What a terrific delight. A friend recommended this gem of a film to me. I'm not a big sci-fi sort of guy so I had some hesitation. I quickly got into it. I felt this film was timely given the world's current state of affairs. My wife had to point out to me this was shot in one location. This film was so good I hadn't noticed. The acting was top notch coupled with a solid story. I most certainly give this film two thumbs up!
15 Reviews
Claustrophobic
jeffhoukal18 October 2018
Trapped in a room, at first it seems like Saw, but the violence is removed and replaced with a deeper psychological violence. The acting is descent, camera work is spot on, my major complaint would be the weak sound which is almost indescribable at times.
A memorable piece of art!
ruddycarpio28 August 2018
This film is truly unique, very hard to describe it and compare it with other films because it is on its own category. From one side you have the impression to be looking at a painting depicting the society we live in, and then there is some elements of Sci-Fi and there is a twist. This masterpiece really blown my mind, for an excellent job!
DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME!!!!!!!!!!
martinsean-3672914 August 2019
I want to save as many people as I possibly can from wasting part of their life on this garbage. I have literally never left a review for anything in my entire life, but I feel like I have to for this movie. I made this account just to write this review. That is how much I despise it. This movie was complete trash. It makes you wait 1 hour and 10 minutes for a twist ending that makes little sense. It's a huge waste of time. I just hope if you see this review, still decide to watch the movie, and come to the same conclusion as I have that you also leave a review to try and save others from wasting a portion of their lives. If it were possible I would give it 0 stars but unfortunately 1 is the lowest that you're allowed to give. In all honesty this was probably the WORST movie that I have ever seen in my life, and I have seen some pretty horrible movies. Like I said, I HAVE LITERALLY NEVER LEFT A REVIEW FOR ANYTHING IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!! For this movie I felt like it was my duty. If you're thinking about watching it, I hope that you come across this first. Again, if you're unfortunate enough to watch this movie and you find it as terrible as I did PLEASE leave a review as well!!! WE NEED TO SAVE EVERYONE THAT WE POSSIBLY CAN FROM WASTING PART OF THEIR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A lot of tension in this film.
jimlewisjr29 March 2020
The viewer and the cast are disoriented for much of this film. The story reminds me a bit of the Twilight Zone episode 15 of season 2 called "Invaders". In fact it is a bit like Invaders mixed with Saw. The actors are great and bring depth to their characters even though the perform in a space as small as a one car garage. You can't wait to get to the end.
Extremely suspenseful with a CRAZY twist at the end!
cjones_iii20 July 2018
What an intense film! There were surprises and twists every ten minutes or so. It really kept you engaged and wondering what was going to happen next. It's the SAW of political satire. My favorite part was the game of chess. "Checkmate". LOL!
Great job by Eric Chapman and his team in creating a claustrophobic space that had many options and scenarios for danger. Extremely hard to pull that off and make it believable, so kudos to them! This was a wonderfully suspenseful and gritty film with an ending you won't see coming. Check it out!
Great job by Eric Chapman and his team in creating a claustrophobic space that had many options and scenarios for danger. Extremely hard to pull that off and make it believable, so kudos to them! This was a wonderfully suspenseful and gritty film with an ending you won't see coming. Check it out!
An Extended Twilight Zone Episode
tlg31718 February 2020
If you're a fan of indie flicks and the Twilight Zone, this is the movie for you! Great one location mystery/thriller/scifi piece that will keep you guessing. Great writing and great production value from an indie gem. If you need big names and superfluous CGI, go watch a Marvel film, but if you love good story and quality indie films, Kultur Shock! is for you!
A Bizarre & Engaging Bottle Film
JustinP8530 March 2019
A low budget film that takes place in a one room. That statement in itself is probably enough to turn many viewers away from any film, but what director Todd Osleger accomplishes as this mysterious story unfolds within a single small storage unit is quite impressive. When the film opens, you get a heavy Saw vibe, but that's a premature assessment. Kulture Shock! quickly takes a left turn down it's own bizarre path as these three captives seem to be locked in a makeshift classroom by their "teacher", a curiously German voice speaking through a creepy Uncle Sam doll. The unnamed characters have amnesia and are simply referred to by "Uncle" as the colors: Red, White, and Blue.
