The films of Guy Maddin have often been described as dreamlike, from the town that lives in absolute silence for fear of avalanches in Careful to the beer-filled legs in The Saddest Music in the World. But perhaps none of his features have so perfectly replicated a bottomless rabbit hole of subconscious creativity as The Forbidden Room.
The plot would take as long to describe is it does to actually watch The Forbidden Room, since the film – co-directed by Evan Johnson – consists of dozens of very short subjects, connected by flights of fancy and Buñuel-ish logic (or lack thereof). There’s a submarine crew trapped at the bottom of the sea, running out of air but unable to rise without destabilizing a giant cube of nitroglycerin jelly. There’s a chiropractor seduced into the deadly world of poisonous skeleton leotards and insurance policies. There’s a husband whose last minute birthday present to his wife leads to screwball murder in their elevator car apartment. There are bananas that are also vampires, damn it, and ain’t that something.
Check Out: Five Exclusive Teasers from ‘The Forbidden Room’
That’s but a small sampling of what’s in store for you in The Forbidden Room, and those stories alone would probably be enough to make the head swim. Fortunately that kind of drunken stupor storytelling seems to be exactly what Maddin and Johnson are going for. Beneath the scratchy veneer of Maddin’s iconic silent film-inspired visual style is one memorable short after another, some of them interconnected, all of them rushing towards a kaleidoscopic conclusion, most of them entertaining as hell.
It may be too much for some audiences to take, and even stalwart Maddin enthusiasts may find their patience wearing a little thin by the last third of the otherwise breezy 130 minute running time. But the highlights of The Forbidden Room are spread cleanly throughout the production. The haunting tale of a man, possibly dead or possibly just deadbeat, teaching his child how to trick his blind wife into thinking her never left is a late-in-the-game addition that fascinates and elicits tears, and injects vitality into the film at a time when you might perhaps be wondering if the experience will never end.
Perhaps you’re dead, and this series of hallucinogenic projections is what you see as your brain dies. Or possibly The Forbidden Room is exactly what it says on the tin: Maddin and Johnson’s modern interpretations of the brief plot-descriptions from long-lost silent films. Whatever your take on The Forbidden Room may be, it’s a fascinating place in which to find yourself. It’s a locked door mystery and only Maddin and Johnson have the key.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
