FILM

The Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation

at the Coolidge Corner Theatre

through October 17

The Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, playing through next weekend at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, doesn't have something for everyone, but it does offer a lot for the strong of stomach and open of mind.

Admittedly, these animated films are disgusting, revolting, repulsive and on the whole thoroughly offensive. The key to enjoying them is to acknowledge that they are disgusting, revolting, repulsive and offensive, and then employ the magic words: SO WHAT?

Forget P.C., women's rights, children's rights, animals' rights--and while you're at it, forget your inhibitions and anything your mother tried to teach you about the Rules of Common Decency. The Sick and Twisted Festival takes you back to a time when anything goes, vulgarity is funny and it's okay to laugh at farts.

These short animated films represent the unleashing of some of the most creative and demented imaginations in the animation industry. The styles and subject matter are incredibly diverse, ranging from the mindless idiocy of Frog Baseball (starring the beloved "Beavis" and "Butthead") to the explicit sexuality of Pink Komkommer to the unbridled violence of Mutilator II: The Underworld.

The 24 films in the festival are remarkable because of the absolute freedom their creators were able to exercise. Without having to worry about ratings guidelines or putting out a theater-quality feature-length animation, these artists are able to bring the deepest, darkest, sickest, most twisted sides of their natures to light.

The end result is a mixture of fantasy, tongue-in-cheek humor and unabashed glorification of the obscene. As the notice at the box office window proclaims, this is not "family values entertainment."

Some of the highlights of the festival include Sittin' Pretty, about a babysitter who kills the baby and bakes him in a pie; Bulimiator, in which Arnold meets anorexia; Dogpile, about--well, the title is self-explanatory, and the eye-catching T-shirts are everywhere; and Deep Sympathy, the grand finale, featuring murder, necrophilia, maggots and mutilation.

Of all the films shown, Deep Sympathy teetered the most precariously on the fine line between appalling but funny and just appalling, but it performed this balancing act remarkably well. (Some, like the couple who walked out in a huff two minutes into Sympathy, might disagree).

The majority of the audience seemed to enjoy the two-hour show, judging from the applause, whistles and catcalls that erupted at each fresh obscenity or joke. And although during intermission the emcee encouraged those too disturbed by Sick and Twisted to instead go check out the 3-D porno flick upstairs, almost everyone stayed downstairs to cheer on one of the wildest, wackiest, most creative, hilarious, and, don't forget, sick and twisted shows in town.