Doomscrolling
2025 · 10m · USA
Directed by Santi MacLean
Genres: animation, experimental
Tones: contemplative, dark, surreal
A young man spirals through a panic attack as financial stress, body anxiety, and romantic dread pile up. 3D animation and multimedia layering render the feed as the brain.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Finally, a panic-attack movie that doesn't dress itself in tasteful piano. MacLean lets the 3D avatar take the hit so we can watch the texture of nausea instead of another wet-eyed close-up.
Santi MacLean renders panic attack as Rafman-coded green-haired avatar with the feed soldered to the skull. The form is on the nose, but on the nose is the point and the craft sells it.
A 3D-animated avatar with bulging eyes and spaghetti-green hair talking himself through a panic attack — Santi MacLean's multimedia data-moshing approach turns the feed into the brain in a way conventional indie can't reach.
Reviews
captures the overwhelming influx of textures and feelings siphoned into a young person's feed, and mind, today.