I find “Pica Towers” to be more of an exercise in mood and visual aesthetics than story. That’s because I had a hard time following the story; I could only loosely connect a plot with characters, and there wasn’t a resolution. (It didn’t help that the website wasn’t very clear with labeling the movies).
From what I gather, squarelike and rectangle-like boxes (one reminded me of a toaster) are involved in a type of war. Through music cues, dark shadows and cliffhangers, the audience knows that this is a sinister place, and sinister things are going on. There’s killing – a knife in the back of one of box figures, “blood” strewn across the wall, and the character delivering the good news is stabbed in the opening of “The Good News.”
Other than the mood-inducing details, like the music, I was most struck by the cuts. I’ve watched all three shorts in Pica Towers several times, trying to understand the plot, but I’m left with the screams that permeate the characters’ walk down hallways, the opening shot of one of the mechanical boxed being wheeled away in the opening shot of “The Good News,” and most of all the timing of the cuts, as when the blind box is at the top of the stairs and leans forward. We know he is going to fall, but we don’t see it – we hear it in the next shot, see the camera shake, yet there’s no evidence that he did.
“Hounds of Flesh” follows the small toaster (or dog-box) running away from a big, blind box; he first steals his cane but leaves it behind as he enters the room from “The Good News.” Although there are flickering lights and screams, this is recognizable from the figure hanging in the air, the same one that opened “The Good News.”
The dog-box.
“Pizza Sangre” opens with a target on what turns out to be a little animated box driving a cute buggy. As he steps out to deliver the pizza, he is shot. The box shooting him is revealed during a pan up, and he is immediately reprimanded by another box-like figure, who takes away his gun. (Maybe they are reflections of animated, old-fashioned televisions, distorted, since they have knobs under their faces, which are like television screens.) Then there’s a pan back to the barren field below, where the little box-dog running away in “Hounds of Flesh” is revealed to be eating the pizza. So he has escaped…
I wondered if “pica” meant anything in the context of this movie. It’s a disorder characterized by eating inedible objects. I can’t quite connect the dots – the trilogy ends with one character eating pizza – so this could be the reverse of pica (if you went with the assumption that these characters cannot eat human food). However, “sangre” means “blood” in Spanish, and is the name of a planet ruled by cannibals in a science fiction novel by Norman Spinrad. Considering the amount of blood and violence, at least hinted at in the Pica Towers series, there is a connection – the character is essentially eating “pizza blood”. According to Wikipedia, Sangre the planet also has a population of “semi-intelligent insects,” which could be what these box-like characters are, since some of them have antennas.
Story-wise, it’s too confusing for me – I was only able to gain some semblance of plot with multiple viewings. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as multiple viewings often can be very pleasing and enrichment, enabling audiences to catch nuances they missed with one viewing. However, generally the first viewing is to follow the plot, with multiple viewings intended to showcase shades of character or other fine-grain details of plot, setting or character. I liked the cinematography, the details of the creatures, the lighting, shadows, music, and most of all cues, to heighten the suspense, even though I am still unsure of the story and everything associated with it. So mood-wise, the shorts work. “Pica Towers” is fitting for Halloween, since it’s dark and spooky, with strange creatures with strange eyes, yet enough recognizable symbols (like a cross on The Good Book) to not be totally alien. It was beautiful to view.