Awesome Surreal

Could you use a vacation? Perhaps a trip to Convergence Station is in order. But when we say “a trip” we mean, like on acid. Andreas Nilsson’s short starts out as a retro travel promo but quickly descends into madness as its true destination is revealed. All aboard!

We’re no strangers to weird internet videos and short films. In this video essay from Now You See It, they explore the visual splendor and surprising depth that comes along with bizarre classics like Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, Don Hertzfeldt’s Rejected, and the ubiquitous Oogachaka Baby.

If Valdimar Jóhannsson’s movie Lamb lives up to its intense trailer, it looks like it’s gonna be one wild ride. It follows the story of a childless couple in Iceland who adopt a newborn lamb on their farm, but after they start treating the animal as a member of the family, it may just end up ripping them apart.

In 1996, photographer Charles O’Rear snapped a photo that would appear on over a billion desktops thanks to its selection as the default Windows XP wallpaper. Animator Zachary Loren Jones revisits the story of this iconic image and its impact on the zeitgeist with an imaginative and surreal retrospective.

Visual effects artist RubenFro creates imaginative 3D worlds. He starts by capturing a point cloud matrix of locales using 360º cameras, then manipulates and renders the dots using a custom shader in Unity, resulting in incredible, ethereal imagery. This footage was captured in the streets of Hanoi, Vietnam.

In the midst of the COVID-19 shutdown, filmmaker Dan Denegre of Space Race Studio headed to the streets of San Francisco with his drone. There, he captured this surreal and disquieting footage of the normally bustling city all but shuttered. Similarly haunting footage is popping up all around the world.

A homeowner decided to use BriefCam’s Rapid Recap tech in his FLIR FX security camera to capture all of the activity that took place one morning in his front yard. The tech superimposes time-lapse images on a static background, providing a quick glimpse at a day’s activities, and some awesomely surreal video footage.

(PG-13: Language) Writer/director Stephan Zlotescu and cinematographer H1 teamed up to create this short film that envisions an insane future in which our obsession with commercial goods has driven corporations to genetically engineer real-world versions of their mascots.

A hilariously weird, darkly comic short film about two soccer moms living in a surreal world where superficiality and nonchalance lead to some very strange outcomes indeed. From the warped minds of Upright Citizens Brigade alums Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe.

This surreal puzzle game takes players on a fantastic voyage through the human body, as realized through imagery inspired by artist and science writer Fritz Kahn. The game envisions the inner workings of the body as a 1920s factory. Available on iOS and Android now.

Director Murat Sayginer’s abstract, purple-hued animation is filled with imagery so bold and surreal, that it could do double duty as the title sequence for a Netflix or HBO drama.

Animator Felix Cosgrave’s latest short took him over 2 years to create, but the result was well worth the wait, as he transports us to a weird and wild universe where strange characters take turns trying to steal the crown of a surreal kingdom. What the heck did we just watch?

Before thrilling us with his sci-fi movies Timecrimes and Extraterrestrial, writer and director Nacho Vigalondo showed off his mastery at combining the mundane and the surreal in this short film that elevates what would otherwise be a cheesy rom com scene.

Barcelona-based art direction collaborative Dvein have used their talents to create a surreal and stunning animated liquid landscape for Magma, the new single from The Vein.

Laurent Chehere’s Flying Houses photo series is a surreal collection of buildings, shelters, and homes which have been miraculously “removed” from their original locations and perched floating in the sky.

There’s just something so surreal about abandoned amusement parks, and this defunct park in Berlin might be our favorite yet, with its fallen dinosaurs and creepy mustachioed car.