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Released by: Sub Rosa
Released on: 7/1/2003
Director: Various
Cast: Various
Year: 2003
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The Movie:
Wicked Pixel have made a name for themselves by consistently putting out of some of the best shot on video low budget features currently on the market. This, The Severed Head Network Compilation, is a collection of short and early experimental work from some of the regular contributors to their stable. Some of it works really well, some of it not so well, but most of it is at least interesting.
Vomire - this is six minutes of weirdness. There's no story here, simply a series of bizarre and repulsive images and set pieces set to tripped out ambient music. Blasphemous imagery, animal violence, and weird sexual sequences are strung together without any obvious point. I'll be honest here - I don't get it. It looks kind of cool in a 'hey, this is strange for the sake of being strange' kind of way though. Chad Eivins directed this puppy.
Faith In Nothing - Eric Stanze (Scrapbook) directs this seven minute Analogue Satellite music video. It's an ambient/noise piece that Stanze pieces around a couple talking. When the man leaves the room they're both in, she strips and belly dances. Why it all happens isn't readily apparent, but the fact that it does is good, because I dig bellydancing.
Satisfaction - The late Tommy Biondo directed this nasty twenty-one-minute short film that borders on hardcore in its graphic depiction of rape. The story line is pretty twisted and this one can be pretty hard to watch and a little unsettling at times to those who are sensitive to this type of material, but it is fairly emotional and coherent in a grisly narrative way.
Unwanted - Todd Tevlin's four-minute music video for the band Purple Screwdriver is a hard industrial sounding number set to rapid fire edits of all manner of violent footage. This one works pretty well and while it isn't as slick as most music videos tend to be, this may not be a bad thing considering the material it is attempting to represent.
Victim - This is a well-executed five-minute short from Jason Christ. Shot in black and white, it tells the story of a man who arrives to find everyone he was expecting to meet has been killed, except for one woman. There's next to no character development here, a common problem with short films, but the direction is nice and moody.
Sedgewick - A twenty-two minute joint venture between co-directors Stephen M. Lashly and Quinn M. Botthof, this film follows an old man named Sedgewick who has seen better days. He's a little senile it seems. He imagines himself in various situations, some of which are quite effective, some of which are disjointed. From a visual perspective, this one is pretty interesting - from a narrative perspective, it's decent but not great.
Liontown - Aaron Crozier's ten-minute short is a sequence involving a group of people singing and dancing wearing different costumes that make them look like animals. I have no idea what was going on in this one, but it was kind of funny. I'm not sure if it was supposed to make me laugh or not, but it did.
Curveball - Pile Of Junk - Jason Christ directs this seven-minute short starring Eric Stanze as a loner running around in a post apocalyptic wasteland of sorts, all set to the heavy sounds of Curveball, for which this is a promotional video. This one is a trippy, well-constructed piece that incorporates footage of the band in amongst the weirdness, resulting in a pretty solid piece of filmmaking.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The video on this release is a mixed bag. Some of the films look great, others not so great, and some of the ones that don't look so great appear to look that way on purpose. So assigning a score to the video is a bit tricky here, but let it suffice to say that the transfer is fine from a technical standpoint and there aren't any serious compression or print damage issues and this is an above average transfer for a shot on video compilation.
The Dolby Digital Stereo soundtrack is pretty solid for the most part. Some of the shorts sound better than others but overall there's little to complain about. I didn't have any issues comprehending the dialogue and the music and effects seemed to be well balanced. There's not much going on as far as bass goes but it isn't too noticeable and for the most part, everything sounds fine.
Extra features on this release include the original opening credits to The Severed Head Network Volume 1 & Volume 2. The first part is a scantily clad lady dancing around and the second one is a man who cuts off a woman's head. They don't really add a whole lot to what's on the disc, but it's kind of keen to see them, especially if you're a fan of scantily clad women and decapitations - and I am. There's also eleven minutes of behind the scenes footage for Faith In Nothing, three minutes of behind the scenes and director interview footage for Satisfaction, and some behind the scenes footage for the opening scenes. There are also a few still galleries - one a piece for Victim, Curveball, and Faith In Nothing.
The Final Word:
The Severed Head Network is certainly not for everyone, and while the market for experimental short films may be a limited one at best, some of these segments are well worth checking out if you're open minded enough to give them a shot. Sub Rosa's DVD looks and sounds pretty decent, though the varying sources do allow for some inconsistencies in a/v quality.