DACRYPHILIA + HEMATOLAGNIA **** USA 2019 Dir: Shane Ryan, Lilith Singson. 7 mins
The prolific Shane Ryan is no stranger to controversy having made the Amateur Porn Star Killer trilogy to name the most known of his films. Shane Ryan’s short film DACRYPHILIA + HEMATOLAGNIA plays like the twisted visions of a biblical nightmare. Broken into two chapters “Her Life, Her Death” the 7-minute experimental film has gorgeous cinematography with shots that are layered with symbolism of a broken mind clawing to understand its own identity. Using the motifs of sexual fetish Tears (Dacryphilia) and Blood (Hematolagnia) as a way of exploring identity make this short film much more than the sum of its parts.
Lilith Singson & Lilly Montano are just magnetic in their respective roles of the tortured and lost souls searching to find self. Shane Ryan’s cinematography beautifully suits the dark tones of the exploratory journey of inner conflict perfectly. DACRYPHILIA + HEMATOLAGNIA is not a journey made for mainstream audiences or is it a film that gives you answers, this is a film that throws images at you and allows you to decipher your own meaning as all good arthouse/experimental film should do. My only reservation is I feel this film would have benefitted with more prolonged character interactions to show the psychological connections between them, but that is a small reservation as I completely enjoyed slipping into the darkness and found the journey worthwhile. So, if you like dark experimental short films I urge you to watch DACRYPHILIA + HEMATOLAGNIA.
Review by Kemal Yildirim
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