The trilogy, Pica Towers can be summed up as mesmerizing. The different components used by Craste and Studio AKA to create mood, tone, aesthetic and narrative all work together to lure the viewer into the dark and captivating moments of the three short films.
The attention to detail is incredible. The unnerving sound affects are enough to create the mood on their own. Yet, the sound paired with the disorienting shots, varying camera angles, and sinister lighting all work to provide the films with their desired tone. The majority of the light is being emitted straight from the faces of the cute little robot characters. The aesthetic of the characters also contributes to the viewer’s feeling that something is not right. One typically does not associate animation in general paired with the adorable nature of these little robotic television nuggets to overarching concepts of danger, evil, etc.
There are elements of each short that appealed to me, but I feel that the sound elements were the most effective. From the blind robot scraping his walking stick back and forth across a hard stone floor in Hounds of Flesh to the eerie, twangy, country music in Pizza Sangre, the auditory elements wrangled me into the dark stories and certainly held my attention throughout their duration.
I really enjoyed these. First of all, I love elements of horror in film AND it was so appropriately close to Halloween (I see what you did there, Phil)…but really, these films are awesome examples of how to create narrative elements and a successful tone in a very short amount of time. I loved watching them.