The Third Ear
2024 · 13m
Directed by Nathan Ginter
Genres: experimental, horror, thriller
A middle-aged janitor moonlighting as a nude drawing model becomes fixated on a drawing that depicts a third ear sprouting from the back of his head — and then it actually grows. An understated body-horror thriller about self-image with a genuinely disturbing central metaphor.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Someone drew an extra ear on him and now he has an extra ear. The horror is that simple and that perfect.
Nathan Ginter's nude-drawing-model-grows-an-extra-ear is a Kafka conceit handled with what sounds like genuine restraint — understated body-horror is harder than the loud kind.
An art-class sketch manifesting physically on the subject's body — Cronenbergian body horror shrunk down to a janitor's insecurity is exactly the right scale for the metaphor, and the figure-drawing-class setup is genuinely clever.