Shock doctrine

“Festival otrlého diváka“ (literally Festival of Thick-Skinned Audience) is an increasingly popular film marathon which eschews all conventional norms of cinematography and audience expectations and instead, focused on the bizarre, B-movie, leftfield material. The organizers dug out some precious gems from the world of the obscure including a 1927 silent piece The Unknown by Tod Browning, about a knife thrower who pretends he has no arms in order to escape the law. The movie is soundtracked live by Prague vinyl fiends and hauntologists Birds Build Nests Underground.

Lucky McKee’s The Woman delves underneath the seeming normalcy of everyday – patriarchal – suburban life to uncover there’s something rotten (yes, it is an American movie, I guess you’ve figured). A female, forest-dwelling cannibal falls prey to a picture-perfect middle class father in The Woman. There’s also the odd Ed Wood-affiliated piece Orgy of the Dead, Adam Rehmeier’s controversial experimental horror film The Bunny Game or the Mexican indie flick Santo vs. the Television Killer.

The festival is on until the 19 February at the Aero cinema in Prague.

Published February 16, 2012.