Omeleto | ATTACHED | Omeleto @Omeleto | Uploaded February 2023 | Updated October 2024, 1 day ago.
A student is obsessed with his phone.
ATTACHED is used with permission from Xingyu Chen. Learn more at https://xingyu-chen.com.
Theo is a young college student, and like many young people, his smartphone is his constant companion. He's on it all the time, whether he's in class, in his kitchen making breakfast or hanging out in his room playing games. It's interfering with his normal life, but Theo just can't put his phone down.
But when Theo faces the possibility of academic failure and humiliation, his only chance at turning it all around is his performance on a final exam. Despite the pressure and the warnings from his mysterious online girlfriend Iris, he's convinced he can pass with the help of his phone. But on the eve of the exam, he develops a horrific side-effect of his cell phone obsession that threatens his possibility of success.
Written and directed by Xingyu Chen, this compelling horror short begins as a subdued, almost workaday portrait of a fairly typical college student in the university environment. Rendered in a soft, even drab naturalism, the visuals are drained of bright colors and rich tonality, often framing Theo as an abstract, sometimes distant object in his own life. The brightest, most vivid light comes from Theo's smartphone, which is the focus of much of his attention.
The storytelling builds up Theo's unhealthy obsession, building scenes of ordinary life -- brushing his teeth, eating meals -- but always with his phone. But small odd details start to creep into this life, starting from the strange cuts he keeps getting on his fingers to the "girlfriend" he still hasn't met but talks to on the phone all the time. The disquieting atmosphere builds as well, particularly with increasingly pressurized pacing and an effectively eerie electronic score that gives the sense that all is not what it seems in this world.
Actor David Vi Hoang plays Theo as the point of amiable but self-absorbed normalcy in an increasingly fraught situation until he finally awakens to the fact that his cell phone addiction is indicative of something more malevolent at work. But by then, his device has a hold on him, hurling both Theo and the viewer into a fascinating, morbid conclusion.
This ending, along with the deft writing and directing, helps ATTACHED straddle both horror and sci-fi genres in examining our collective reliance on mobile devices. It's horrific in taking this attachment to devices to its logical extreme, and it's also thought-provoking in showing how our perpetual distraction blinds us to the insidious nature of addiction in the first place.
A student is obsessed with his phone.
ATTACHED is used with permission from Xingyu Chen. Learn more at https://xingyu-chen.com.
Theo is a young college student, and like many young people, his smartphone is his constant companion. He's on it all the time, whether he's in class, in his kitchen making breakfast or hanging out in his room playing games. It's interfering with his normal life, but Theo just can't put his phone down.
But when Theo faces the possibility of academic failure and humiliation, his only chance at turning it all around is his performance on a final exam. Despite the pressure and the warnings from his mysterious online girlfriend Iris, he's convinced he can pass with the help of his phone. But on the eve of the exam, he develops a horrific side-effect of his cell phone obsession that threatens his possibility of success.
Written and directed by Xingyu Chen, this compelling horror short begins as a subdued, almost workaday portrait of a fairly typical college student in the university environment. Rendered in a soft, even drab naturalism, the visuals are drained of bright colors and rich tonality, often framing Theo as an abstract, sometimes distant object in his own life. The brightest, most vivid light comes from Theo's smartphone, which is the focus of much of his attention.
The storytelling builds up Theo's unhealthy obsession, building scenes of ordinary life -- brushing his teeth, eating meals -- but always with his phone. But small odd details start to creep into this life, starting from the strange cuts he keeps getting on his fingers to the "girlfriend" he still hasn't met but talks to on the phone all the time. The disquieting atmosphere builds as well, particularly with increasingly pressurized pacing and an effectively eerie electronic score that gives the sense that all is not what it seems in this world.
Actor David Vi Hoang plays Theo as the point of amiable but self-absorbed normalcy in an increasingly fraught situation until he finally awakens to the fact that his cell phone addiction is indicative of something more malevolent at work. But by then, his device has a hold on him, hurling both Theo and the viewer into a fascinating, morbid conclusion.
This ending, along with the deft writing and directing, helps ATTACHED straddle both horror and sci-fi genres in examining our collective reliance on mobile devices. It's horrific in taking this attachment to devices to its logical extreme, and it's also thought-provoking in showing how our perpetual distraction blinds us to the insidious nature of addiction in the first place.
