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Film: The God Inside My Ear
Year: 2017
Director: Joe Badon
Writer: Joe Badon
Starring: Linnea Gregg, Joseph Estrade and Rhonda Laizer
Review:
This was a film that the writer and director, Joe Badon, reached out to me about checking out and reviewing. I do believe this film is making its film festival rounds at the moment. The official synopsis is after experiencing a peculiar and sudden breakup with her boyfriend, Elizia discovers a world of conspiracies, strange voices and horrifying visions.
I did find this to be interesting and actually falls into something I really like in films and that is the descent into madness. Our main character is Elizia (Linnea Gregg). The opening scene we get is her boyfriend, Fred (Joseph Estrade), breaking up with her. Now I have gone through a couple of pretty bad break-ups and I could commiserate with her. We see her as she kind of just floats through life and doesn’t really know what to do. Her friends all feel bad for her and try to help, but to no avail. That alone would be tough to deal with.
We do get images though that her descent into madness could be something more as well. There are images of control men wearing hazmat suits inside of her head that are in control. She is bothered by a telemarketer and goes to see a doctor to help her through all of this as well as to get some explanation. What really makes all of this great is that we don’t really know what is happening and if she just doesn’t handle all of this grief well or is there really something going on. I think having an unreliable narrator really helps to build the confusion here. I also find it interesting that she starts to think a lot of this is the reason Fred breaks up with her, he seems off-kilter and she embodying now as well.
To tie things back in, the filmmakers used footage from the original Night of the Living Dead and Carnival of Souls. Part of this could be that they are in public domain, but both of them are harkened back to. There is a moment where someone is talking to Elizia and tells her they are coming for her, much like what happens to Barbara in NotLD. Elizia also experiences things that happen to the main character of Carnival of Souls as well. I was a big fan of the incorporation of both of these.
The editing of this film is pretty good. I think that it builds suspense and we see character growth throughout. It does well enough in establishing that Elizia is happy, it is shattered so we see her after the fact. The tension builds as you slowly seeing her descend into madness. Even when we think she is getting better, we see that it is being held together by very little. The ending is a bit of a whirlwind and has an interesting ending. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it, but it does end in a way that even though I’ve seen before, isn’t bad at all.
As for the acting, it has its bright spots, but it is also a bit rough. I’ve become a huge fan of Gregg from this film and I thought she did a great job. I found her performance to be realistic and I actually thought she was going through the break-up. She also seems to embody the person who is losing their mind as well. I have a huge crush on her after seeing this film. The rest of the cast though wasn’t great. I think many of them are just a little too stiff and I just don’t get much emotion from them or realism. Part of this could be seen through the eyes of Elizia and this is her perception, but I don’t really think we get that.
There didn’t really seem to be a lot in the way of effects. There are some interesting filters as well as surreal images used. I really liked both of these actually. It keeps you wondering if what we are seeing is real or just the feelings that Elizia is experiencing. I did think that the film was shot very well and looks good in that department.
Something else I really liked was the score of the film. I felt the composition fits what they were going for. It actually helps to build tension for what we are seeing. Some of the songs I was actually a big fan of and might look into seeing if I can find a way to listen to them regularly actually.
Now with that said, this film was very interesting and I’m glad that I got a chance to view. I think it has an interesting story that many of us can relate to. The things that Elizia learns could make you descend into madness, but it makes us wonder if she is really experiencing it or is this something with her mental state. I thought the editing of the film did well in building the tension along with the score of the film. The ending leaves it open to interpretation and there is an interesting reveal. I thought that Gregg was great in this film, but the rest of the acting was a little flat. There’s not a lot in the way of effects for the film, but what was used as good in my opinion. I actually would recommend this film if you are into surreal type films, I found this to be an interesting watch.
My Rating: 8 out of 10