A man with OCD fears he'll be murdered if he doesn't do his rituals.
SIT WITH FEAR is used with permission from Jason Blackman. Learn more at / mrjasonblackman .
Adam is a man in throes of obsessive-compulsive disorder. He's in therapy, but even getting through the door to his own home is an ordeal, due to his rigidly ritualistic behavior. He fears that if he doesn't do his set of rituals, he will be murdered.
He contemplates stopping, allowing himself to be killed, and experiencing some relief and peace. But when he does, he confronts his darkest demons -- including one that seems all too real.
Written and directed by Jason Blackman, this short horror film has compelling insight into what it's like to have obsessive-compulsive disorder. It uses the expressionistic darkness of the horror genre, complete with moody visuals and jagged editing rhythms, to reflect Adam's psychological hinterland. And with thoughtful writing and performances, it achieves a marked degree of empathy and compassion for an often misunderstood condition.
The film begins with Adam consumed by his rituals, which torture him mentally and prevent him from living a normal life. As viewers, we understand how Adam's condition curtails his quality of living and his peace of mind. It even makes him late to his online therapy appointments because he can't get the key insertion into the door just right. The storytelling is deft and full of depth, using the vocabulary of horror -- jump scares, monsters, mutilated fingertips and the like -- not to drive forward a plot but delve deep into a character.
Actor George Basil -- often seen in comedic roles -- powerfully evokes the agony and meekness of someone governed by fear. His engaging performance gets at the tension of someone who has the self-awareness to know how his condition is damaging him, and yet he cannot change, despite that self-insight. This inability adds to his shame, amplifying his suffering. But when Adam finally stops, he encounters the darkest part of his psyche in a memorable conversation.
Resonant and unsettling in equal measure, SIT WITH FEAR takes its title from the therapeutic notion of "sitting with your fear," where we acknowledge what makes us scared and small, and learn to listen to that emotional input with equanimity. When Adam sits with his fear, he learns a lot about himself, as well as the nature of fear. He learns to extend compassion to it, and himself in the process. Of course, being a horror film, it's not a fully happy ending, especially in a genre where fear asserts its dominance in the human condition, reminding us that it's never truly gone.