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DIRECTED BY: Steve Oram
FEATURING: Steve Oram, Tom Meeten, Julian Rhind-Tutt
PLOT: In an alternative society where people behave like primates, an exiled alpha male, along with his beta companion, attempts to return home and reestablish his dominance.
COMMENTS: Is the entirety of human civilization nothing but a facade, camouflage for our authentically animalistic behavior? That’s what Steve Oram’s low-budget DIY feature debut seems to suggest. Aaaaaaah strips humans of their cultural wrappings.
Our story starts in an archaic and archetypal manner, recalling Odysseus ‘s return to Ithaca. An alpha male, exiled in a forest along with his companion/follower, attempts to find his way back home and regain his former position as the dominant male of the pack. This is a narrative of power plays in their most basic and primal form. Dialogue is absent and behavior is totally unfiltered. Wild instincts govern everyone’s actions. You can expect crude violence, with B-movie special effects, and a few disgusting segments immersed in bodily fluids and secretions. It stays focused on the main plot, for the most part, though introducing some twists later on and employing a few flashbacks in the process. Once it strays from our protagonists, following the younger of the pack’s females in a short escapade to showcase similarly barbaric social dynamics in other aspects of this society.
Oram gives special emphasis to the types of media these monkey-people consume. The media landscape portrayed in Idiocracy is sophisticated in comparison. The film mirrors our own world in a distorted way, revealing how entertainment services our lizard brains: in other words, the animals within us.
The soundtrack is comprised of accordingly simple melodic tunes, and a few more nostalgic, sensual or playful ones, creating a dissonance with the depraved segments usually accompanying them.
All in all, despite its extravagance and over-the-top moments, this movie doesn’t revel in shock value, but honestly strives to underline the way archaic instincts hide behind even the most civilized social dynamics.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY: