Short of the Week: Watch one of the first-ever psychedelic films
Since its conception, the cinematic medium has utilised the power of images to construct various forms of reality that either complement or contradict ours. One of the greatest examples of this is the psychedelic genre which constantly subverts our understanding of the world by mimicking the mechanisms of psychoactive experiences.
Ranging from stoner comedies to acid westerns, the use of psychedelic imagery in cinema is a powerful narrative tool for filmmakers. Often associated with the surrealist movement, psychedelic films continue to be a major part of popular culture. Although many film fans point to Un Chien Andalou – the iconic 1929 collaboration between Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí – as the first example of psychedelic cinema, that’s not exactly the case.
For this edition of Short of the Week, we will highlight one of the first examples of psychedelic imagery in film history. Titled Dream of a Rarebit Fiend, this 1906 silent short was made by the pioneering director Edwin S. Porter for the Edison Company. It was intended to be an adaptation of the eponymous comic strip by Winsor McCay.
McCay’s comic strip depicted different characters who experienced dark and twisted dreams after feasting on a Welsh rarebit. Porter’s Dream of a Rarebit Fiend chronicles one such bizarre misadventure, following an obviously intoxicated man who dreams of devilish imps and flying across the city on his bed.
According to the oneiric theory of cinema, films share some fundamental similarities with the process of dreaming. Dream of a Rarebit Fiend is one of the earliest and greatest examples of this, constructing a vivid vision of a horrific nightmare by using highly innovative special effects and photographic illusions.
From the depiction of nightmares in horror films to the hallucinatory experiences captured by psychedelic cinema, all of it can probably be traced back to this small but highly influential short. Apart from its cinematic significance, it also does a pretty good job of convincing everyone that cheese on toast is just as dangerous as crack cocaine.
Watch the short below.
