Review: Worm - 2009

Worm

Director: Richard Powell

2009

Comedy/Short

Geoffrey Oswald Dodd is a plain teacher and lives an ordinary life with content. He happily teaches his students and to grade their papers and there’s nothing special going on at all. At least that’s the outer image that people see, in reality the truth is somewhat different. He’s plagued with dark thought about (in his mind) the retarded students in the class and wants, beyond anything else, to bang the only bright thing in his class – Lillian, and to blow the head of the other student with his gun, and to finally blow his own brains out all over the blackboard.

I’ve written comedy above, but that doesn’t mean that this movie makes you quiver with laughter. It’s not slapstick humour in any way or something like that. No, it’s more like a very black film with subtle humour. The main characters situation with life it so twisted that it’s impossible not to be entertained by the absurdness of it. The dialog, or rather the monolog, that’s in the main characters head is amazingly well written and there is no way to not admire the inventiveness of it. Or really the paradox between the exterior of the calm teacher and the inner voice. A very entertaining contrast!

The acting might not be top notch, but it’s certainly good enough to deliver the story in a convincing way. That is even if it’s obvious that this is a movie with a very low budget and that everything that could have been visualized only takes place in the mind of the viewer. With that said it’s not hard to conclude that the movie, more or less, lacks special effects. Instead it makes good use of the twisted plot and illustrates sick states of mind with fitting music. And there is the monolog of course!

I’m undoubtedly looking forward to what Richard Powel can think up the next time! We have review his short Consumption here on the site in the past and with these two movies done there’s no limit for what can be done!