Review: DIS

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019
Images from the Internet

DIS

Written and directed by Adrian Corona
1922 Films / Unearthed Films / MVD Visual
61 minutes, 2017 / 2019
www.facebook.com/Disthemovie/
www.unearthedfilms.com
www.mvdvisual.com

Sometimes, ya just feel like watching a film of mindless murderous mayhem, which is all well and good, and other times you may want to dig deeper for something a bit thoughtful and arty. DIS falls into the latter category; it is dark and gloomy, with very little dialogue.

The basic premise is that there is a demonish creature called the Mandragora, who uses the seed of murders (be it semen or vaginal fluids) to feed a mandrake garden. The mandrake, mentioned in the Bible a couple of times, is also a plant used in classical witchcraft stories as it is a hallucinogen, though poisonous.

Into our story comes Ariel (Bill Oberst, Jr.) an ex-soldier who has a mysterious and not so kind past, who has run away to a forest (shot on a mountain top in Veracruz, Mexico). Along the way he stumbles into a deserted and graffiti-filled building (an old asylum in real life) that is merely a shell of its former self. Here he runs into two equally shadowy and masked figures, a bare-breasted woman and a man in a… I want to say tuxedo, with a red sash, possibly evoking a knife slash.

Soon, Ariel is captured and chained to a wall where he is fed some disgusting meat, and has both blood and semen drawn out to feed said garden. He is tortured along the way, though this is not actually a very gory film, despite the occasional signs of blood. Mostly it’s the uncomfortableness of the viewer to the situations, including scary looking needles and masturbation.

The surroundings are stark and dark, as is the mood, and the dialog is infrequent (the first spoken works are 20 minutes or so in, in a black-and-white flashback segment). Of course, Oberst is up for the task of pure pain and emotion, being one of the best character actors around; he’s generally a critic’s choice for actors, especially in the indie film game. He is the central figure in nearly every scene after the prologue.

Most of the color saturation has been sucked out of the picture, giving it a dull tone that is perfect for the mood. Even with characters on the screen, the feeling is one of loneliness and sorrow, giving the viewer hints of where this is all taking place (I surmised it out pretty fast), and to some extent why it is all happening to our protagonist.

There are some nice extras on the Blu-ray, such as an intense, 2-minute introduction by the director who stares right at the camera. The sound is a bit low, that but’s what volume control is for anyway, right? Included is the short film, “Portrait,” which unfortunately I could not get to play, be it a problem with my player or the disc. After that is a “Making Of,” consisting of three short behind the scenes of particular – err – scenes. Next is a Photo Gallery of 37 pictures, nearly all from, again, behind the scenes, which I always find more interesting than just screen shots of the film itself. Lastly is an interview with Oberst, seemingly shot by himself.

Creepy as all hell, but not scary in a jump scare kind of way, the film is more about the feeling of despair and inevitability for the characters. Oberst’s scream in one part is harrowing, for example. And as Oberst says in his interview segment in the extras, the scope is vague, whether it’s in his head or reality, and where it all is taking place. The picture is short, if not sweet, but it’s a beauty to watch.