Midlands Review of The Existential Hotline
midlandsmovies • September 3, 2020
The Existential Hotline
Directed by Hendrik Harms
2020
Harms Way Studios and Wild Kate Pictures
The Existential Hotline is a new film produced as part of a series of isolation shorts created with the aim of raising money for the NHS. Directed by Hendrik Harms during Covid lockdown, the amusing short film uses an online video call to explore some very philosophical themes.
The film stars Ella-Rae Smith (The Stranger, Into the Badlands) who plays a sort of customer service psychiatrist who specialises in ethical conundrums.
With her floating head against a black background, visually she echoes Holly from Red Dwarf but her smiley customer service voice is comically placed against the scholarly language she uses. Exclaiming “Your dread is our reason to be”, she receives a call from Soren (Mathew Horne from Gavin & Stacey and Bad Education).
On his call to the existential hotline, he is greeted with a chirpy “What’s keeping you awake?” but his unclear and imprecise replies about Satan lead our advisor to suggest he needs to call ‘deity support’.
As the discussion moves to concerns about free will, outside threats and anti-vax theories, our friendly-voiced advisor once again suggest he can discuss this sort of topic as she signposts him to the conspiracy forum.
Created over Zoom, the actors recorded at home with editing and post-production being completed in Worcester by the filmmaker.
And the clever puns and plays on philosophical themes being explored by a call centre operative continue when Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones, Misfits) replaces her as a sullen advisor in the Nihilism department.
Fatalistic and self-referential questions about what the point of all this is are once again placed against in the context of an online help centre call. But whilst the clever script and witty wordplay amongst the discussions of morals, values and beliefs is a strange concoction, it’s also one that mostly works. Are we to believe that online support doesn’t work? That “automated” or pre-programmed responses can or can’t help? That individual and human crises can’t be resolved on a quick Zoom?
Well, it doesn’t provide the answers but does put these deep-thinking questions in a short and experimental dark comedy skit. And if that isn’t up your street then the humorous outtakes over the end credits may just fulfil your individual pursuit of happiness.
Michael Sales
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