Secret Level, on Prime Video

"Live, die, repeat” was the tagline and Macguffin of Edge of Tomorrow, but it is just how things work in video games. Some of these animated short films cleverly incorporate that aspect of gameplay. Each original constituent film is set within the world of a popular game (including massively multiplayer online RPGs), but maybe not too popular, since their rights were still available. As is usually the case for anthologies, the results vary considerably in creator Tim Miller’s 15-part Secret Level, which premieres tomorrow on Prime Video.

There is a lot of CGI, featuring human depictions that try and most often fail to traverse the uncanny valley. As a result, some of the less “realistic” looking films stand out more. The opener, “Dungeons & Dragons: The Queen’s Cradle” is a perfect example of the CGI look that will quickly grow repetitive. However, the story written by Brooke Bolander certainly delivers on its promise of dragons. It is also one of the more successful at character establishment. However, the cliffhanger-style ending feels like a bit of a cheat (which too, will be a recurring response throughout Secret Level).

The next two constituent films are also two of the best. “Sifu: It Takes a Life,” directed by Laszlo Ruska with a story credited to Rich Larson is a mystical martial arts beatdown, in which our hero takes on a brutal gang to avenge his grandfather, even if it kills him, repeatedly, just so long as he still has one of his lives signified by a string of gold coins left after the carnage.

“New World: The Once and Future King,” written by JT Petty & Philip (The Spine of Night) Gelatt, is by far the funniest, thanks to voiceover work of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who gamely satirizes his own action image while providing the voice of the hapless King Aelstrom. The entitled idiot intended to conquer the kingdom of Aeternum, but since the land there bestows eternal life, it creates a meritocracy among residents, leaving him ill-equipped maintain the status he expects by birthright.

“Unreal Tournament: Xan” looks very much like many other Secret Level mini-sodes. The hook here is that it openly invites viewers to root for the “rise of the machines” and against humanity when the evil Gamemaster (voiced by Elodie Yung) condemns a group of rebellious androids to a series of gladiatorial games against humans. Doesn’t that just sound like a really bad idea?

The lowest point probably comes in “Warhammer 40,000: And They Shall Know No Fear,” in which a group of space-faring marines are dispatched on a mission that is almost impossible to follow, because the animation is so confusing.

If you are expecting anything like the old Saturday morning cartoon from Victor (Nocturna) Maldonado & Alfredo Torres’ “PAC-MAN: Circle,” you will be shocked. In this case, it an extremely dark allegorical take on the classic arcade game. The ambition here is impressive, but your nostalgia will be dashed to smithereens, so temper your expectations.

Damian (Another Day of Life) Nenow’s “Crossfire: Good Conflict” is a refreshing change of pace, partly because it is the only short that does not incorporate any science fiction or fantastical elements. It also tells a fully self-contained and satisfying story, while maintaining a high degree of ambiguity regarding the why’s of everything. There is also a whole heck of a lot of shooting.

“Armored Core: Asset Management,” based on a Peter Watts story, also feels very similar to the “Unreal Tournament” and “Warhammer 40,000” episodes, but it is easier to follow and features stronger characters. It has the benefit of Keanu Reeves as a broken down mecha pilot who still thinks he has the right stuff. The mecha-action is very video game-like, but that hardly counts as a criticism for a series like this. Wisely, the animators also deliberately modeled the pilots features on Reeve’s, which should please his fans.

Lovecraft Film Fest ’17: They Remain

To use Lovecraft’s parlance, these woods should be “shunned.” They are remote and the weather there always seems to be dank and overcast. It was also where a hippie death cult dug their mass graves. Two scientists are hoping to unlock game-changing secrets of nature but they will find human remains and massively bad vibes instead in Philip Gelatt’s They Remain (trailer here), which premieres tonight at the 2017 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland.

Their division of labor is simple. By day, Keith walks around the woods with a gun, while Jessica turns dials and does science stuff in the tent. At night, they talk about the project in maddeningly vague terms as they try to ignore their shared sexual tension. However, the discovery of the area’s connection to an infamous Manson-People’s Temple cult throws them off their routine. They worry the area’s history could adversely affect their double-secret project, but their corporate paymasters assure them everything is cool. Nevertheless, the news that a team of forensic anthropologists went a little crazy in these environs not so long ago makes them justifiably uneasy. The hallucinations don’t help either.

After three films, the jury is still out on Gelatt. The ugly and grisly Bleeding House, his feature debut as director and screenwriter was an intolerant and manipulative attack on Evangelicals that brought nothing new to the horror table.  On the other hand, his screenplay for Sebastián Cordero’s Europa Report (also screening at the festival) was muscularly lean and inventive. Frustratingly, Remain is not a conclusive tie-breaker.

There is no question Gelatt demonstrates plenty of skill and craftsmanship. He maintains a vibe of eerie foreboding throughout the film, even though he reveals precious little. Viewers can just feel something sinister is going on just beyond their field of vision. Arguably, it becomes too much of a good thing, because at some point we expect the narrative to kick into high gear, but it never really does. We just get more mood and vaguely defined menace.

Still, William Jackson Harper and Rebecca Henderson quite nicely rise to the challenge of the near-two-hander (aside from a rat-like corporate stooge here or there). Their characters’ pragmatic professionalism is also rather refreshing, especially since it spares us a lot of histrionic bickering.

Remain does not rely on a lot of visual effects per se, unless you count Sean Kirby’s evocatively ominous cinematography. It is sort of like For the Plasma’s more focused evil cousin or a somewhat less immersive Without Name. They Remain has its merits, but Europa Report is still the Gelatt film to see when they both screen tonight (10/7) at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival.