Worldwide Short Film Festival -- Freaky Midnight Mania

Another WWSFF series I indulged in this past weekend was the Midnight Mania Freaky show. Previously, Midnight Mania has been reserved for the horror crowd -- and this year, there were two shows: Freaky and Creepy. I chose Freaky based on the more appealing descriptions from the site. Freaky was not horror -- so I can only assume that Creepy was the horror show. Too bad. Not that Freaky was bad -- but it wasn't entirely good either. Forewarned, spoilers follow.

Exhibit 42 -- Before you touch the displays at the art gallery, you would do well to see this short. One art piece on display is a fish in a blender that's plugged in. It's tempting. Just flick the switch and watch ... art? One patron flicks the switch and his entire world is transformed. He's taken, bound, and is hung over blades, about to repeat the fish's fate. Too bad he was only day-dreaming.

Shaolin Delivery Boy -- What happens when a Chinese-Canadian actor can't get roles -- even as a Chinese character, because he doesn't have a Chinese accent and knows no kung-fu? He turns to his whitey friend to teach him how to be Chinese. His white friend turns out to be quite good at the whole accent and kung-fu thing. The movie was hilarious, as the white-master, teaches his Chinese-student how to be Chinese. I definitely need to see this again.

Learn Self Defense -- Meet George. He's mild-mannered, a good guy, who goes to church on a regular basis. But what happens when George gets taken advantage of? George learns the art of self defense -- especially the part where a wrong + a wrong + god = good; and that self defense starts with a good preemptive strike. A hilarious animated parody of the George W. Bush presidency.

The Netherbeast of Berm-Tech Industry -- When the boss puts a stake through the heart of an employee, he claims it's because the dead employee was a vampire. He then takes a bullet and heads off to find the werewolf in HR. The movie started out like the pointy-headed boss of Dilbert fame gone wacko -- until the employees realize that they've been exposed. The boss has found out that there really are monsters working in his company. Good dialogue, great idea, but it sort of fizzled at the end.

Slim -- Slim shows up for dinner at his would-be girlfriend's house, only to be roped into a shot-gun wedding by her Dad. He's going to marry her younger sister, who has some bleeding problem that will eventually kill her. Slim escapes. I don't get it. It was weird, and I have a distinct feeling it lacked intelligence.

Fallen Art -- This was a superbly animated short. At first, I thought it was hand-drawn animation, but it must have been computerized. The story is of some lunatic that have soldiers drop to their death, because he's collecting art of dead splattered bodies, which he animates using some weird machine. Weird story, but the animation was amazing.

Birthday -- As my friend who saw this with me said, "Somebody has some issues." The whole thing was weird. Mira's Mom wants to keep her in a womb, and not let her out. A real womb. With blood, and a vagina in the ceiling. Weird -- and possibly stupid.

Egg -- Captain Ahab is sailing the egg white, looking for the elusive golden yoke. Interesting animation, weird story -- with parts that made no sense. There were chicken people who were being fed -- and one eventually ate the egg that had Captain Ahab in it. The show's MC asked the audience to make her "little heart happy" by giving her a "Yaar!" when the lights went down. The crowd never stopped, and continued doing it throughout the show. Goes to show you what happens when you get a group of "freaks and geeks" in the room. When the lights are on, they're fairly quiet -- when the lights go out, they then to play with themselves in the dark.

Mom In Store Now! -- This was an anime gone live. Live action of every stupid Yu-Gi-Oh cartoon. I wished I hadn't seen it.