Alice (1988) aka Neco Z Alenky

4 / 5

Tagline: N/A

Directed By: Jan Svankmajer

Written By: Lewis Carroll, Jan Svankmajer

Actors Include: Kristyna Kohoutova, Camilla Power

Genre: Art House, Fantasy, Animation, Horror

Length: 86 minutes

Banned: nope

Country: Czechoslovakia/Switzerland/UK/West Germany

Review:

How in the hell do I describe this. Firstly do NOT let your children or anyone impressionable watch this, although it's not bloody or filled with breasts it's filled with extremely disturbing imagery. The kind that causes nightmares and that will never leave your head. I'm actually really perplexed as to whom this film was aimed at but I guess I'll just try and view it as a surrealist impression of "Alice In Wonderland". The story is similar although this time there is extremely little explanation. The characters really only talk through Alice (and we just see close ups of her mouth narrating when something must be said) which some claim as annoying but I didn't find it distracting or anything. It's really more one surrealistic nightmare filmed after the next, and it's an interesting mix of stop-motion taxidermed dead animals mixed with a real life Alice and some animation. The rabbit for example clearly was a rabbit in real life, but the eyes are buggy and cartoony, what is unnerving is the way his bone jaw clatters. He also keeps his stopwatch INSIDE his chest, so he bleeds sawdust (as does everything in this movie when it needs to bleed) continually. I was at least compelled to watch it the whole way through because it is disturbing and creepy (especially the big skulled thing with the alligator body). I was a bit let down by the ending though as the card sequences were acted out with plain playing cards, something more strange would have been nicer, but everything else is super strange so I guess that will have to do. I don't know if I can recommend this, but if you like bizarre cinema then you will want to give this a try.