With the news that longtime DV member Fractal has finally gotten his short art house film "The Spooky Healing" listed over at the IMDb... it only seems right that I celebrate the event and take a close look at it again to give you my thoughts....

But first... the synopsis:  "An intimate world wrapped up in bass clarinet music. A solitary, mysterious woman whose gasps are punctuated by water drop sounds.  A threatening curtain slides across.Something is not quite right with what we are looking at.

On the other side of a shaking door a rag doll inside a man's black shoe. The woman takes him to bed. Darkness and nightmares. She sends herself a message in Morse code.

Next morning, after watering an onion, she starts a loving relationship with him. But suddenly, in a dreamlike state, she feels anger and throws him away. She leaves him in a narrow corridor and vanishes without trace climbing up the walls.

When she returns home, however, something moves her to bring him back. He's full of thorns now.

Then a healing takes place..." - Written by Marcel Garbi aka "Fractal"

And trust me.... that just about sums things up. So how does it all play out?

Let's "Read On" and find out, shall we?

"The Spooky Healing".... that title alone makes you want to give this one a watch....Dark, somber, and full of atmosphere, I I had originally thought this one might have been a Spanish language film (as is our dear Fractal)..... but in true art house fashion it's not all that simple. There's absolutely no dialog here... just a nice musical score for clarinet (written by Marcel as well....) to accompany us on this bizarre visual journey....that and the occasional discordant sounds made by the Woman and a stoic silence from the doll...

When we at Delirium first got our look at this one, I remember that I was struck by just how well an overall aura of strangeness clings to it. I have to confess that then I didn't have a clue what was going on.... and my poor thick lil' head still hasn't figured it out even now. But then, I don't think I'm really supposed to, it's more a film about mood and feeling than anything else and in that it succeeds extremely well.

In all.... a really dreamlike quality is achieved that defies any need to completely grasp it on any but a instinctual level.

I've seen other films with far more resources that struggle with capturing that, and the results rarely equal those here. When you realize that much of the film and it's soundtrack is the work of only a couple of people, it becomes an even more impressive effort.

This lil' Catgirl isn't much of a fan of "art" films.... I'm admittedly more of a "trash movie addict" at heart, but having watched this again after time has passed, I am still struck by how I wished it had been longer. There's a real gem of an idea here. It makes me wonder what could have been achieved had there been more space to explore it. I said it then, and it still stands.... If our dear Fractal ever does decide to go feature length with this, I'd most definitely want see the results.

All in all.... I've got to give our dear Fractal 4 "Meows" out of 5 for this one. It's a polished, well executed, excellent first effort, made with an obvious and unique zest for filmaking that deserves a follow up. But don't just take this lil' Catgirl's word for it...... visit Fractal's home page and take a look at it for yourself. You wont be dissapointed!