Callum Berry.

A Place Without Fear is only a short film, around thirty minutes, but what an uncomfortable thirty minutes it is.

Deeken combines photography, painting, and textures to create a haunting and disturbing piece that at times felt like it bordered on assault.

In narrative terms, this is a challenging movie to watch and to talk about; from the beginning to the end the viewer is barraged by emotions and vibes ranging from the whimsical to the demonic – sometimes this worked for me, and other times I felt like I was watching a cringe music-video from the 90’s.

This isn’t really a movie that can be spoiled either, as I can’t honestly say I understood any of the events on-screen in any meaningful way, I could come up with some theories about what certain symbols or motifs might mean or from where they might stem but that’ll be useless.

The movie is a masturbatory exercise in alternative film-making that does succeed in its goal of challenging the viewer, but I can’t say I recommend it.

3/10.