Slamdance Film Review: Caterwaul

Events

 Caterwaul

Slamdance Film Festival
Director: Ian Samuels
As with a lot of short films, you are fed bizarre stories with even stranger characters. Caterwaul is no exception. It is the story of an old man who fishes for lobsters off the coast of Massachusetts, but that’s where things get weird. He decides to keep a normal looking lobster pulled from the ocean, and takes it back home, where the man lives a lonely and simple life. The lobster quickly begins to transform into a human-like creature, which resembles the old man himself. As the lobster continues to grow, the old man must decide what to do with his new, ugly friend. This is one of the more bizarre shorts I’ve seen at Slamdance, but the director, Ian Samuels, still manages to convey a lot of emotion in it. There isn’t a lot of dialogue, but Samuels does a great job capturing the gloomy sky of Cape Cod, which adds a dark tone to the film. However, due to the nature of the characters, the film is a bit slow at times, and at the end, you are left trying to make complete sense of what you just saw.