Rented a cerebral WTF sci-fi suspense, art-house, almost experimental flick called Black Hollow Cage on iTunes tonight. A cold, distant, austere meditation on grief with multiple sci-fi concepts, barely explained and barely interested in explaining. It’s a head trip of a movie that you may not have the patience for… but I did and I kind of love it for its willingness to abandon normal.
Set in an ultra-modern house in the woods, it stars a father and his young daughter with a prosthetic robot arm that she’s learning to operate. She also has a dog with a voice synthesizer who she insists on calling mom. Dad isn’t convinced. Either way, the girl stumbles upon a mysterious black cube in the forest that provides cryptic hints about the future. And then things get weird.
The acting matches the film’s direction and editing: Very cold, very smooth, and very inhuman. The people don’t act like people, they are often emotionless to the point I wondered if they were robots themselves… except in powerful moments of grief or anger. I’m not sure why the actors were directed this way but it’s evident they were given how cryptic, distant, and cold the movie looks and feels. It’s all a slow, uncomfortable burn.
This certainly is not a film for everybody but if you like bold and challenging movies with a weird sci-fi bent, you might want to check this one out. It doesn’t provide easy or all the answers and keeps certain explanations to the end. It’s certainly a unique film and that’s pretty rare.
Score: 86