‘Pink Sock’ Review
Stars: Charles Pieper, Jessica Bailey | Written and Directed by Josh Schneider
Having reviewed movies online for over four years now, I often get asked to watch online shorts (at least 2 or 3 times a week), so many in fact that it usually takes something special for us to put fingers to keyboard and cobble together a review. Pink Sock is one such short. Recommended by indie filmmaker Nik Box (Brutal Jesus, Wrath of the Violent Vicar, She’s Dead) in one of his DVD updates on his YouTube channel, his brief discussion of the film was enough to peak my interest and make me visit the official site, PinkSockMovie.com – where the short is freely available to watch online.
With a brief five minute running time, the story of Pink Sock is simple. Yosef (Pieper) is a young man suffering from digestion problems. Unable to eat more than a couple of mouthfuls of food and rapidly losing weight, Yosef thinks he’s suffering from a case of extreme diarrhoea. However he comes to realise it may be more than just diarrhoea when he can’t get it up for his sexy tattooed girlfriend (Bailey) and has to rush off to the bathroom for one last time.
If I tell you that Pink Sock takes it’s name from the slang term for an rectal prolapse (check Urban Dictionary fact fans) then you should know exactly what to expect from writer/director Josh Schneider’s grim, yet incredibly hilarious short film. The films poster (pictured above) should also give you a clue as to what scatological delights await… Yes, this is toilet humour, but it’s toilet humour at it’s most horrific, it’s most disgusting and it’s most fantastic. Very similar in tone to Frank Henenlotter’s superb Brain Damage, Pink Sock is another story of a man invaded by a foreign object (oo-er), however unlike the all-singing, all dancing Elmer of Henenlotter’s fear flick, the anal invader of this film isn’t quite so “friendly”.
Let’s get it straight, this may be a short film with a topic that many write off as dirty and disgusting, but Schneider never feels the need to stoop to the lowest common denominator: there’s no stupid scatological frat-boy humour or self-referential in jokes (although the last line of the short is played for laughs) and at no time does it ever feel like the goofy subject matter is all the film has going for it. Schneider also directs the film with a frenetic pace that makes the films five minute running time feel more like two, and there’s not a wasted shot or a minute spent on anything that doesn’t advance the plot. Plus for an independent short it looks really good! Thankfully, despite a low budget, Pink Sock doesn’t rely on cheap CGI, instead we have practical effects – blood, guts and gore galore; and a great stop motion creature which features in the films conclusion.
Even with it’s scatological subject matter it’s easy for me to recommend Pink Sock – it packs more gore, girls and gross out gags into it’s short five minute running than many feature length flicks and it’s a perfect accompaniment to Frank Henenlotter’s Brain Damage. Which is high praise indeed.
Watch Pink Sock now on the film official website.
