SUBHYSTERIA TRAILER

NYC "straphangers" are left with nowhere to go and plenty of time to get there.

SubHysteria is a 92-minute feature that was aptly helmed by award-winning filmmakers Leonard Zellg and Javier Perez-Karam, with a production team largely composed of U.S.-based Venezuelan nationals. The project is a co-production between EO Agency and EGG 7 Films, and undertaken as a completely unscripted and improvised film, and a sort of homage to John Cassavetes’ 1959 French New Wave independent classic ‘Shadows.’

In subHysteria we are briefly introduced to a rapid succession of regular folk starting out their day as banally as possible, albeit with their own distinct set of life preoccupations as they descend into the proverbial belly of the beast. But no matter what inner demon each harbors, fate has funneled them all to this moment in time, destined to face and experience the same singular horrific voyage together. How they will emerge out the other end, if at all, is the truly suspenseful part of the film.

Part of subHysteria's strength lies in the fact that the environment —an ordinary subway car—becomes a central character in the film, and no less so than the Great White shark was in JAWS, enveloping and all-consuming. It's safe to say that comparisons will be made (if only here, now, and first) with the biblical tale of Jonah and the Whale, a parable about a persons's voyage into the unknown, re-discovery of self, and emergence into a new consciousness.

The organic feel of the performances was facilitated by the fact that the 16 actors who make up the cast were only provided with the premise of the film and their specific character's backstory. During production each actor was given the parameters of the scene being shot, but non of the actors knew any details about another character in the film. In addition to the method of being thrown into a situation with limited information and a set of dire circumstances served as the catalyst for the rawness that jumps off the screen, three HD cameras were employed at all times to capture the frenetic action that ensued.

Kudos must be given to the project's cinematographer Philip Armand and camera operator Ryan Uzilevsky, whose hand-held and sometimes staccato camera work anchors the film right where it should be - at the core grip of our collective spines. The lighting too is organic to the nature of the piece, seemingly only lit via the practical lighting found in the subway car. A wise choice was also made to keep the tunnel just outside in stark darkness, for it too, provides a secondary threat that seems to crush the walls of the subway car inward (think The Blob).

As of this review, the filmmakers continue in their hunt for a distributor / producer rep / sales rep here in the U.S.. The film is scheduled to premiere in Venezuela April 30, 2010.

Leonard Zelig and Javier Perez-Karam have hit the horror nerve on the head with this suspenseful journey to nowhere. If you suffer from claustrophobia this film is gonna get you where it hurts!

You'll never look at a Metrocard the same way again...