ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Perry writes for the film websites Gruesome Magazine, The Scariest Things, Horror Fuel and Diabolique Magazine; for the film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope and Drive-In Asylum; and for the pop culture websites When It Was Cool and Uphill Both Ways. He is also one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast and can occasionally be heard as a cohost on Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast.

In the mood for a highly visual, mind-twisting horror film that is short on dialogue and leaves viewers plenty on which to mull over? Then look no further than writer/director Steffen Geypen’s Belgian shocker logger.

Based on Jean de la Fontaine’s 1668 fable “Death and the Logger,” Geypen’s film opens with a logger (Pieter Piron) stumbling across a mutilated body in the forest, which makes him catatonic on the spot. A forester (Jurgen Delnaet) and doctor (Maya Sannen) investigate, a jogger (Mil Sinaeve) crosses their path, and Death (Mona Lahousse) comes calling.

Geypen shows the unfolding events from different perspectives, some of them free of or short on dialogue, leaving viewers to chew on the surreal occurrences and piece together what’s happening. The visuals range from gorgeous to graphic and unsettling — the latter includes some extreme close-ups of bloodletting — all captured marvelously by cinematographer Jens Vanysacker.

Aficionados of strange cinema — including those with a fondness for the work of David Lynch, Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel, and the like — and other adventurous viewers will find plenty to be keen on here. logger is a dark fable that unsettles and mystifies, and it is bound to stick with viewers long after it finishes.

This movie was part of the Another Hole in the Head film festival, which provides a unique vehicle for independent cinema. This year’s festival takes place from December 1st – December 18th, 2022. Screenings and performances will take place at the historic Roxie Cinema, 4 Star Theatre and Stage Werks in San Francisco, CA. It will also take place On Demand on Eventive and live on Zoom for those who can not attend the live screenings. You can learn more about how to attend or watch the festival live on their Eventlive site. You can also keep up with all of my AHITH film watches with this Letterboxd list.