Deadwax (2018) TV series | obiter dictum

Hannah Gross as Etta Pryce in Deadwax series. Source

Does the idea, or a story of an actual experience of a quest for a rare collectible item strike a chord in you? Especially if it’s got something to do with audio recordings? If the answer is yes then you have most likely already watched Shudder’s original series called Deadwax, a neo-noirish attempt by sound designer and composer Graham Reznick to convey the meaning of being a dedicated collector, a dedicated hunter for collectibles, a dedicated researcher and experimenter. That sounds like I’ve just described one and the same person using four nouns; a person that I think is indeed a realistically possible one, but had been split into numerous characters in Deadwax.

If you haven’t seen Deadwax yet then the surreal and eerie probably aren’t the first things that come to mind when thinking of your favorite films. Indeed, the series are demanding in this sense. Firstly, most of the time there are no more than two people in a single frame. Furthermore, close-ups had been used extensively. Which altogether is something that serves well to the CGI effects given that the core mystery in the series is related to how we experience the sound – the effects capture a sort of otherwordly experience of a human being. And, to add to the significance of minimalist yet, in my opinion, cogent effects here – it looks as if the combination of the frame technique, the effects and the average length of a single episode (16 minutes) had also allowed for meeting a B movie type of budget demands. Regardless of whether that had been a consideration at all on the part of series developers, it all works quite well: the mood is retained flawlessly throughout.

(Note: this review had been written before I've read anything about the creator of the series, therefore I had no idea what his influences, inspirations and circumstances for developing the series were.)

In Deadwax the depiction of otherwordly experience is quite different from that what can be seen in mid 80s screen adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's short story From Beyond with its tech-noirish resonator. From Beyond was one of the films that came to my mind when watching Deadwax because the series’ mystery regarding frequencies shares its idea with one of that story to a great extent. What is not part of Lovecraft’s ideas however is the mysteries of symbols and numbers. Here’s a simple test to see if you’d be able to appreciate all the ideas found within Deadwax: 5+4+3=12=? This, and, as Ted Raimi’s Ullman puts it, “scientific mumbo jumbo,” is where Deadwax differs from The Ninth Gate, which, also being an occult quest, deals with traditional, established, conservative, and comparatively easy to understand concepts, while Deadwax is an atheistic, and a scientific cookie. Both, Polanski and Jodorowsky may be last century, but the ideas they have worked with arguably had been there before them, and will be there long after they’re gone; concept-wise Deadwax has got a lot in common with the approach yet doesn’t seem to have ambitions of being anything beyond this day and age. The day and age here is underscored by references to things such as Havana Syndrome and dark industrial music, the latter even being given an occult meaning and power at one point.

Something else that came to my mind while watching Deadwax series was one of the John Carpenter's episodes for Masters of Horror series back in noughties called Cigarette Burns, and starring Norman Reedus before the latter went on to become The Walking Dead star. If you have seen the said Masters of Horror installment then I don't think you'd be surprised it getting mentioned here because, if there ever was a quest for a rare item done in horror genre that would stick in your mind, it was that one: as a quest for a collectible it was complete in every sense, in my opinion. The lead actor's work left me wondering why there weren't any more collaborations after that between him and the director. In Deadwax the lead role is played by Hannah Gross, and, I think, if there are things in common between Cigarette Burns and Deadwax (apart from the premise about collectible hunter on a quest), the fine work of apt lead actor/actress is amongst them.
Taking into account the above part about Cigarette Burns, I think it would be fair to look at it as something that could serve as a criterion for a quest well done. In this context then let's see where, I think, Deadwax is failing. In Cigarette Burns the item, which the lead character is after, affects the individual that goes after it even when there is no physical link to it formed whatsoever. Besides, the use of the symbolism of burns is a powerful tool that helps to achieve the sense of completeness there. In Deadwax however we sort of see how the collectibles meet the one who searches for them halfway at the beginning, finding their way to the seeker fairly easily, but what doesn't happen is the lead protagonist being changed by the quest as she closes in on solving the mystery. What helps though is the lead protagonist's partner in quest (played by Evan Gamble), who serves as one example of what happens if the puzzle, which the quest is all about, is solved in an incorrect way. So this way we at least see the change that the wrong choice brings about.
And then the use of symbolism. Symbols in Deadwax are used more as images without any particular meaning or power, as opposed to Cigarette Burns where we witness cues (serving as symbols) affecting the person, and consequently the matter around one. In Deadwax visual symbols are mere images that help to achieve certain mood of mystery and enigma, and nothing more than that.

A notable addition to the plot of Deadwax, in my opinion, had been Lily Child’s character, played by Yuki Sakamoto. There is a scene where she is in a room with two other people, one of which uses the mime technique. The color scheme for Lily Child is that of red and black. She acts as a translator for the character who doesn’t speak. The scene is so Lynchian, I don’t remember last time I saw something reminding me so much of surrealism in style of Twin Peaks that I’d be thinking, “this had been written by Lynch’s fan!” Moreover, Lily Child has got a story in the series, and her story is related to a certain, actually existing living organism, visually characterized by the same color scheme as mentioned above.

Deadwax offers, no doubt, an exciting quest, but left me wondering that, if the sound can be so powerful, are songbirds, being experts in melody, the real masterminds behind everything that is going on in the material universe? ;-)

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