The Strange, Final Days of Remy (or) Five Mind-Twisting Horror Films

Monday. October 15, 2012

Patient # 11707(B)

Status: Deceased

From the desk of Dr. Caligari

Lovecraft Hospital.

Innsmouth, Ma. 02666

Dear Dr. Pickman,

Upon news of Remy Carreiro’s untimely passing, which is documented here, as well as the rather elaborate plans he had written out for his wake directly before his death, all documented here, we decided to take it upon ourselves to investigate some of the final moments of his life after his subsequent escape from this establishment. We also felt the need to look into some of the factors which may have lead to his (frankly, strange) death. In his apartment, we found various notebooks, in which he documented all the films he had seen in the last few months.  In the final notebook, dated  one week prior to his death, we notice a strange trend with the films he watched. Under each one of the films, he had written the word ” Mindf*ck” in red marker. Pardon our use of crass language, sir, but we feel it best not to filter his stream of consciousness so as to gain better insight into what may have led him down such a dark road. Dr. Vernon thought it best to sit down, in a room void of stimuli, and watch, as well as document, his thoughts about these films and how they may have factored in to Remy’s demise. As I am sure you can understand, these documents need to be handled wit utmost security. What transpired was unexpected at best, but we felt you needed to know. The following are our notes and observations of Dr. Vernon, as well as his notes on thoughts on the films. Be forewarned, sir. It gets quite graphic by the end, as you know. Again, we regret we could not have foreseen this tragedy, but perhaps we can learn from it.

With Utmost Regards,

R.Caligari

Document #17707-A10B.

Status: Sealed

Triangle

We had read about this film before on Unreality, and this may have factored into Remy’s delusion in the final months that he was a “writer” for the Unreality website. He even doctored fake interviews, such as this one, with EIC of Unreality, Paul Tassi. Paul has confirmed for us he has never met, nor spoken with Remy on any occasion. This may also have factored into why he completely abandoned the “Raymond” part of his subconscious entirely and allowed the “Remy” caricature to take the reigns, but that is just an assumption on this writers part, and pardon if it is out of line.

Triangle was a strange movie that dealt with fate and time travel, as well as the idea that certain moments in our lives can be changed if we do things differently. Though, on the surface the film may look like a slasher, it is only upon later reveals that we see that is not the case.  Dr. Vernon seemed truly engrossed with the ideas in the movie, and likened it to The Butterfly Effect for adults.  Though we began to disagree about the ending, which he said was too disjointed (see bird scene for example of this), whereas I thought it glued the whole film together beautifully. We both know Vernon is the lesser of us, anyway. That is why he is in there, watching the films. And we are out here, watching him.

Overall Thoughts: Strange, and dark, but not enough to break someone.

Inland Empire

This film was a bit disjointing, so pardon if this jumps around a bit. Inland Empire is a movie by surreal film legend, David Lynch. While not “horror” in the sense that you would find it on the same shelf as a Friday the 13th movie, it is a horror film in the sense that we can see where it may have helped factor into Remy’s breakdown in those final days before he was crushed by that piano.

The movie stars Laura Dern as actress Nikki Grace, who gets mixed up with some strange people that seem to cause her to dive further and further into a state of madness that the viewer is never really sure is real or just a part of Nikki’s deteriorating mental state. The entire movie is filmed standard definition digital video (meaning it looks like it was shot by someone who is poor and doesn’t know what they are doing), and that frantic visual feel seems to only add the sense of madness that grows throughout the film.

Vernon said this film felt “familiar” to him, and he said he “knows that place” well. He als mentioned twice that his missed the way his old neighbor used to “hug” him when he was a child. Struck this writer as strange. Perhaps these films are bringing something to the surface in Vernon as well, which would indicate what may have happened to Raymond.

Overall Thoughts: Uncomfortably ominous throughout, and could make an unstable person feel even more unstable, as we observed with “Doctor” Vernon.

Rabies

We knew little of this film, but after seeing it, we have begun to rethink following through with all five films. Mental state beginning to feel fatigued. Vernon has begun scribbling in a notebook, and keeps mentioning something about  ” The way this will all end” but I have no idea what that means. I intend to follow up.

