Five-Legged Iguana

SUBLIME
(Review)

George Grieves (Tom Cavanagh, TV’s Ed) is turning 40 and the day after his birthday, he’s scheduled for a routine colonoscopy, but when he regains consciousness following the procedure, it’s clear that something terribly wrong has happened.
Trapped in the bizarre world that is the Mt. Abaddon hospital, alternately cared for and intimidated by the staff, suspicious of his Iranian doctor (Cas Anvar) and his wife Jenny (Kathleen York), George is confronted by the fears that inhabit his mind, fears which gain a terrifying life of their own as they prey on the helpless, bedridden man.

Directed by Tony Krantz (executive producer on 24 and Felicity) from a script written by Emmy Award winner Erik Jendresen (HBO’s Band of Brothers), Sublime is a horror movie, though not the sort that revels in maiming and mutilation (though there is some of that which goes on in the halls and rooms of Mt. Abaddon).
Instead, the horror of Sublime is in the helplessness of the convalescent, in the fear of medical procedures and being at the mercy of complete strangers. It is also about the fear of the husband and the father, of being abandoned and betrayed by one’s spouse and of no longer being needed by one’s children (an abandonment and a betrayal of a different sort).

These are very real fears on display in Sublime, the stuff of a decidedly atypical horror movie that plays like a disturbing, protracted nightmare.
As such, the viewing experience is a rather uncomfortable one and isn’t what one would call “entertaining.” There are serious matters to be taken into consideration while watching Sublime, lines of thought that should extend into the viewer’s life after the end credits have rolled.
Fear is a consumptive torturer, and though we try not to be dominated by our fears, they are ubiquitous, breeding voraciously in a culture and society that seems fueled by phobia. We live, after all, in the post-9/11 age of terror, where anything is suspect and no one can be trusted, where fear can have a very valid foundation, though not necessarily the one we considered.
Worse still, there are some fears that we are not even aware of on a conscious level, deep-seated terrors ingrained in us by our upbringing, or that we have assimilated from our environment.
Sublime is a film which shows quite decisively, that constantly living in fear is never a good thing. To have scares in certain doses is perhaps healthy, if only to keep us from getting complacent. But to be immersed in fear, to have it rule one’s life, to have it become our own personal Hell, that is what Sublime warns us against.

As I mentioned above, this is an atypical horror movie, so I’m sure this won’t be to everyone’s tastes. To those of you though who have an open mind when it comes to your horror, Sublime is something worth checking out.

Parting shot: Though the Jacob’s Ladder comparison is inevitable (and Sublime suffers terribly in comparison), try not to hold it against Krantz and company.

Parting shot 2: Since Kathleen York is part of the cast, it comes as no surprise that songs by Bird York are featured in Sublime. None though, are as potent and haunting as Crash’s “In The Deep” (which really should have won the Best Original Song Oscar).

(Sublime DVD cover art courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)