The Tunnel: Interview with a Monster
2023 · 23m · USA
Directed by David Llauger Meiselman
Genres: comedy, horror, thriller
Tones: absurdist, dark, darkly comic
Two government agents interview convicted serial killer Dr. Larry Levin at a black-ops rendition site, where chupacabras crash the session.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A serial killer interrogation that casually invites cryptids into the room — it's the kind of premise that makes you laugh because the film knows exactly how stupid it is and commits anyway, which is the only way this actually works.
The tonal architecture here is tricky: balancing procedural interrogation formality with absurdist intrusion requires disciplined editing and performance restraint, but the film seems more interested in the joke landing than in the formal rigor that would elevate it.
The decision to play the chupacabra interruption completely straight — letting the agents react with bureaucratic irritation rather than shock — is what sells the whole thing, and that single tonal choice does more heavy lifting than the budget had any right to ask.