Watch The Contraption For Free

Please don't spend money on this.

A lot of fun.

A Brilliant Conflict

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

"The Contraption" is a British 8-minute short film written and directed by James Dearden. It was his very first work as a filmmaker and he was still in his 20s here. His most notable effort later on was the Academy Award nominated script from "Fatal Attraction". "The Contraption" is probably a horror movie. It is fairly atmospheric, but I cannot say I found it really scary. The eerie music just isn't enough. Certainly the machine and physics are more in the center of the film than the man who builds the contraption. The biggest award that this film won was actually from my hometown#s film festival. Yet I cannot really agree with them on this one. The ending somehow elevates the material, but I still cannot recommend it. Didn't think this was a particularly interesting watch. Not recommended.

Happily, I was able to view this award-winning short online.A man constructs a contraption while surrounded by pitch black darkness. A musical saw wavers out a tune on the soundtrack. Contrary to one description I've read, I did not see or hear his wife berating him while he was doing this. The end might come as a surprise, but probably not. The one line of dialog at the end suggests why the contraption might have been built, but for the most part we are left wondering who the characters were and what their lives were like and why it ended this way.I wonder what Dearden's other short films are like?

I saw this long forgotten gem on the old late night cable show Night Flight, on US television back in the late 1970s. It played once or twice and that was the only place I ever saw it.Without spoiling it all I can say is it is well done. A gentleman retires to his basement workshop and continues on a project building an unknown object. His wife continually berates the man, unseen but heard from the top of the stairs all the while. In the end, he finds his escape in "The Contraption".Richard O'Brien was a hot commodity then as the Rocky Horror Picture Show was at perhaps it's peak here in the Midwest. Tim Curry went on to do a few albums and several more mainstream films like Clue here in the US. I owned a copy of his album Read My Lips. Susan Sarandon became quite big and Barry Bostwick made a name again with Spin City years later.If anyone out there knows where I can beg, borrow, buy or otherwise find a copy of this short, please e-mail me. [email protected] should get to me.

This short film is one of my personal favorites to watch. It is well-shot, the atmosphere dingy and oppressive, and a natural tension builds as you watch "Man" (Richard "God" O'Brien) build his mysterious "Contraption". There is next to nothing to distract you, no dialogue, save a voice-over at the very end of the film, so you find yourself pulled into the world of the character for its duration.I'd recommend it to anyone, not only O'Brien fans, but to them of course, it is indeed a MUST.