Willem (Stephen Phillips) is sent to prison, for a (never fully explained) crime he claims he didn't commit, but on the way there, his transfer is stopped, his co-convicts (Aaron Walton, Nathan Barrow) are shot dead, and he's given an alternaternative by a man called Dalesky (Tristan Barr), who would subsequently become his handler: He'll be sat in an office and observe whoever it is who's in the next room through a one-way mirror and do a video journal about his observations. Once he's at his "office" though, he notices it's hardly any better than a prison cell, and even though the next room is empty he's forced to start his journal. Also, apart from Dalesky he sees nobody, and even Dalesky only stops by every few days to ask uncomfortably personal questions and electro-shocks Willem when he's not quick enough to answer, while evading all of Willem's questions. This drives Willem slightly nuts, especially since he's also shown his own home movies, movies that don't always show him as a perfect husband and father. Eventually, the subject of Willem's observation (Joey Lai) arrives, only whatever it is, it's not human but some kind of alien or demon or whatever. At first, Willem is almost happy about the diversion, and he experiences empathy with the creature, but soon everything gets under his skin a bit too much and he starts hallucinating. This is at the same time the home movies he's shown show him at his worst - and soon enough Willem can't tell anymore what's real and what's illusion ...

Subject sure is one unusual movie as despite the premise being sufficiently precise, most of the story is really left open to interpretation, especially in hindsight as the film clearly hints at alternative explanations for the on-screen goings-on quite, really depending on merely the point of view you're choosing to take. But a directorial effort that's both genre-savvy and has a feel for the grotesque, the surreal, the trippy. And a very strong performance by Stephen Phillips as pretty much the film's sole point of focus throughout really carries the film well to help make this into a pretty unique genre experience.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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