Bad Acid
It is somewhere between tragic vanity and admirable determination that Sheila sleeps in her aerobics gear, clutching a heart-shaped mirror so the first thing she can do upon waking is gaze upon herself with self-affirming love before rising to start the day with her workout to the Aerobisexy Volume XIV video starring John Flexi, flanked by Stacy and Tracy.
A high-energy routine to firm, tone and burn calories, today it is Sheila’s mind which will be burned, unaware that while she was reviewing and deleting the barrage of messages from friends, broken-hearted exes and eager suitors that she knocked over a bottle of toxic hair care product, spilling into the can of carbonated sugar-free liquid which serves as her breakfast…
Composed of shocking yellows, oranges, pinks and lavenders across leotards, legwarmers, crop tops and big hair, Bad Acid is a tainted trip where self-affirming activities dissolve into disturbing nightmare, Sheila (Kate Hollowell) finding her mind distorted and digitised by the dayglo world of John, Stacy and Tracy (Branden Wilbarger, Caileigh Knapp and Willie Larson) and forced to dance along even as her body withdraws into coma.
A short film written and directed by Sam Fox, Bad Acid uses the television and iconic looks of the eighties to convey menace and terror, less Ringu than Dream Warriors as Sheila is actually pulled into the images, simultaneously trapped in the television and her mind, her life and the videotape unspooling and degrading into chaos.
Bad Acid will be available on the Arrow platform from Friday 12th April
