Dog in the Woods
2022 · 10m · USA
Directed by Christian Chapman, Paul Jason Hoffman
Genres: adventure, experimental, fantasy
A house dog slips its leash at night and wanders into the woods, drawn deeper by mystical plants, a strange cave, and visions the humans never see. The whole thing is told from the dog's POV.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A dog POV psychedelic woods movie is exactly the kind of premise that should not work — which is precisely why I'm putting it in the vault.
First-person canine psychedelia is a gimmick that could collapse instantly — Chapman and Hoffman somehow keep faith with it. Apichatpong's animal cosmologies invoked credibly, which is high praise for a short.
A psychedelic woods trip filmed entirely from a dog's POV is a real formal commitment, and the VFX-as-canine-perception choice is the kind of swing I want to see at this length.
Reviews
A dark and trippy adventure straying from the safe confines of domesticity for the wild woods, told from the perspective of the dog.