A Beast in a Jungle

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The Oregonian

Calvin Lee Reeder's The Oregonian is one of the strangest films I've seen in a long time. If you were to put the shiny shotgun to my head that True Blood's Lindsay Pulsipher totes around for a good portion of the film and forced me to describe it I would say imagine Eraserhead's baby grows up to be a normal looking woman who takes a Walkabout after a car crash and finds herself in Dante's Inferno accompanied by her own Virgil in an Oscar the Grouch costume (or maybe he's a fuzzy Gumby whose head has been caved in?). Still, that would leave out the scary lady, the excrutiating noises, the vomiting, the blond man and much, much more.

The Oregonian is slow, genuinely scary at moments, and populated with some of the creepiest characters you've ever seen onscreen who shouldn't be but are. It's just plain weird and I would say it's destined for cult status. Maria Gostrey, if there was ever a movie that had your name all over it, this is it. I think I want to see it again. The next screening at Another Hole in the Head is Thursday, June 16,  at 7:20 PM.