So, I really struggled on whether or not I should put the title of the above embedded short film in this post’s title. As you can see, I wussed out and opted not to. The title of this Bob Moricz directed short is Slut Shack, which I thought if I put the title first, people would get the wrong impression of the film. Honestly, it sounds like a good title for a porn film, but instead it’s an extremely unsettling film, especially if you’re expecting something to turn you on.

I’m not familiar with Moricz’s work, but since his name pops up now and again in the Underground Film Journal’s festival listings, I ended up subscribing to his YouTube video channel. Slut Shack is the first film I watched and, I’ll admit it, I clicked on it for the title alone. According to Moricz’s website, the film was produced in 2001 and shot on Super-8. It’s only about 6 minutes long and has a soundtrack by experimental band Xiu Xiu. Moricz’s official synopsis:

An ugly masked man tries to control 2 women in this waking 8 millimeter nightmare.

It’s difficult to expand on that. The “masked man” wears one of those clear masks with the exaggerated make-up that always freak me out no matter what. Moricz — or whoever his costume designer was — must have had a real field day at the costume shop because the “sluts” wear equally creepy mannequin masks and those fake female nude body casts. There’s also a “bleeding” masked figure just in case the rest of the film wasn’t disturbing enough.

Moricz has over two dozen other videos up, but a lot of them are trailers for his films. His full filmography can be found on his site and he’s done about thirty over the course of twenty-five years. Based on this one short, this is a guy I’ve got to get more familiar with.