Primal Screen
Directed by Rodney Ascher
Why are we simultaneously attracted to and repelled by the things that scare us the most? In this special presentation, acclaimed filmmaker Rodney Ascher (ROOM 237, THE NIGHTMARE) explores the pop culture that left dark impressions on us as children. Starting from the immortal ventriloquist dummy of MAGIC, Ascher asks real people to look back at pop-culture artifacts that traumatized them in their youth and describe the effect they had on their lives. A singular hybrid of documentary and horror, stare into the Primal Screen.
In this Shudder Original, acclaimed filmmaker Rodney Ascher explores the pop culture that left dark impressions on us as children.
Cast: Gregory Burkart, Daniel Ferranti, Gary Holland
Member Reviews
For anyone interested in the literature of the weird, particularly the work of contemporary master Thomas Ligotti, this short primer on the subject of automatonophobia makes for an excellent intellectual snack. The first thing I did when it was over was to look for more episodes, assuming this was part of a series. My disappointment in the fact that it isn't explains why I took away one skull. This is exactly the kind of thing Shudder.com should be producing more of in the future, and I hope they are in sufficiently decent shape, finance-wise, to do so.
Not nearly as good as THE NIGHTMARE. And could have focused on other childhood phobias and extended the length of this “movie”
I remember two episodes of The Twilight Zone (the Talking Tina one and the one where the wooden doll had super bushy eyebrows). Those two episodes scared the crap out of me as a kid. I think if I had a wooden doll in my apartment, I would be afraid that it was possessed or something.
I very much enjoyed it; but I also enjoy looking inward and asking questions of why certain reactions are and where they come from. I would love to see other episodes, I did think this was going to be a series with several episodes; not just one.
Interesting enough for a short something to watch over dinner. I felt a little duped by the synopsis, though. It's all about dude and dolls. I'm glad that Shudder has the movie "MAGIC" to watch afterward; I had never even heard of it before, but it has this wildly all-star cast. Maybe if you've seen it before, or had a childhood fear of dolls, you may find this intriguing. Overall there were only about 7 good minutes in my opinion.