Something is clearly off and I found myself joyfully exploring the different possibilities in my head as the characters began trying to put the pieces back together through clues in the room. The dialogue between the fellow captives is at times so odd and dry, that I would burst out laughing as I rewound to make sense of them. The innocent, simple-minded Blue was my personal favorite. His sweet, deadpan delivery throughout the numerous non sequiturs he shared with the increasingly frustrated White were a lot of fun to watch.
This is an indie film through and through, which allows it the flexibility to lean harder into it's strange and minimalistic nature. It uses that to it's advantage with the cinematography and editing playing very well together to keep this small bottle movie engaging to the very end.
Something is clearly off and I found myself joyfully exploring the different possibilities in my head as the characters began trying to put the pieces back together through clues in the room. The dialogue between the fellow captives is at times so odd and dry, that I would burst out laughing as I rewound to make sense of them. The innocent, simple-minded Blue was my personal favorite. His sweet, deadpan delivery throughout the numerous non sequiturs he shared with the increasingly frustrated White were a lot of fun to watch.
This is an indie film through and through, which allows it the flexibility to lean harder into it's strange and minimalistic nature. It uses that to it's advantage with the cinematography and editing playing very well together to keep this small bottle movie engaging to the very end.
Cleaver, interesting indie feature!
helgocast20 February 2020
A thrilling experience !
priest-21-55690729 July 2019
The Most Puzzling Movie Ever Made
GrahamCrawford200521 January 2017
Still not quite sure what to make of this. I came across the DVD at a secondhand bookstore in the bargain bin. I like puzzles, and the tag-line "We want you to solve the puzzle" hooked me. I'm also a bit of a connoisseur of fringe micro-budget cinema of which this is surely an example.
It belongs to the emerging contained-story sub-genre popularized by movies like Cube, Exam, Devil, Buried and countless others. Three banged up prisoners who can't remember who they are or how they got there – a small windowless room vaguely resembling a retro grade-school classroom – are being brainwashed by an unseen tormentor who transmits its German-accented voice through a creepy looking Uncle Sam doll. Uncle Sam refers to them by the names Red, White and Blue. They try to escape but something outside wants to get in. Gee, think there is some subversive political commentary going on here that might be applicable to events of 2016? (Oddly, the movie was apparently completed in 2013.)
That's not the only thing that's weird about it. It doesn't fit into any genre. It pays homage to the German silent The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with expressionistic camera-work and, rather unnecessarily, an actual Caligari movie poster. The classroom scenes are reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's childlike Time Bandits absurdity. I detected nods to Twelve Angry Men, with rebellious Blue trying to win first White, then Red over to his initially unpopular point of view of overthrowing Uncle Sam. The evil doll angle calls to mind the Puppet Master series and of course Saw and even going back to Anthony Hopkins in Magic. There are obvious parallels with The Twilight Zone in terms of suspense, an overall eerie aura you can't quite put your finger on and the final twist. And finally, its cinematic grandfather is none other than Alfred Hitchcock's Rope.
It isn't as good as any of those films, of course, but just the fact that it suggests them on a tiny fraction of their budgets is an achievement.
The performances are uneven. One gets the sense it was filmed off and on over a long time and the actors had trouble remembering their proper emotional states. Though it can be argued that because the characters all suffer from some form of brain damage this works to the film's advantage. Maureen O'Malley is appropriately enigmatic as Red. She does a good job of making the audience wonder what she's thinking with her heavy-lidded Bette Davis eyes. (One wishes the writer, Eric Paul Chapman, gave her more to do.) The camera likes Terry McNavage as the weak-willed White – he looks a bit like Daniel Day Lewis – though the actor drifts in and out of the role. Eric Paul Chapman also plays Blue. It's an intense if erratic performance. He rises to the occasion in his most important confrontations with Uncle Sam. David Hundertmark's snide voicing of the doll is particularly memorable. An actor named Jerry Pietrala makes a surprise appearance and has good camera presence in a tricky role.
The taut music score and rich, saturated photography are strengths. The production design leaves a bit to be desired, and there are what I like to charitably call "low-budget moments" where the challenges of filming got the better of the producers, particularly in the realm of special effects. Pacing would have benefited from trimming five or ten minutes.
It's a real curio, quite unlike anything I've seen. The twist at the end stuck with me. I'm ashamed to say I was not able to solve the puzzle, but picked up some important clues I missed the first time around on a second viewing. I'd be curious to see what the filmmakers could do with a decent budget.
