A flying ashtray, an interdimensional fruit, an Amazon delivery. SOMETHING IN THE DIRT is absurd and creative, but also very arbitrary. The directing duo Aaaron Moorhead and Justin Benson have made a new cosmic sci-fi film after RESOLUTION (2012), THE ENDLESS (2017) and the Netflix series “Archive 81.“ In this film dedicated to “the friends of the filmmakers“ they appear in front of the camera as well as behind it - due to the pandemic.

John (Aaron Moorhead) and Levi (Justin Benson) are experiencing a seemingly supernatural phenomenon in Levi‘s run-down apartment. They decide to shoot a documentary and sell it to Netflix and get rich. “Something In The Light“ as well as “The Door That Wouldn‘t Shut“ are thrown around as titles. SOMETHING IN THE DIRT is a mockumentary about their work on this film, a balancing act between subversion and genre spectacle. The two of them keep immersing themselves deeper into research for their documentary. This leads to a downwards spiral of absurdity, until the friends suspect that every number, every name is connected to their phenomenon. The film is a puzzle with no solutions and externalizes the inner life of a conspiracy theory. Instead of using the echo chamber of horror cliches, the duo is interested in how the narrative form can seep into the visible. In their film RESOLUTION (2012) they still experimented with repetition, a few test setups later, the form itself has become a pure perversion of a genre. Cinema is rarely so genuine, so free, but ultimately SOMETHING IN THE DIRT is subject to its own arbitrariness. Like their characters, Moorhead and Benson have turned on the camera and are seeing what happens.

Niklas Michels

Translation: Elinor Lewy