Director: Johannes Grenzfurthner
Notable Cast: Johannes Grenzfurthner, Ethan Haslam
Putting an audience into the mindset of a character, mainly
the protagonist, is script writing and filmmaking 101. The fastest way to
instill empathy is to see through the eyes of that character. Any film student
or casual viewer knows this to be true. Even when the protagonist is,
essentially, the villain of the story. This choice is not one that will often
make for an easy watch, but one that can explore some fascinating depths of the
character.
Masking Threshold, from director Johannes
Grenzfurthner, fully dives into this approach. It’s a character study which
attempts to fully immerse its audience into the world and thoughts of its
protagonist, unfolding like a type of visual diary, as they begin their descent
into a madness driven by obsession. It’s experimental to the max, making it one
of the more unique watches of Panic Fest 2022, and fascinating to a point that
it’s hard to deny that it doesn’t encapsulate its concept in full - even if it
demands a lot of patience from its audience.
It’s well known at this point that ‘true crime’ storytelling
is still a force to be reckoned with in genre media. People are obsessed with
understanding the story and mind of the killer and the sheer amount of true
crime podcasts, shows, and narrative features dictates that this niche is not
going anywhere anytime soon. Masking Threshold blends the style of all
of those into one. It’s like a conspiracy obsessed art film student’s YouTube
channel that slowly cascades into a modernized Edgar Allen Poe tale of
madness.
The big, bold angle on this one, to separate it from other
more traditional narrative films, is that it’s essentially told from the first
person. The protagonist has taken a few days off from work and set up an
experimentation lab in his house. As it would seem, they have been hearing
sounds and are starting to believe that it’s tied to organic or inorganic items
in the room with them. Unfortunately, as the experiments continue, the
protagonist becomes more and more obsessed with the source of the sounds and it
pushes them further and further down the tunnel of insanity.
Now, a first-person perspective isn’t always the most
effective way to write. It limits the visuals and requires a lot of exposition
to be delivered through voice over narration or very defined sequences that
expand the narrative. Yet, Masking Threshold is using these essential
flaws as stylistic choices. It’s an experimental film with its visuals and
audio, for sure, often negating more conventional cinematic choices for the
sake of placing its audience in with its protagonist as his world unravels.
The overall stream of consciousness style of its narrative
can be tedious at times, particularly for more casual horror fans. This is not
a film meant to entertain as much as it is to disturb and unnerve. I would be
lying if I didn’t spend most of the film bouncing between curiosity, boredom,
and fascination with just how much Masking Threshold admirably stuck to
its guns. All in all, it’s hard for me to recommend this to those outside of
the more artistic and experimental fanbase, but for those who are intrigued by
it, then definitely seek this one out once it makes it beyond the festival
circuit.
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