Review for ‘‘Wanton’’ by Victor Dubyna
Victor Dubyna has already experienced acclaim for his experimental, surrealist work. The same blood flows in Wanton's veins, albeit his most recent, 45-minute, film transcends genre and categorization by combining surrealism, horror, music, and some surprise meta elements to craft a psychological horror experience for the third decade of the twenty-first century.
The story centers around a man with an imposed mask, and his internal and external struggle against it, as well as the aftermath of its removal. Drawing from classics in psychological horror such as The Face of Another, Phantom of the Opera, as well as more conventional, cult horror such as Halloween, Wanton hybridizes itself into a nightmarish music video. Themes of alienation, abuse, both self-inflicted and from one's environment, perfectionism, guilt and mental illness are touched in haunting, distorted black & white. The creator seems to have no shortage of tributes and inspirations embedded in his work, spanning Lovecraft to Salvador Dalí and from the Swans to video game creepypasta.
Wanton's strength lies in its wild, experimental and disturbing aesthetic, achieved through surreal yet unsettling photography, choppy editing, paranoia-inducing deep shadows and close-ups. However the undeniable star of the short is the soundtrack, at times an instrument of terror at the hands of the writer/director/star, at times an ethereal, beautiful note clashing with the film's oppressive visuals. The plot is simple, perhaps too much so, and the acting is competent, without anything specific standing out.
Dubyna's nightmare that transcends realism is an experience to be immersed in. Greater than the sum of its parts, Wanton invites you to a world where the familiar turns hostile and the common turns inconceivable, using both familiar and time-tested means, but also some innovative media combinations. All in all an effort that hits all the marks it sets out to, without breaking the mold, but at the same time without stumbling at all.