( There was some scribbling here that was hard to decipher) unaware this was the first Israeli horror film. There is no set killer in the film. Lines are blurred between who is good and who is evil. Even the name was greatly misleading. Do not expect rabid animals or zombie metaphors. The name of the film comes from the constant waning mental state of every single person in the film, and the insane things they are forced to endure (often as the result of their own poor choices.) By the end of this film, you almost feel victimized yourself, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. Sorry if that sounds unprofessional sir. Vernon was laughing and rocking himself back and forth a bit at times during Rabies.

We allowed him a five minute break between films to recoup, but he just banged on the glass and yelled “next movie, next movie” over and over until we turned it on. His eyes are glassy and he seems disoriented.

Overall Thoughts: Nihilist film making on display here.  Brutal. Unforgiving.Vernon is beginning to crack.  Itching his skin and rocking back and forth. We cannot help but feel this may have factored into Remy’s death, no matter how insignificantly.

(At this point, attempts were made to stop the “experiment”, but Vernon become volatile when we stopped the films, bashing his head off the glass until we started the next movie.)

Yellow Brick Road

Idea behind the film is a whole town in New Hampshire in the 1940’s abandoned their lives and walked off into the mountains never to be seen again. The film follows a crew as they attempt to go up into those same mountains and try to uncover the mystery.  The movie uses sound design more so than any of the other movie he had watched, and you may think you know where this movie is going, but it takes a sharp turn about halfway through that changes the entire tone . It was gory and unsettling in moments, with these people going more and more insane, and Dr. Vernon seeming to be going with them.

The people in the film hear music, that seemingly comes from nowhere, and has various effects on them, (the music of the spheres, perhaps?) almost like a drug. It also seemed to have a rather profound effect on Dr. Vernon, who was looking around the room for things to shove in his ears. Though we had removed most of the stimuli from the room, he had the red marker he was scribbling with, and managed to jam it so deep into his left ear he punctured the ear drum and was inches away from piercing his own brain. Blood was pouring from his ear and we attempted to end the experiment.

We shut the movie off, and Vernon sat down in his chair. When we sent in Dr. Wekser to sedate him, he pulled the marker from his own ear drum and buried it in Dr. Wekser’s left eye, causing him to fall, burying the marker completely in the socket and killing Dr. Weskser. Procedure 314 was upheld by the entire team, and his family has been contacted and compensated to stay quiet.

We sealed the doorway, and proceeded to play the final film, though we already knew the outcome.

Overall Thoughts: Sound design propels this movie, but a weak (but bleak and insane) ending takes away some of the impact. Not recommended for the mentally unstable. At this point, Dr. Vernon has become more akin to an animal than a man, and we cannot help but imagine Raymond (Remy, Patient # 11707 (B)) must have suffered a similar fate.

Beyond The Black Rainbow

There is little we can say about this movie that Remy didn’t already say in his well documented, drug-fueled dissection of the film,

At this point, Dr. Vernon was leaning his face against the screen, weeping. Even us, outside of the glass, watching him, could not help but feel like this had all taken some huge toll on us. Yet, as dark as it was, and as broken as we were, Beyond the Black Rainbow was one of the most visually arresting things I have ever seen in my life. The colors and cinematography of this film feel like a canvas where Stanley Kubrick meets Ridley Scott. And the surreal story of the little girl being held in the lab, treated like an animal, while the man outside of the glass watched her. Observed, laughed at, but never helped. It was profound. Don’t you see that, Dr. Pickman? How profound this all is??!!!

You see, this was the moment where the epiphany hit me. This film, Beyond the Black Rainbow, was a metaphor for us, right now. This journal he wrote for us to find. These movies all laid out. Even his death. There was no death, it was all a set up.  He knew we would look for him after he left. He knew we would look for answers. Vernon is broken,  rocking himself on the floor under the television monitor, rocking in a puddle of his own urine. Dr. Wesker is dead, a red marker jammed into his frontal lobe through his eye socket.

And here I am, sitting, with Remy’s notebook in my lap, and all this blood on my hands. All this blood, everywhere. So much, filling the room. Can’t breathe. What have we done….

Final Synopsis: I am sorry, Dr. Pickman, we failed you. I failed you. Bit I will make up for it. This will not all be in vein.

