Now They Experience It All the Time… Review from A Baroque House!
What constitutes a SamHel film? Do you watch a SamHel film and know it’s made by SamHel? When I first watched Now They Experience It All the Time… I immediately felt like this isn’t a SamHel film. It certainly didn’t visually appear that way. What I have become accustomed to over the years. From the commencement, this short is shot without the aid of SamHel’s now typically known beautifully lensed films such as Flesh Eater X. It’s shot a standard camera, with no polish at all. This isn’t to say this isn’t a SamHel film because it certainly is, but upon speaking briefly with the man, this seems to be his attempt at making a film that isn’t held to a certain SamHel expectation.
Now They Experience It All the Time… begins with a woman adorned in a see-through fishnet jumper walking through the woods. We see her rummaging through blades of grass to unearth a multi-tool of sorts in which she uses to lop off the tip of her tongue without hesitation. Crimson flows down her fishnet chest. Emanating from the soundtrack is a voice mainly incomprehensible due to being mixed with the sound design.
We continue and our main character is now adorned in an iconic looking turquoise gimp mask. She slowly dances to herself and caresses her body and disrobes amongst her woodland surroundings. Fully nude with nothing but the mask she continues to caress her breasts and ultimately her furry midsection. She continues to frolic into the night sky. Credits roll.
At this point I had lost track of time and genuinely thought the film was over. “This is it?” I thought. I was literally sort of upset with that behind the anticlimactic conclusion. A beginning without any form of substance or finale. Rest assured the film continues after these aforementioned credits…
Cut to our turquoise gimp mask adorned lass who lays on a table. She is breathing and he belly exhibits a large open slit. She begins to reach inside the stomach cavity and removes some gore with pain and what seems like disbelief. She then reaches in her mask and ejects her left eyeball. These sequences continue with another girl tying her up with Japanese rope bondage (Shibari). She now wears a black gimp mask sans the turquoise one.
Some time passes. We are now outside along the bottom of an elevated roadway of some sort. A character (Wolvie IronBear) is seen walking along a wet dirt pathway holding a similar vertical stomach wound as our previous character. This is where I feel the main symbolism and meaning of the film comes from. We see Wolvie’s character, a visually different character than before but it represents a rebirth, and regrowth. Not only a demonstration of the rebirth of the character(s) in the film but an attempted rebirth and regrowth for the director SamHel.
Through this 25-minute short we hear a voice which is often hard to decipher as it’s melded with the soundtrack which is a mix of melodic death metal and what would be like old Skinny Puppy or industrial music. I did manage to understand this quote from the voice: “The has become a prison for the stars and the host of heaven.”
Now They Experience It All the Time… seems to be some sort of statement from director SamHel about his continued growth as a filmmaker in an attempt to not be pigeonholed into what one might expect or demand a “SamHel” film to be.
Overall, Now They Experience It All the Time… plays around with the viewer a little but for SamHel completists this will no doubt inevitably appeal to them. For newcomers I suggest exploring previous films such as Sadistic Pleasures (read review here), or Flesh Eater X prior to this one.
Now They Experience It All the Time… is available now in a limited edition digi-pack blu-ray from A Baroque House.
Directed by: SamHel
Written by: SamHel
Produced by: SamHel, Knotty Peach, Wolvie IronBear
Cinematography by: SamHel
Editing by: SamHel
Music by: Distructer, Olik Nesnan, Dirt Chamber, Blue Onyx Audio
Special Effects by: SamHel
Cast: Knotty Peach, Wolvie IronBear
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Language: English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 25min
Studio: SamHel Productions
Distributor: A Baroque House
