This is a supernatural-surrealistic story, in which the murder of a close person spawns an endless nightmare for the soul of the one who did the deed

SYNOPSIS:

A brief introduction:

This short subject is an action-packed, dynamic, phantasmagoric story that combines several genres: horror, supernatural, and dramatic. It is the story of two people who once loved one another and subsequently lost the main thing that held them together – their love. A world without love is doomed to destruction. Their lives become filled with the spirit of an alien, occult world, which impels one of them to commit a crime against the other. And a crime against a person close to you is above all a crime against your own soul.

Synopsis:

George and Loraine were in love at one time. But love needs tending and nurturing. They clearly didn’t have enough strength to maintain their love, and it withered away. Now all that remains of the love they once shared are souvenirs such as old videotapes. But the distorted images of the run-down television set on which they are played make the recordings seem even more ghostly. George has fallen into alcoholism and no longer works.

As the film begins, George is seated on the opposite side of the room from the television, watching an old show. Then his wife Loraine enters the apartment. They have not seen each other for a week. They begin to fight.

In an outburst of rage, Loraine slices the cable to the television with a knife. Mysteriously, the television picture does not disappear, but Loraine does vanish from George’s field of vision. George is surprised but continues to watch the screen. The old show he likes to watch has been replaced by some strange broadcast that he can’t escape, though he changes channels. On the screen appear a man and a woman, first wandering around a vacant lot, then down deserted streets. They are holding a strange conversation, at times apparently addressing George. They end up at a massive metal gate; they open the gate and enter a space familiar to George. George recognizes it as his bedroom. At that moment he feels paralyzed, unable to move. Two ghostly figures appear behind his back and dig their fingers into his head, as though penetrating his consciousness. Blinded by the pain, George leaps to his feet. The ghosts disappear, and now George sees Loraine standing in front of him. Then he sees in his own hands a bloody knife and sees Loraine falling onto the floor. His demented state gives way to exhaustion. George once more finds himself in his recliner, facing the television set. After regaining his senses somewhat, he gulps whiskey from a bottle on the floor near his feet, and looks at the screen again. The images are of the videotapes taken years earlier, when he and Loraine were happy together. Then he sees Loraine, entering the apartment again. The circle is closed, setting the stage for yet another repetition of the old pain, condemning the murderer’s soul to the eternal torment of a guilty conscience.

The concept:

Human life on Earth is sadly still full of strife and loneliness. Like a worn-out phonograph record that is stuck, people make the same mistakes over and over. The mistakes go around in an endless circle, like the images of a cheap television show. Without love, this world becomes a senseless nightmare, resembling the distorted world of the film’s broken television set.

DISTORTIONS OF AN OLD TV