Never quite coheres in the same way as Camp’s earlier Highway Hypnosis does for me - the moody art movie (sorry - video!) that gets super granular about transactional and immaterial modes of communication (so many one-sided phone calls, snatches of broadcast TV, quick shots of money or information exchanging hands) jars against the charming hijinx and the frankly completely outlandish parody of gay panic at the heart of the serial killer narrative here (the brief sequence where our brooding protagonist is haunted by the notion that a straight man could enjoy a homosexual experience… lmao); obviously that friction is a big part of the point, but I find it a bit tough to sink my teeth into. Granted, that friction is pretty much exactly what I’ve seen every time I’ve been lucky enough to hear Ken speak on his life and work, so maybe my only note here is that no SOV slasher has any right to be a second over 89 minutes!
jessica_gz4.0
This was more than I could have ever known it to be. A perfect ken CAMP slasher film, with a whole mini movie packed in the middle when we get even more perfect comedic relief from Laura. The killer is so scary, and watching this at whammy while glen meadmoore walked around and then was allowed to leave was even scarier.
catboycount
it's curious how immediately cannons are formed, or at least how easily I am influenced by other people's opinions. When I first heard of Ken Camp, it was from a handful of letterboxd mutuals raving reviews of Highway Hypnosis after it's whammy analog screening put on by Liz Purchell. From reading those reviews I knew right away that it would be right up my alley. I watched them and scheduled a double feature for Highway Hypnosis and As The World Burns through Muscle Distribution as quickly as I could without even watching this feature simply because it was the one everyone seemed to like a little less. I run into this ridiculous mistake all the time recently, putting a movie on the backburning all for one or two less than ecstatic reviews. Anywho, having watched Camp's two previous features a couple times now, he is unquestionably a new favorite director, and I knew I had to check out his other available feature. Had I known this movie would tackle two of my favorite cine-kinks, obscene phone calls and cross dressing killers, I would have jumped on it in a heartbeat. Mantra picks up perfectly where Highway Hypnosis left off. For fans of Camp's two earlier movies, you'll quickly recognize a couple familiar faces (and one familiar voice) Mantra is much larger in scope, doubling the runtime, exploring a more coherent narrative and script. The story begins with an art experiment, a strange hotline run by Kenny Martinez where he captures strangers' confessions on the phone. These phone calls grow more and more disgusting, piquing Kenny's morbid curiosity but driving away his horrified girlfriend, Jill. Like Jeffrey Beaumont in Blue Velvet (or perhaps a more pertinent comparison, the equally perverse phone-based voyeur tale, Sato's Kyrie Eleison) Kenny's obsession with this mystery leads him deeper into danger and his own tortured conscious, as revealed in several hypnotic nightmare montages. This slasher styled story is nested in a sweet hetero romance with Laura played by Robin K Smith, one of the familiar faces from As The World Burns and easily my favorite part of this movie. She is easily the best actor on screen, the lunch in the park being a standout. And her wardrobe is to die for. Mingling these stories together creates a similar effect to As The World Burns, an absurd, elevated take on gay panic tropes (the aforementioned cross dressing killer) shown through the lens of a "safe" manic-pixie-dream-girl type love story. Camp's constantly moving camera and wordless, hypnotic (there's that word again!) montages are just as potent as in Highway Hypnosis, this time taking to the streets in city movie fashion rather than a highway bound, road movie. The main difference is, there's also a whole other hour of NOT that, which it seems to be most people's main complaint. I hope as Camp's work screens more that this movie gets as big an audience as Highway Hypnosis. If you liked that movie there is a lot you'll get out of this one as Camp continues his experiments in editing as well as exploring new territory in his filmmaking.When these movies get home video treatment, as I hope they eventually do, this is the one I'm most interested in learning more about. From other reviews it looks like I missed a Q&A with Camp and Glen Meadmore who plays the instantly iconic killer. Hope to meet Camp someday, and excited to watch his two shorts as soon as I can!
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Common questions
What is Mantra about?+
An artist in Los Angeles who operates a telephone confessional line becomes drawn into the life of a bizarre serial killer.
Who directed Mantra?+
Ken Camp, a filmmaker known for his contributions to the 1990s queer underground cinema movement, directed this 1992 film.
