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WORLD OF DEATH Ep. 42 – Mescaline / Psychedelia

Let’s get wasted! Hallucinogenic horror highlights Episode 42 which features two tales that are both under the influence and over the fucking rainbow.

First up is German Director Marc Schießer’s visionary brand of panic-inducing, psychedelic psychosis, Mescaline. This is a painstakingly crafted, surrealistic nightmare; hypnotic, beautifully photographed, and deliberately paced to maximize tension. Its impressive visual effects are distributed with precision; edgy enough to keep your nerves at a fever-pitch, but cut with the restraint of a serious cinema-chemist, teetering on the edge of overdose. One of the joys of the so-called “drug-film” is recognizing the caliber of pharmaceutical experience the filmmakers bring to the table. I always say, “If you;re gonna make a drug film, be damn certain you make it with drug people.” I’m not certain if Mescaline’s braintrust has been intimate with the titular beast, but their carefully choreographed delusions, equal parts fantasy and phantasm, reek of professional seasoning. Mescaline also delivers some truly narcotic, Argento-on-Ludes lighting choices; a cadre of clever transitional gambits, and a fucking firestorm of a denouement. Smart, stylized, and totally spell-binding, Mescaline will get you tripping balls, minus the bummer comedown.

Next, the Midwestern Master of the Macabre, Bryan Wolford, brings us madness, mushrooms, and murder in the drugged-out, disturbingly paranoid short, Psychedelia. Mushrooms, responsibly consumed, can be a pleasurable, albeit exhaustive roller-coaster of emotion, instinct, and appetite. I’m not referring to the same impulses that befit the stoner set, I’m talking about impulse, hunger, and desire – the morbid, saturnine kind, the ones that make recreational drug use a cautionary tale. In this playfully intense, utterly bizarre, but inexplicably charming effort, a pair of star-crossed misfits devour cow dung with aplomb and are left to explore their untapped plastic surgery and head-bashing skills. I’ve seen more than a lion’s share of stoner-horror films, but Wolford’s wacko assemblage of gore, tranquilizer dissolves, and guerrilla-film gusto is oddly distinctive. Psychedelia ‘s most batty, unsettling facet is not the competitively priced visuals or the vulgar makeup work, but the ominously repetitive sound mix. It’s a clever conceit, base and lucid, but disconcerting and effective nonetheless.
Until next time party people, say yes to drugs!
– B.A. Lewandowski

World of Death is the web series that fans of independent horror have been waiting for.  Featuring short horror films from all over the globe created by the largest variety of talent that a collection has ever been able to boast, WOD provides plenty of blood, guts, screams and laughs for all fans of the macabre.  And with episodes averaging around eight minutes in length, WOD is the perfect entertainment for a fan base constantly on the go.  Watch it anywhere, at any time, for FREE! New episodes premiere every Monday and Thursday at 10am CST.

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