David Cronenberg is one of those highly appreciate than love directors, but he is fascinating with a distinctive directing style unlike any other. One that actually goes beyond pioneering the body horror genre that he was known for. A vast majority of his work falls in the good, very good, great and masterpiece categories, with about five or six exceptions that still manage to not be unwatchable and still be semi-interesting.
The second of his very early short films, 'From the Drain', for me is regrettably one of the exceptions. Didn't hate 'From the Drain' by all means and it is a long way from unwatchable (it takes a lot for me to cite anything as unwatchable these days), it did have components done better than they were in his previous short film 'Transfer', which also had a couple of things done better there. Both fitting in the interesting semi-failure category.
'From the Drain' looks decent, one does not expect that from early Cronenberg and small budget when a few of his films made not long after looked worse than this. There is a sense of eeriness and the photography and editing have an equal amount of atmosphere and don't look amateurish. On its own, the music score is haunting and relaxing.
One can see too a few of his distinctive qualities/themes that would be seen in a vast majority of his films, though they were explored much better later with there not being enough time to do much with them. Cronenberg's direction here is more confident and not as inexperienced and the actors were okay.
A lot of things stop 'From the Drain' from making more of an impression. A big problem is the pace, which was throughout very sluggish and really lacking in lustre. Less talk would have helped it because it did feel too much on that front, and that it was not a component done very well (found it pretty rambling and awkward) hurts it further. The story perplexes rather than intrigues, and even for a short length there was very little of it. Like his lesser efforts, 'From the Drain' felt very clinical and emotionally distant, one of not much of his work to not make me feel anything.
Did say that the music worked well on its own and was a nice score on its own, do feel though that it could have been used less and been more subtle. The sound is marginally better than in 'Transfer', but is still poorly recorded.
In summary, somewhat interesting though only if trying to see all of Cronenberg's work (that was my reason at least). Don't really have much desire to see it again though am not going to get people to stay away from it. 4/10
The second of his very early short films, 'From the Drain', for me is regrettably one of the exceptions. Didn't hate 'From the Drain' by all means and it is a long way from unwatchable (it takes a lot for me to cite anything as unwatchable these days), it did have components done better than they were in his previous short film 'Transfer', which also had a couple of things done better there. Both fitting in the interesting semi-failure category.
'From the Drain' looks decent, one does not expect that from early Cronenberg and small budget when a few of his films made not long after looked worse than this. There is a sense of eeriness and the photography and editing have an equal amount of atmosphere and don't look amateurish. On its own, the music score is haunting and relaxing.
One can see too a few of his distinctive qualities/themes that would be seen in a vast majority of his films, though they were explored much better later with there not being enough time to do much with them. Cronenberg's direction here is more confident and not as inexperienced and the actors were okay.
A lot of things stop 'From the Drain' from making more of an impression. A big problem is the pace, which was throughout very sluggish and really lacking in lustre. Less talk would have helped it because it did feel too much on that front, and that it was not a component done very well (found it pretty rambling and awkward) hurts it further. The story perplexes rather than intrigues, and even for a short length there was very little of it. Like his lesser efforts, 'From the Drain' felt very clinical and emotionally distant, one of not much of his work to not make me feel anything.
Did say that the music worked well on its own and was a nice score on its own, do feel though that it could have been used less and been more subtle. The sound is marginally better than in 'Transfer', but is still poorly recorded.
In summary, somewhat interesting though only if trying to see all of Cronenberg's work (that was my reason at least). Don't really have much desire to see it again though am not going to get people to stay away from it. 4/10
