This week ECHG writer Adam Holtzapfel takes us inside Flesh Of The Void, the newest offering from filmmaker James Quinn that premiered at Nightmares Film Festival in October. Flesh Of The Void also took home the Night Mare for Best Overall Feature and left an impression on the attendees.
Fans of experimental film should be familiar with filmmaker James Quinn’s previous effort The Law Of Sodom. Flesh Of The Void follows the same style that fans love about his work.
While I love James and his work, Flesh Of The Void fell short for me. That’s one thing fans can expect though, is he makes films his way and to deal with his demons. While it’s beautifully shot the story just didn’t connect with me. His films may not connect with you but it’s still an experience you should try.
Clocking in at 76 minutes the film shows images ranging from factories to mutilated teddy bears to masked men. Often compared to finding the tape from The Ring on the dark web, this is sure to leave a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. At the Q & A after the premiere James stated for the film slides with text he hand etched that into the film leaving his hands a mess. His dedication to his craft is shown in this with manic voice overs, a drone style soundtrack (think Sunn O)))), and some more than disturbing scenes this has earned itself a place in the Midnight Mind Fuck category at any festival. On Sunday morning you could tell who made it through Flesh of the Void.
While this film was not my cup of tea, by no means is it a bad film. Hearing James talk about how he manipulated the film and used a certain bodily fluid on the lens to get different distorted looks shows his passion. I’d recommend this film just for the visual aspect alone to anyone who wants to see something different than your typical fare. Make a night of this by pairing it with Begotten & Law Of Sodom for a triple feature from hell. I am really looking forward to his next short Sulphur for Leviathan, you should be keeping an eye out for that as well.
