The screaming of the cicadas, finally woken from their long sleep, is only broken by the aggressive tap-tap-tapping of the keyboard and the analogue hum of video cassettes.

A man records life going by on his CRT while painstakingly creating ASCII artwork of strangers. His life is his dog, a stray who wandered into his life and thankfully never left, and he is strangely haunted by Lynchian nightmares of his mother. He struggles to go outside, except to empty his bins and sit in the garden, and seems unable to accept that his helpful neighbour is leaving. His new game, for which the film is named after, promises to put him in the cyber world, but is, unfortunately, rubbish.

And… what the actual hell, he’s just been told to take off his skin?!?!

OBEX has a true indie vibe: it’s black and white, features a small cast, has intriguing camerawork (anything with the cicadas, particularly), and is absolutely Lynchian-ly insane. I know I’ve mentioned the Mulholland Drive director already, but that is the vibe.

Albert Birney, the director, writer, editor, producer, and star (as Conor Marsh), is generally pretty great – particularly when acting as a withdrawn 80s nerd, less so as a fantasy hero.

Callie Hernandez is good as Mary the human, though Mary the fantasy shopkeeper is a bit cliché, and I’d have liked Conor to have met Mary again in the real world, as her story feels a bit underdone.

Frank Mosley is great as Victor, the man with a TV for a head, particularly considering the TV is completely blank, so he’s having to do his performance without facial expressions.

Does it make any sense that he’s Conor’s father’s TV? No, but also absolutely.

Does it make sense that Conor sleeps, time jumps forward, Conor doesn’t age, but Victor uses that time to brute force the code to the castle? No, but also absolutely.

Do the rubber cicada suits and random appearance of Freddie Kreuger from Nightmare on Elm Street work? No, but… okay, just no for them.

The production design is solid, particularly the old-school TVs and tapes, the costumes were up and down (Victor is great, the real world is really good, but the monsters didn’t really work), and the effects work brilliantly as an 80s approximation of CGI (the demon Ixaroth is genuinely creepy). And the black and white feel like a conscious choice, rather than one of budget or ‘what else would we do’ – especially when showing the unappetizing food and Conor’s life.

I must admit, after the film, I fell asleep as I had a cat on my lap and it’d been a long week. Watching a film that feels like a dream and then falling asleep is an interesting experience, as I had absolutely no idea where I was when I woke up.

Overall, it’s the sort of film that I suspect will pop back into my head from time to time for a long time, and so the rating might go up in the future. Unfortunately, for now, there’s just not enough to it to go any higher – though I’d still recommend watching it, sometimes there’s nothing better than watching something that’s truly off the mainstream.

3 out of 5 stars.

And that’s all! Have you seen Obex? What do you think of the vibes? Let me know in the comments, and find the other adventures on DownUpJourney here. And be sure to check out my other writing here and more of my film reviews on Letterboxd!

A digital copy of the film was provided by the distributor.