Time: 11:18 p.m. Tuesday, October 16th.

( This is the point, it is presumed, Dr. Caligari cut his own throat.)

When security had finally gone in to the room to remove the bodies, let it be known there was no television monitor and no movies, like reported in Raymond Caligari’s field notes. And the notebook Dr. Caligari was clutching had the words ” I AM REMY” scrawled at the top of every page in red ink.

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11 Comments

  1. I really disliked the way this article was written. It made you seem extremely full of yourself, and it wasn’t nearly as entertaining as you thought it would be. Oh, that’s another thing: I could almost see you give yourself high fives as you were writing this article. “There is little we can say about this movie that Remy didn’t already say in his well documented, drug-fueled dissection of the film,” is one of the more egregious examples of the shoddy, egocentric writing in this piece.

  2. Wow. GrandWazoo be mad. The internet must be serious business indeed. I can only imagine what a drab place the world would be if every artist and writer had to conform to such vanilla-and-humility-fueled extremes in their work. I actually liked this article more than most, Carreiro. I enjoy the pseudo-pretentious style of writing for entertainment and it very much fit the theme of the the films you were listing.

  3. Dear GrandWazoo,
    Thank you.
    For me to really know the impact of a certain piece, I need there to be haters. The people who want the lists gift-wrapped and handed to them, chock full of pretty pictures. And for the most part, I deliver. But sometimes, I think it necessary to step outside of that box.
    I knew people would hate this piece, just because people have hated most of the “concept” pieces I have done on here, but that is okay. If you think the piece reflects some massive ego, that is fine, too. Perhaps, in the future, I will be able to clone and marry myself. Who’s to say? But the fact that I wrote a piece that was a little but “different”, and got lambasted as a result of that, just tells me I am doing something RIGHT. Some of the best pieces I have read on here (or on the web, in general) are higher concept pieces, like TJ’s Breaking Bad Dr Seuss or Sara’s Silent Hill piece. Thing is, those kind of pieces NEVER get love, but we don’t need them to. WE are proud of them, and enjoyed doing them, and in the end, if it challenged us and made us better writers by our OWN standard, than it is a huge success.
    Again, thank you. Sorry the free service I provide to you is not up to your standard, but I promise my list midweek will be more to your liking.
    And Trashcanman, Of all the voices I expected to defend me on this one (which is to say, none), the last one I expected was yours, which gives it that much more impact. Truly appreciated.

  4. Oh Joy of Joys, Remy has been brought back to life by a overly critical review. Will these wonders never cease?

    As always, You have a fairly good taste in horror, almost always delivers.

    If this was the first thing any of us had ever read of Remy’s writing some critics would have a point, but put this into the context Remy and his cohorts have delivered, fun and informative writing, and above all great suggestions.

  5. I would have to agree with GrandWazoo that this piece was shoddy and poorly written. It read like a short story written by a teenager taking a creative writing class. That is all well and good – not every article or piece is going to be enjoyable.

    But Remy’s response is what was disappointing. If you get lambasted for a piece, you must be doing it right. Really? That is a narcissistic response if I have every heard one; and I’ve worked with psychiatric patients. You seemed like a cool guy and a decent writer initially, but now you seem like a pretentious jerk who can do no wrong.

  6. Thanks Patera and Todd X, that is appreciated.
    Thought I mighta lost everyone on this one.
    To everyone else, honestly, keep it in perspective.
    It is a horror list, for crying out loud.
    I was simply having some fun with it, nothing more.
    Todd hit it on the head with that assessment.
    If a single article can change the way you think of me (and I have written close to a hundred for this site) that is disheartening, to say the least.
    But such is the game, I suppose.
    You are all very much entitled to your opinions, though, and if my response was self-righteous, I apologize.
    Hard not to get defensive, sometimes. I am still working on that.
    Note to self: Stick to the lists.

  7. I have to say Remy, I’ve read most of (if not all of) the creative list articles you’ve posted on Unreality. I find them highly entertaining, hilarious, and a nice touch of something new in a place where everyone is just doing flat out lists.

    So, despite the “haters” and the ones that think you’re full of yourself, please, please keep writing these.

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