Anybody who’s had to put together furniture knows that it can be a taxing experience. The instructions are complicated. When you mess up once, you need to do it all over again. And even when you do finish, there’s always some weird monster baby in there that you need to get rid of.
We’ve all been there.
Today, we’re looking at Self-Assembly, a surrealist look at parenthood, from director Ray Sullivan, and writer Garret Shanley, based on a short comic that he wrote along with Cathal Dugan. It is now streaming on Alter’s YouTube channel, and you can also watch it at the end of this article. It might inspire you to submit to the next Killer Shorts Horror Short Screenplay Competition.
The Plot
The story takes place in…possibly some other dimension. It starts off with a shock by unflinchingly showing a child getting run over by a car. One year later, his grieving parents order a cabinet from a creepy online ad. When it’s assembled, they find the monster baby inside, however they don’t appear to be shocked. The father prepares to kill it, but the mother suggests they raise it as a substitute for their dearly departed son.
It Came From Inside the Cabinet!
This short creates a feel similar to David Lynch’s Eraserhead. Not only because of the fact that it’s in black and white, and revolves around raising a deformed child, but because of its complete disregard for the concept of realism. It is like watching a bad dream on the screen, where not a lot of it makes sense, but the surrealism just makes it even more uncanny.
There is also a very dry and understated sense of humor, particularly in the scenes of the parents raising the creature. For example, the creature’s propensity to spit out wads of goo did elicit a few chuckles from me, on top of the disgust and occasional discomfort.
Don Draper Does Not Approve
Particularly unsettling are the ads in this movie. Though this short appears to take place in modern times, the commercials look like a nineteen-fifties commercial produced in the pits of Hell. They have unnerving visual and audio style, and similar-looking pale-faced cartoon mascots who smile wide enough to look demonic. One cat food commercial even features a cat being crushed by a giant can of the product. In other words, everybody here needs to fire whoever’s in charge of marketing.
But once again that only adds to the surrealism here. This is the only place where any company would want to put out something like this.
Any Complaints?
Unfortunately, and there’s no way around this, the creature effects look very fake.
It actually looks pretty good when the creature is first found, and is created with what appears to be a puppet. It looks very convincing, and the people behind it should be praised for that. However, it’s when the baby grows up when we start to see the film’s shortcomings. For every other scene it’s portrayed with CGI, and it’s very easy to tell. I’m guessing there were budgetary concerns, but this is sure to put off some viewers.
Conclusion
Despite its flaws in its visual effects, Self-Assembly is still an intriguing and uncanny surrealist horror short. It will make you question your sanity, and make you think twice about your next cabinet purchase.
Check it out below.
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