Well Deserved Praise

Too many fans seem to be blown away

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

A balding and bespectacled man (well played with quiet intensity by Richard O'Brien; Riff Raff in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show") feverishly concentrates on putting together an elaborate contraption in his dank basement for an extremely bleak and shocking reason. Writer/director Richard Dearden does a sterling job of creating and sustaining a tremendously suffocating claustrophobic atmosphere and a pervasively cold, clammy, and ultimately chilling tone which culminates in a startling surprise bummer ending that's capped off with a perfectly harsh and snippy lone closing line. O'Brien's excellent acting really holds this offbeat short together; he's totally riveting and convincing as he works on his gloomy project with a certain grim resolve and unwavering sense of steely determination. Starkly shot in a single cramped and confined setting, further enhanced by a terrific use of amplified sound effects (the constant dripping water is genuinely unnerving), and done mostly in tight close-ups with a strong mood of compelling ambiguity and a spare'n'spacey score, this supremely freaky gem packs one hell of a wickedly potent and unsettling wallop.

The Contraption tells the story of a man (Richard O'Brien) who, in a dark room of some description, is building some sort of contraption from wood & metal for a very disturbing purpose...Written, produced & directed James Dearden this is an odd 7 minute 34 second short (or maybe it's not a short, I mean how short does a short have to be to be called a short?) time filler which is almost indescribable. With only one line of dialogue in the entire thing for the first 4 minutes & 30 seconds The Contraption is just a montage of woodworking imagery as O'Brien drills, planes, screws, nails, hammers & builds whatever it is he's building. If that sounds like fun to you or you like DIY then The Contraption could just be the short your looking for otherwise I'm not really sure what the appeal of Tha Contraption is other than to discover what O'Brien is making, there really is nothing else to it until the bizarre ending which I won't spoil. At least it's short, it's certainly memorable & there's nothing wrong with it but I can't really see much right with it either.I don't know this is a strange one let me tell you, it'll pass 7 minutes & 34 seconds in a bizarre manner I suppose but I don't really know what to make of it. It's certainly watchable & something different, I'm not sure where on Earth you'd find a copy of it though.

I saw this long forgotten gem on the old late night cable show Night Flight, on US television back in the late 1970s. It played once or twice and that was the only place I ever saw it.Without spoiling it all I can say is it is well done. A gentleman retires to his basement workshop and continues on a project building an unknown object. His wife continually berates the man, unseen but heard from the top of the stairs all the while. In the end, he finds his escape in "The Contraption".Richard O'Brien was a hot commodity then as the Rocky Horror Picture Show was at perhaps it's peak here in the Midwest. Tim Curry went on to do a few albums and several more mainstream films like Clue here in the US. I owned a copy of his album Read My Lips. Susan Sarandon became quite big and Barry Bostwick made a name again with Spin City years later.If anyone out there knows where I can beg, borrow, buy or otherwise find a copy of this short, please e-mail me. McHenryProj@Yahoo.com should get to me.

This short film is one of my personal favorites to watch. It is well-shot, the atmosphere dingy and oppressive, and a natural tension builds as you watch "Man" (Richard "God" O'Brien) build his mysterious "Contraption". There is next to nothing to distract you, no dialogue, save a voice-over at the very end of the film, so you find yourself pulled into the world of the character for its duration.I'd recommend it to anyone, not only O'Brien fans, but to them of course, it is indeed a MUST.