At first, I was stalled by how slow discordant the pacing of this seemed. Something was off. The silence felt empty, rather than intentional, the pacing stilted, the actors speaking past one another. Then came the climax of the first segment -- canted angles, freeze frames, slow motion, discombobulated sound mismatched to action -- and later, jump cuts, hidden edits, matte paintings, kabuki, vibrant colors, illusions, mirages, ghosts.
And I realized this film takes on the nightmare logic of sleep paralysis: not quite awake, not quite asleep, as the frightening uncanny closes in around you slowly, no escape.
