Der Puppengeiger, presented by Hypnagogia Films, is an interesting short film along the strange realms of the Surreal Fairy tale genre. The story of a masked dreamer, who has a dream of a robed woman and is allured by her beauty and mystery to follow. The next morning, while out for a day at the circus, he sees the very same woman, and peruses her as she flees. Taking on a quest through the odd dreamland between the sleep and the awake, known as Hypnagogia, ruled by the terrible being, Narcoloth who ever haunts our world and feeds on our creativity, the masked dreamer eventually descivers that his mystery woman is none other than the notorious Mephisto, bringing him to sign his soul in return for the master instrument and creative talent. From high, moonlit towers, to great cliffs, to old, archaic ruins, we are presented with a film that seeks the period of 1920’s silent film making, and by all means, achieves it quite well. I was asked actually by a friend of mine whether the film was simply a period piece in its style, or an actual film from the 1920’s era that had just been dusted and remastered. Honestly if I were the film maker, I imagine I would find that as quite the compliment. The film pulls its atmosphere off so well, with a good soundtrack, excellent cinematography, and wonderful visual effects working in the black and white/silent median that one cant help but think, “my my, this is cinema-experimentalism at its beginning.”
Hypnagogia (and its design company, Mind I Productions) has its fingers in various other projects coming up (One notably entitled, “Patient 3”, form the U.K) promising a most bizarre, styalistic look at film and its affiliations.
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The Eldritch Gazette, May, 2006