Subconscious Cruelty

Subconscious Cruelty is a 2000 Canadian independent experimental anthology horror film written and directed by Karim Hussain and produced by Mitch Davis. It was filmed over a long period of time, from February 1994 to December 1999, and debuted at the Festival de Cine de Sitges in Sitges, Spain, on October 12, 2000. The film went on to screen at several other festivals, including the Stockholm International Film Festival and Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival before being released on DVD on April 18, 2005. The film was first released in Canada on Friday, April 13, 2001. It screened at Cinema Du Parc in Montreal, Quebec, Canada for two weeks from April 13 to the 28th of 2001. It was again screened at the same theater for a single weekend in November 2001, and one last time in June 2003. It has not been screened publicly in Canada since then.

Subconscious Cruelty
DVD cover
Directed byKarim Hussain
Produced byMitch Davis
Written byKarim Hussain
StarringBrea Asher
Ivaylo Founev
Eric Pettigrew
Christopher Piggins
Martine Viale
Music byTeruhiko Suzuki
CinematographyFrançois Bourdon
Edited byKarim Hussain
Distributed byAlbatros Film (Japan)
New Select (Japan)
Cinema Novo (Portugal)
Infliction Films (Canada)
Release date
October 12, 2000
Running time
92 min.
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Budget$100,000 CAD

Plot

The film is based on several nihilistic and metaphorical stories about life, death and everything between.

Cast

Ovarian Eyeball
  • Sophie Lauzière as Woman On Slab
  • Anne-Marie Belley as Hand

Human Larvae
  • Brea Asher as Sister
  • Ivaylo Founev as Brother
  • Eric Levasseur as Lover
  • Janis Higgins as Girl in Photo

Rebirth
  • Nadia Simaani as Female Performer #1
  • Anna Berlyn as Female Performer #2
  • Nancy Simard as Female Performer #3
  • Sean Spuruey as Male Performer #1
  • Scott Noonan as Male Performer #2
  • Mitch Davis as Male Performer #3

Right Brain/Martyrdom
  • Christopher Piggins as Businessman/Doppelganger
  • Annette Pankrac as Secretary
  • Eric Pettigrew as Martyr/Jesus Christ
  • Martine Viale as Attacker/Female Demon

Production

Development

Hussain began filming Subconscious Cruelty at the age of 19 after connecting with 22-year-old Davis, a producer whom Hussain knew to believe in the project. Hussain felt that the subculture of the mid-1990s, a time when heroin usage was prevalent and nihilism was gaining acceptance in the art world, would be accepting of his film. Influences for the film include works by Alexandro Jodorowsky, Luis Buñuel, Dušan Makavejev, David Lynch, David Cronenberg and others.[1]

The filmmaking process was beset by various problems, including the disappearance of the film negative in a financial dispute, forcing Hussain to hand-cut the positive of the film without knowing if he would ever re-gain the negative. Another setback occurred when Hussain was stopped at the Canada–United States border after a business trip to the United States. Canadian customs officials inspected the film, and, appalled by its content, confiscated it as illegally obscene material. As a result, the original stock had to be hidden for a long period of time.[2]

Critical reception

Subconscious Cruelty received mixed reviews by mostly non-mainstream critics. Since the film was not released in the US market, traditional critics of English-language films did not see or comment on it. Known establishments such as Fangoria considered it "a film suffused with images that incite thoughts, many of which would be considered unhealthy in any artistic medium".[3] Jon Condit of Dread Central noted that, although the film was beautifully shot, scored, and featured unsettling imagery, he felt that the film pushed the boundaries of what he called "visual metaphor" to the point where he felt it was too extreme.[4]

References
  1. "Subconscious Cruelty: Director's Statement". InflictionFilms.com. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  2. "Subconscious Cruelty: Production History". InflictionFilms.com. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
  3. Archived December 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Condit, Jon (2004). "Subconscious Cruelty (1999)". Dread Central.com. Jon Condit. Retrieved November 12, 2020.

Further reading
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