got a spare six minutes this is definitely worth a glance.