User reviews

Okay. This is a tough one. I have a range of emotions after watching this movie, it has proposed a lot to think about, and some critical dilemmas too. Johannes Grenzfurthner has put together a risky, experimental, hard-on-senses eldtrich tale of obsession, desperation and the unexplainable. And all for only 20'000 moneys. It's a hard to love film, but it will find its way to its audience. Spiritually and thematically it has parallels with movies like "Primer" and Darren Aronofsky's "Pi", and also has lovecraftian angles.

The entire film consists of pretty much only close-ups, ranging from a few medium shots to a myriad of extreme macro photography. "Masking Threshold" is pure DIY madness, laid over a dangerously patient, but inventive and equal amounts repulsive and fascinating script. It must've taken a seriously long time to make the script a reality, for the monologue practically never ends, and the shot count seems to be unbelievably high. Additionally, the editing and sound design is very well done and fits the storytelling. There's a video-diaryl/youtube/desktop-film/documentary/POV feel and aesthetic, yes, all of those combined in one. 99% of the character spotlight is only on one, Ethan Haslam playing a character whose name we never learn, but he's aptly named "protagonist" on Imdb. The entire movie is narrated by his diary-like thought process, and the task at hand. He has made a make-shift lab in his apartment, and sets out to find a cure or at least a reason for his insufferable hearing impairment. Our protagonist works in IT, is a huge skeptic, desperate, suffering, and going down a deep and otherworldly rabbit hole... The movie, in a way, remains the same until the culmination, but at the same time shifts and turns constantly. In its first half or less, "Masking Threshold" requires an extra patience in answer to its tepid pacing, and quite quickly I learned this film requires pretty much constant focus and thought. But it all leads into more and more distressing vibes and a hands-down weird, grimy and darkly philosophical final act, which I'll admit kept me glued to the screen. At times "Masking Threshold" feels quite distressing, provocative, even repulsive, both visually and thematically. It's hard to pinpoint just one top message or theme, Grenzfurthner's concoction is a story of delusional obsession, a tale of today's society's madness, a modern Lovecraft story, a frightening presentation of nature itself. Despite all its flaws, this independent micro-budget feat is almost never less than fascinating. Granted, if you're prepared to give a chance to a reasonably unorthodox film that stretches and changes many standards of every day films. It's as indie as it gets. I honestly hadn't really seen a film like this before. For those whose interest might be piqued by the lovecraftian angle, I'll admit that one hour into I couldn't really see why it was gaining this reputation, but later and in the afterthought, I have to say, it is boldly and proudly very much along the lines of H. P. Lovecraft's literature and mythos.

In its extremely small, but eventually so vast feeling world, "Masking Threshold" makes itself as big as it could possible be, and might be one of the most original horror film I've seen, and one that gave the biggest mixed bag of feelings. It's not an easy watch, and I believe there are many turn-downs for many people, but overall it's a beast that I can't help but admire in the most odd of ways. I like movies that make me ponder a lot. Very hard to rate it. My rating: 7/10.

First things first, this isn't really horror per se, but I suppose going insane would be considered horror. This film focuses on senses in every way possible, sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch. It's those senses that intensifies over time and for some, becomes a crutch into self isolation as it turns into psychological paranoia.

The film introduces you into each of these senses with spiraling inner thoughts spoken out as the film goes on, and then leads to full blown insanity that ends in surrender. If you focus on the underlying context without feeling bored, you'll understand why this film plays out this way.

Complete insanity in doses.

As soon as he put the shelves up on the wall during the first 20 seconds of the movie, I knew what I was in for. Close ups, close-ups and more close-ups... one of those "narrative genre film".

Stay away at all cost... unless you like artsi fartsi pretending to be deep Freudianmadness all narrated by an annoying voice for the entire run time. Like someone said earlier - "this may be the most unnerving film that I watched, but it may also be the one that sticks in my head for the longest".-- BUT NOT IN A GOOD WAY.

With zero doubt I can honestly say that this was the most boring film that I have seen this year.

I would rather watch paint dry or grass grow.

Might be a semi-decent podcast, but it's a terrible movie.

It's made out of a series of extreme close ups, most of which don't really have anything to do with what's being said. It's just headache inducing.

Then there's no story and the narration itself is comprised by things you've already seen or heard around the internet.

The concept and visuals are ok, but I would love to see an actual movie of it instead of just the ramblings of a weirdo. It could be kinda Lovecraftian if it wasn't so pretentious.

The fact that 'you haven't seen anything like it doesn't make it good.

The main fault of this thing is that it got old and boring really fast.

The 4 out of 10 I'm giving it is for what could have been.

