Go Down Death

This is a unique, strange, unforgettable film, a half-remembered dream that will trouble and beguile the subconscious long after you’ve moved on.

Schimberg, in this debut, demonstrates rare assuredness in shooting and staging scenes, coaxing unexpected but true-feeling flourishes from his cast of mostly amateurs blessed with extraordinary faces.

Rather than distressed retro photography, or Guy Maddin mash-up fantasias, the movie’s often deadpan episodes feel like something out of one-act theater

The end result is a bit like a beautiful diorama, in which the people share a common purpose with the furniture: to fill space and look nice.

This film neither really embraces the mechanics of primitive cinema nor creates a coherent syntax of its own.