It belongs to the emerging contained-story sub-genre popularized by movies like Cube, Exam, Devil, Buried and countless others. Three banged up prisoners who can't remember who they are or how they got there – a small windowless room vaguely resembling a retro grade-school classroom – are being brainwashed by an unseen tormentor who transmits its German-accented voice through a creepy looking Uncle Sam doll. Uncle Sam refers to them by the names Red, White and Blue. They try to escape but something outside wants to get in. Gee, think there is some subversive political commentary going on here that might be applicable to events of 2016? (Oddly, the movie was apparently completed in 2013.)
That's not the only thing that's weird about it. It doesn't fit into any genre. It pays homage to the German silent The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with expressionistic camera-work and, rather unnecessarily, an actual Caligari movie poster. The classroom scenes are reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's childlike Time Bandits absurdity. I detected nods to Twelve Angry Men, with rebellious Blue trying to win first White, then Red over to his initially unpopular point of view of overthrowing Uncle Sam. The evil doll angle calls to mind the Puppet Master series and of course Saw and even going back to Anthony Hopkins in Magic. There are obvious parallels with The Twilight Zone in terms of suspense, an overall eerie aura you can't quite put your finger on and the final twist. And finally, its cinematic grandfather is none other than Alfred Hitchcock's Rope.
It isn't as good as any of those films, of course, but just the fact that it suggests them on a tiny fraction of their budgets is an achievement.
The performances are uneven. One gets the sense it was filmed off and on over a long time and the actors had trouble remembering their proper emotional states. Though it can be argued that because the characters all suffer from some form of brain damage this works to the film's advantage. Maureen O'Malley is appropriately enigmatic as Red. She does a good job of making the audience wonder what she's thinking with her heavy-lidded Bette Davis eyes. (One wishes the writer, Eric Paul Chapman, gave her more to do.) The camera likes Terry McNavage as the weak-willed White – he looks a bit like Daniel Day Lewis – though the actor drifts in and out of the role. Eric Paul Chapman also plays Blue. It's an intense if erratic performance. He rises to the occasion in his most important confrontations with Uncle Sam. David Hundertmark's snide voicing of the doll is particularly memorable. An actor named Jerry Pietrala makes a surprise appearance and has good camera presence in a tricky role.
The taut music score and rich, saturated photography are strengths. The production design leaves a bit to be desired, and there are what I like to charitably call "low-budget moments" where the challenges of filming got the better of the producers, particularly in the realm of special effects. Pacing would have benefited from trimming five or ten minutes.
It's a real curio, quite unlike anything I've seen. The twist at the end stuck with me. I'm ashamed to say I was not able to solve the puzzle, but picked up some important clues I missed the first time around on a second viewing. I'd be curious to see what the filmmakers could do with a decent budget.
I Salute "Uncle" Sam And Red, White, and Blue
angelina54131 March 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This psychological indie thriller can honestly not be compared to anything I've seen. It carries you into a futuristic world within which you are under the reign of "Uncle", an Uncle Sam wooden doll with an equally wooden German accent. His monotone speaking voice puts the characters and the audience on edge. Definitely check this film out if you like to watch groundbreaking indie films.
A true indie gem.
harriscalvin-14 March 2020
Kultur Shock was indeed a true indie gem. Director Todd Osleger did a fantatic job with his cast. An intriguing storyline that captivates the audience and will leave you guessing until the end. The actors did a good job. The music, camera work, and editing were all on point.
High production value and performances
SGarrett496122 December 2023
This is a very intriguing little scifi/thriller. I'm not 100% sure I understand everything presented in it, but the production value -- sets and camerawork/lighting -- are high. And the three actors, particularly. Eric Paul Chapman, were good. While there are hints of a political message about US policy in the movie, for me the creepy weirdness was the unknown/unstated. The Nazi/German overtones and circa 1939 props turn it into a completely different, surreal, frightening experience. For me, the notion of mind control and holding captives against their will is the terrifying part. Definitely worth watching.
Original, thought-provoking, engaging.
JCanni6813 April 2020
An original and fascinating concept, this film about 3 captives with memory loss confined in a small space is so much bigger than it's minimalist approach. The camerawork, editing and storytelling really keep you engrossed, where you too feel like a captive trying to unravel the mystery. Satisfying from start to finish, with a thoughtful, challenging message.
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