Blattaria opens with a definition of the term that gives the film its title: Blattaria - experimental pill extracted from a species of cockroach (blatta orientalis) and acting as a strong antidepressant.
Selected for the 2016 edition of The Optical Theatre Film Festival, Blattaria (Belgium/France - 2016) received several nominations ("Best Short," "Best Director," "Best Actor" (Thomas Barraud), "Best Cinematography" and "Best Music") as well as the award for "Best Short Film."
Written and directed by newcomer Thomas Pantalacci, Blattaria is a 24-minute short film in the drama/horror genre. Specifically, it is an engaging and peculiar body horror in which the main character Theo (Thomas Barraud) will undergo a strange metamorphosis. To counteract it he will have to take "Blattaria," a powerful experimental drug.
Thomas Pantalacci makes a great debut in the directing booth with an incredible short film, a concentrate of pure aesthetics. The title and the "metamorphosis" hinted at in the plot might suggest a film adaptation of the famous short story "The Metamorphosis" by Frank Kafka. The film is certainly an homage to it but enjoys a story that incites curiosity and at the same time anguish. Blattaria arouses astonishment precisely because it is far from predictable.
In Blattaria, what we witness is a slow psychological and physical decay of which Theo (Thomas Barraud) is the victim. The atmosphere, made oppressive by a cold cinematography (Sacha Perrin-Bayard), taints the entire duration of the film by enveloping a suffering character in withdrawal (due to not taking the drug). Tormented by monstrous hallucinations and excruciating physical pain, the character of Blattaria, brilliantly played by Thomas Barraud, Is the fulcrum around which a story revolves On the pain of a terrified and dejected man.
The pessimism that pervades the entire film and the state of neglect in which the victim finds himself refers back to recent films such as Thanatomorphose by Eric Falardeau or to Red Krokodil By Domitian Christopharo. The conclusion of Blattaria, unimaginable, is brilliant and has the power to leave the viewer bewildered.
However, the film is not only about suffering and metamorphosis but also about violence and blood. The murders, very effectively done (special makeup effects by David Scherer), are vicious and carried out with an unusual modus operandi. As in any self-respecting body horror then, there is no shortage of various bodily fluids.
Perfect music (Frédéric Charlot and Olivier Charlot) that mirrors a murky and dramatic situation.
Also in the cast are Pascal Leduc, Adrian Conquet, Joris Conquet, Béatrice Fauré and Manon Bonnet.
