I’m doing something a little different tonight. Day 5’s movie is a Martin Scorsese short. And by short, I mean it is six minutes long. The description reminds me of some of the graphic horror I read. The fact that it was made in 1967 intrigues me. Because it is so short, I will skip the real time reactions and just share my thoughts at the end.

That was…I don’t even know. It begins with a few shots of different parts of the bathroom. It’s all white and chrome, fairly clean but clearly someone’s bathroom, not a stage. A young man walks in, looks at himself in the mirror, and takes off his shirt. He has barely a hint of stubble, but he opens the medicine cabinet and takes out his trusty razor and shaving cream and gets to it. He shaves, applies more shaving cream, and shaves again. And again. And he just keeps shaving. At first, there are a few nicks. By the end, he is covered in blood. Blood is everywhere. And it just fades to red.

So what the hell did I just watch? Like I said, it reminds me of some of the body horror I like to read. I read that some folks interpret it as a Vietnam war metaphor. I am not well versed enough to expand on that, but I feel like this will be tomorrow’s rabbit hole. You wouldn’t think a six minute film about a guy shaving would be as unsettling as it is. I was on the edge of my seat, clenching with every next swipe of the razor. I really liked this short.