Wow, so I can't say much without going into spoiler territory but my god this movie is fricking amazing!! I rented it on a streaming site because the trailer looked good, but little did I know how amazing this movie was going to be.

Let me warn you, if you are looking for action you might want to look elsewhere but if you are in the mood for a mental workout then this is your movie. Several things separates this movie for other movies dealing with declining mental states mainly the script, acting and cinematography. The script must have been insane to write. Even when the script gets into scientific minutia it is still compelling enough to keep the layman interested.

The acting is amazing! Basically done in a voiceover, Ethan Haslam does the voice of our main character and he is so compelling that you actually feel his sanity start slipping away.

Shot almost entirely in close up I can't even imagine how this was filmed. If any one of these elements weren't 100% this movie would have failed big time. But everything fit into place and made Masking Threshold a unique and genuinely disturbing movie.

This movie was clearly inspired by Pi (1998), but it's not as good. It's derivative and self-congratulatory to its core and is a natural result of modern art's eventual inclusion of art parodies as actual art without the introspection. The only real creativity, I guess, is including new ways of torturing the audience as an experience. Someone should nominate it for the Turnip award.

It attempts to be immersive by assaulting you with audio frequencies to emulate what the main character is suffering from. Almost all of the audio is the protagonist rambling about conspiracies set to the maddening warbling and oscillating of various frequencies. The video, on the other hand, is almost entirely close up shots of his experiments and pontification. I guess that could be considered as immersive if the main character cooks food with his face 6 inches away from the meat he's cutting. The monologues could have been a GPT-3 ML creation trained on conspiracy and pseudo-science forum posts. Even ignoring all that, I can audibly feel the narrator pushing his glasses up his nose ridge as he mansplains Transformer mating rituals to me. You can't write and direct this sort of thing seriously without being part of it. Imagine sitting down to enjoy a movie only to be subjected to 90 minutes of internal monologue from the most demonstrably unstable comic convention attendees while incoherent video clips flash before your eyes. Occasionally the audio and video are actually related. This type of chaos is deliberate because it forces you to expend maximum effort to follow the film and relies on pattern recognition for viewers to fill in the obvious gaps with their own life experience. And it's a sunk cost by the end of the film, encouraging you to spin the experience positively so you don't bemoan the wasted lifespan.

In the end, the plot and experience of the movie has been sacrificed to the dead art gods in a faustian bargain - trading the viewer's sanity and time for vacuous praise, some hemp shoes and a Trader Joe's gift card. Clearly the director thought it was worth it. Those who, like me, were fooled by the mostly-positive rating are acceptable casualties to the scene. The substance was eviscerated so that the various clown vultures who feast on the corpses of style and good sense can flock over and glut themselves on the empty calories of how much better they are than everyone else.

Films like this are pre-packaged Stockholm Syndrome for the indulgent indie scene. They have to be empty enough that the viewer can completely fill it with their own meaning while having just enough substance to not be a blank sheet of paper. A winning art house film isn't one that makes all the right moves, but one that stays away from the wrong moves and inhibits the inevitable projection of the viewer. Banality is indie perfection. Yes, you can make all sorts of creative analogies to justify its existence. But if you're that easy to please, why not just sit on the floor and amuse yourself with a cardboard box and a dinner roll?

This is a master class on how to waste a clever little gimmick and a very intriguing premise. I got suckered in because this was tagged as "fantasy" - so I was hoping that this (pretentious and deeply unlikable) protagonist's forays into amateur scientific research would yield something that contained even a grain of actual fantasy, or really anything cooler than an hour and a half of him droning on and on...and on.

Good job on the macro videography, I guess. Hence the extra star. Sound design gets a C; for something this reliant on someone's inner world of mysterious aural phenomena, they could have done WAY better than the unimaginative Audacity-generated white noise soundscapes wheezing and whooshing their way through the film's runtime. As a sound designer and musician, I felt personally insulted that someone got paid for this (albeit probably not much).

I have a particular hatred of letdown films. When a film is terrible from the get-go, you can at least turn it off before you invested too much time and attention into it to do so in good conscience. It took almost half of the film for me to realize there is no mind-blowing Cronenbergian payoff, just an incredibly lazy and hackneyed "I don't really have the imagination to carry this into any of the million directions it could have gone, so here's something you've seen executed way better a million times" resolution.

Well, Mr. Grenzfurthner, if I ever encounter you at a social function, I am certain to give you an earful. I will drone on and on about how lame this film was, and how you could have done better. I will pepper my tirade with a bunch of obscure science fiction and fantasy recommendations for you to read and watch, subtly indicating my cultural credibility. Oh, and as I do so, I will get uncomfortably close to your face and study your clogged pores. Then maybe - just maybe! - you will understand what it is like to experience this film as an audience member.

