A man wakes up beside a set of train tracks and then walks into a strange and unrecognizable small town in Chris Esper’s surreal short film Undertaker.
It’s always great when one of Chris Esper’s latest offerings lands on our desks in the Screen Critix office. We have been reviewing Esper’s works for quite a few years now, and it has been fascinating to see the filmmaker grow with skill and confidence with each film. Now the director, who created the likes of Still Life, Please Punish Me, The Deja Vuers, and Undatement Center is back with one of his most polished works to date.
Photographed in stunning black and white, Undertaker begins with a man (Dustin Teuber) waking up in a suit, and beside some train tracks. Once he has managed to get to his feet, he approaches another man, credited as the Passenger (Justin Thibault) seemingly waiting for a train. The man, who claims to be the titular undertaker, starts a conversation with the passenger, who seemingly knows him.
Once the strange conversation ends, the undertaker then walks over to a diner, where he first bumps into another man who states he recognizes and says “you finally made it” to him, before walking away. Then inside the diner, he is met by a female customer (Jen Drummond). Like the others, she too says she knows the undertaker, though he recognizes none.
She soon leads him out and through some woods to a car with a driver (Kris Salvi), where he s given a gun and told he needs to complete the job. What job this is, is anyone’s guess, but the undertaker finally starts to understand everything that has happened and that is happening.
If the description of the plot is confusing, well that’s because the short is. Or it has been shot and presented in such a way, that it is left for the audience to come up with their own conclusions. Some potential viewers may be put off with watching something that doesn’t have a simple-to-understand structure, but we for one enjoyed it. After all, you don’t need to spell everything out for the viewer all the time.
With Undertaker, Chris Esper has dug deep and released his inner David Lynch, with thanks to screenwriter Kris Salvi (yes, the one who played the aforementioned driver). Like a Lynch film, things can be a little hard to follow, but if you stick with it, the final result can be very rewarding. As for Esper, as we stated, he keeps growing and growing as a filmmaker, and it is a true pleasure to witness.
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