Bad Acid (Short, 2016)
Matt Boiselle
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Starring Tristan Beint, Madeleine Boyer, Paul Croft
Directed by David Chaudoir
The lengths that some entertainers will go to in order to hopefully regain a little steam to revive a failing career can be both desperate and frightening all in the same scheme. In David Chaudoir’s Bad Acid, we get to see a man watch his livelihood start to take a downturn and, with the help of some mysterious pharmaceuticals, take a walk on the wild side. And what a trip it is!
Marvin Maskelyn (Beint) is a stage hypnotist, and his act is beginning to fail on multiple levels: His audience doesn’t believe his gig, and the owners of the clubs he’s headlining are beginning to lose faith in his ability to bring in a crowd. He then turns to a friend (Croft) who works in an oddity/antiques shop, and an ancient lamp (genie-style) is offered up to possibly resurrect a swirling career.
Inside the box where the lamp rested is an outdated sheet of acid, left there by its previous owner: a cultist, satanist, and more importantly, a musician. Well, here goes nothing – into the mouth of our hypnotist goes the supposedly harmless tab, and out come the nightmarish images… just say no, kiddies.
He is imposed by the images he witnesses to utilize the lamp to its fullest extent, and there only will he begin to pick up the pieces of his shattered handicraft. This 18-minute short isn’t lacking in entertaining instances, with some of the scenes being stolen by the images within, and Beint is quite adept at portraying a man who’s fighting to hold his sanity together, as well as the “job” that keeps cash in his pocket.
Overall, Chaudoir puts on a visually impressive display, and I could definitely recommend this short to those who are looking for a psychedelic jaunt down the rabbit hole… just beware of those angry genies because this definitely isn’t a Disney-friendly trip.
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Film
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