In fact, Mr. Grenzfurthner: the only reason I even bothered to write this review is because I hope you will read it...and promptly feel shame for squandering a legitimately cool premise. Heck, if you actually want to hear my incredibly long laundry list of plot suggestions (or just heckle me for being a jerk), do a web search for "tartar oneira" and find me through my ambient psychedelia project.

An intelligent person goes insane. You witness it. It is fierce, outspoken, harsh, unapologetic.

It is clearly a narrative genre film, but it is also highly experimental and not off-putting. The visuals are stunning, and the sound design is divine. Watch it if you dare.

After watching the first 12 minutes I realized that the rest of the film followed the same pattern. The movie is characterized by repetitive disgusting close-ups. It accompanied by an intense and overwhelming audio track consisting of a mentally ill person's mutterings . It's made as a collection of short, gross videos that might appeal to some but did not resonate with my personal preferences. While the initial minutes of the film were enough to gauge the entire movie's tone, I decided to watch a few random moments close to the end to confirm my suspicions. In conclusion, the movie may suit those who enjoy short, shocking visual experiences, but it might not be a good fit for those who prefer more varied and nuanced films.

I do not know where to start. This is one of the most unique movie experiences I've ever had. A truly astrounding depiction of the descent into madness. Fascinating.

A paranoid tech guy frustrated by his constant tinnitus opens up about his obsessive attempts to cure his debilitating tinnitus through a series of home experiments in a makeshift lab. But as his investigations grow darker and more frightening, a terrible secret behind his desperate condition is revealed - and the possible cure is even darker than he could have ever imagined.

It's an intriguingly intimate experiment in minimalist horror that shows how far a filmmaker can go with a simple premise: to show a man's mental breakdown documented through an online video diary.

As another reviewer said "Imagine sitting down to enjoy a movie only to be subjected to 90 minutes of internal monologue from the most demonstrably unstable comic convention attendees while incoherent video clips flash before your eyes." The movie is a big monologue about going crazy (that´s why obligatory comparisons with telltale heart). And some of it looked good and intriguind, but at some point it entails the question "is this going anywhere"?

At least to me the answer was no, so I kept pressing FF after the bird died. Not because of animal cruelty as it is just implied (I believe they killed a snail if this is too much death for you).

I press FF because it was clear it was not going anywhere. He would kill the bird, then a cat, then the neighbour. That was all the author had to say.

Unfortunately a lot of people tagged this as "lovecraftian" just because of some random mentions of "interdimensional creatures". But this is more evidence that there was not ennough of a story, so we have to fish wherever we can so we can say on the internet "maybe it WAS a lovecraftian story" An strange thing is that the main character is gay. Most of his ravings are very usual of internet mysoginistic Proud boys, ultra right wing, antivax, you won´t take my gun mid 30s straight boys, so I am a little confused about what was the point. Maybe it was a diversity hire. His rant about the attack on the gay bar in florida also have no conneciton to anything I saw I personally think that this is another evidence the authors had a main concept, but not exactly clear how to get there.

A nerd struggles with the world and his own sanity.

Clearly a narrative genre film, but also highly experimental and engaging. Stunning cinematography for an indie film, and the sound is divine (or hellish?) Lovecraftian terror done right.

Caught Masking Threshold front row center balcony at Nightmares Film Festival a few days ago. A stunning film and easily my favorite of the entire fest. It was a wild ride on the big screen. Captivating from start to finish. Super anxious for another watch Highly recommended.

This is a masterful piece of movie making, reminiscent of Poe's The Telltale Heart. A horror ASMR film with a faceless protagonist describing his efforts to prove his sanity. In fact, what we see as an audience is a detailed decent into madness. The brutality and delusions continue to escalate as the movie moves along. I entered in to this experience with no idea of what i was in for. This was a nice surprise. However, this film is nor for everyone. I'm trying to just describe the feeling of this film without ruining it for that 1in 5 person that will love it. The plot description says all you need to know going in.

MASKING THRESHOLD is a multilayered macro look at insanity itself. A Lovecraftian true maddening turn at obsession to the point of no longer being able to see logic. A Film that truly makes you feel like your are losing your mind by way of masterful audio alone. #FantasticFest.

Watched this horror masterpiece at Saskatoon FF.

Brilliant script, brilliant camera, brilliant sound... at a budget of 20k (!!!). Incredible. I recommend to check it out. Hope it will get distribution soon.