That
copy of Philip K. Dick’s Time Out of
Joint could come in handy for Carlos. While his situation is somewhat
different, it could help him think about reality in more outside-the-box terms
(it also made his film a perfect selection for this year’s Philip K. Dick Film
Festival). At the very least, it will help pass the time. Rather than a box or
a Potemkin world, Carlos is stuck in an infinite staircase. He is not the only
one facing such a predicament in Isaac Ezban’s The Incident (trailer
here), which
screens during the 2016 Philip K. Dick Film Festival in New York.
The
corrupt cop was leading Carlos and his brother Oliver out through his building’s
staircase when they heard the bang. At that point, the stairs became endless
Escher loop. They walk down nine flights and find themselves right back at the
ninth floor landing. Needless to say, the doors are sealed, but the vending
machine mysteriously keeps replenishing itself. The situation would be dire
enough, but the copper, acting on a perverse impulse, shot Oliver in the leg
right before the happening. Soon the festering wound becomes life-threatening.
Meanwhile
or something, Daniel is on a road trip with his mother, her trying too hard
boyfriend, and his little sister, but that highway never seems to end—because it
won’t. There is an empty service station that never runs out of supplies, but they
do not carry asthma inhalers. Unfortunately, Daniel’s sister will be needing
one after hers is damaged. These two cosmically closed loops do not appear to be
related, except for the occasional hint suggesting they really are.
There
are no significant visual effects to speak of in The Incident, but it is a wildly ambitious, decade-spanning,
mind-reeling genre film. It starts out merely unsettling in a Sartre kind of
way, but it turns into a deeper, metaphysical horror show. Reportedly, some
fans of the show Lost find various
hat-tips throughout the film. Whether they are intentional or not, The Incident is certainly in keeping
with the show’s spirit (whereas it is wholly dissimilar from M. Night Shyamalan’s
The Happening).
Considering
the circumstances, The Incident boasts
a surprisingly large cast. Nobody really stands out per se, because the entire
ensemble is convincingly freaked out and then bitterly resigned to their fate. Essentially,
they look like real people in some kind of Hell (but it isn’t really, or is
it?).
