Outer Space (1999) User Reviews

in outer space no one can hear you scream...

[framptonhollis · 8/10 · 5 April 2017]

"Outer Space" is a film that definitely lives up to its title, for it really is out of this world. As a matter of fact, if I were to name any film I have ever seen that most closely resembles what space aliens likely consume for entertainment on a daily basis, I would easily pick this film. It takes found horror movie footage, and uses wild experimental techniques to further warp and distort the visuals on screen, creating one of the most chilling and atmospheric horror movies I have ever seen.

While not for every taste (or MOST tastes even), this film can easily be appreciated by those who have an interest in the more avant garde and dark sides of cinema.

A kaleidoscope film

[Rodrigo_Amaro · 8/10 · 29 March 2011]

"Outer Space" is a short film directed by Peter Tscherkassky and in it we sort of see a horror film about a woman played by Barbara Hershey (archive footage taken from one of her films) fighting a blurry celluloid. Or at least, that's my view of this film, she's trapped in a defectuous film reel present in the plot and that is basically the whole film.

The director impresses us with a unusual visual, a kaleidoscope of images and strange sounds where Hershey tries to do everything to get out. There are times when the images are so immersed in itself that creates a whole new cinematic experience, flashlights, the reel forms, noises and more noises, and for odd reasons it is a interesting thing. It doesn't make you bored but it also doesn't make you appalled; it's just a new thing and it's nice to watch it. It's unpretentious, but not that easy to follow or to feel really interested in it if you haven't seen different things in all types of films. In terms of horror it's not something to make you feel scared but it's made to get you confused, wondering what those hypnotic images are trying to say and trying to show.

Do you enjoy new cinematic forms, new experiences? Go for it, it's amazing and there's a great technical quality (and I'm not sounding ironic despite the affected film reel). 8/10

An abstract nightmare indeed

[AvionPrince16 · 6/10 · 15 May 2022]

I found the short pretty weird. And we just understand that a woman is making a nightmare and she tried to protect herself .the Visuals are pretty incomprehensive too .but i think they just put it like this to make us feel what the woman feel in her nightmare i guess. Pretty disturbing in my opinion but the editing let us watch until the end .Pretty weird no ?

Programming the Psychodrills

[chaos-rampant · 31 January 2009]

Peter Tscherkassky is an Austrian avant-garde filmmaker who works exclusively with found footage. All of his work is done with film and heavily edited in the darkroom, rather than relying on technological modes. This is his second short film in his Cinemascope trilogy, and it is a longer version of the previous entry, Le Arrivee, with all the skullf-ckery and aural destruction amplified tenfold. It starts off with a mystifying shot of a house bathed in stark noirish atmosphere pulsating and trembling as though with energy of its own, like something culled from a Robbe-Grillet film and pushed through a meat-grinder. A woman enters the house. The house soon transforms into a swirling hell, as though pulled and stretched into another dimension with time and space ripping apart in the seams. At some point we're looking at formless chaos, wave after wave of white noise washing over the screen, rolls of film tortured, an epileptic symphony of power electronics conjuring sheer cacodemony. It is a strange thing to behold, this nine minute short, definitely harsh and uninviting but worth a watch for the adventurous viewer.

Like fingernails being run across the brain.

[Polaris_DiB · 9/10 · 18 September 2006]

A woman goes home under auspicious lighting, a vague feeling of voyeurism begins to ignite, and then the film itself begins to attack, split imagery and broken soundtrack igniting into shimmering violent energy and strobe-light intoxication. It could mean that the act of filming itself is a rendering or ripping away of surface of characters, that the instance of "shooting" someone can rupture them. It could be a comment on the impending death of film, as film itself is torn and scraped and pieced back together, eventually reviving itself but losing track of what it once was. It could be an exploration of "space" where the significant dissonance between the spectator and the events (especially during the more flashy scenes) creates a huge disruption of the ability to be sucked in.

I don't know. What I do know is that this film is very uncomfortable and for a large part aggressive (something it promises to be, especially considering its placement in the "Experiments in Terror" DVD released by Other Cinema), and not something to be taken lightly.

--PolarisDiB

A worthy experiment into an alternative way of presenting horror

[cwhaskell · 7/10 · 18 April 2020]

Honestly, it was okay. Outer Space was just the right length but DO NOT WATCH IF YOU GET SEIZURES.

I thought it was cool the way Tscherkassky user editing techniques for all of his special effects and he gave us viewers a classic horror ending.

Not sure how this is rated a top 1,000 film of all time, but I would say that horror fans should definitely give it a chance. Outer Space, to me, is an experiment around presenting the typical 'there's someone in my house' horror film in a unique and very memorable way. And, it's only 10 mins long so even if you don't like it there's plenty of your day you can still get back.

Good Film.....?

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 24 April 2019]

Sometimes I think that those working in the avant-garde are laughing at us. I am very much open to experimental film and have watched hundreds over the years. What we have here is random film shot around the face of a woman played by Barbara Hershey. It was like watching a strobe light and succeeded in giving me a mild headache. After reading some material about it, I find there is a pretentiousness here that is hard to avoid.

Can't see any artistic value in here

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 23 March 2016]

"Outer Space" is a 10-minute black-and--white short film written and directed by Austrian filmmaker Peter Tscherkassky 17 years ago. It stars Barbara Hershey briefly after her Oscar nomination and she is the only actress in here. IMDb lists this as a horror film, but if it really is such, then I wasn't scared for a second watching this. It is extremely experimental and I must say I really disliked it. The light effects were almost painful to watch. There is not only no convincing story in here, there is pretty much no story at all. Watching this one makes me really surprised how many awards it won and it also motivates me to stay pretty far away from Tscherkassky's other works. There may be a reason why he never tried making full feature films, even if his short works got great recognition. I do not recommend "Outer Space". Not at all. This little movie also looks way older than it actually is.