GoregirlsDungeon This is one fractured little fairytale! More Grimm Brothers than Disney, it is a truly twisted tale that is definitely not for the kiddies. It is a live action feature with stop motion animation sequences scattered throughout. The characters, although actual actors almost seemed animated themselves. The way it was filmed gave me the impression I was a witness to someone's actual dream (or nightmare). The choice of cast could not have been better. The performances are excellent and even the secondary players are perfect in their roles. The wife is absolutely mad and the husband knows this but cannot quite bring himself to deal with it. He spends much of the picture ranting and raving at the lunacy of it all. The wacky couple are nicely complimented by a parade of strange supporting characters. Among them, a little girl obsessed with sex and babies and a pedophile senior citizen. The characters imagine seeing some truly bizarre images. The first scene is our husband looking down on a fishmonger from a gynecologists office window. Instead of taking fish from the tank he is scooping up babies in his net and wrapping them up in newspaper. And of course there is little Otik. He's a freaking tree stump. An ugly, crying gnarly tree stump. At one point the mother scolds her husband for not varnishing her son enough. There is a body count, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend this to hardcore horror fans. This is for anyone who tastes run towards the strange and unusual. I did feel that the film runs a little long and I would have liked to have seen more of the stop motion animation. The film isn't going to be for everyone as it is definitely odd. It is delightfully demented and at times even disturbing but absolutely entertaining. It is a feast for the eyes and an assault on the senses. Highly Recommended!

hasosch There are many forms of horror, and most of them are international. However, there is the special Horror of Czech children stories, and it is truly unique. Without doubt, Jan Svankmajer is its leading representative in film. Husserl wrote that for the constitution of consciousness with its transcendental creations, reality in the sense of real world is not necessary. Thus, the productions of a transcendental Ego are self-consistent, although they may be senseless. Analyse Otesanek under this perspective. Remember that Kafka wrote about Odradek: "The whole appears senseless, but it is in his genre complete". The problems for the family do not start because the husband finds a piece of wood that has remote similarity to a baby. The problem arises when his wife decides that this object is subject and because her will changes reality. Otesanek penetrates from his own ontological space into the ontological space of the family and their environment. Like Kafka's "Odradek", Otesanek has a name, a certain shape, a distinct behavior and lives in a certain place, but all that is by far insufficient to disclose the mysterious hybrid between object and subject that Otesanek is. When you watch the movie, notice that you never see a picture of Otesanek. You only see the images in the book of the little girl - but also be aware that, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image"!

Phil Carmody (FatPhil) Anti-spoiler warning: Do _not_ see the film's trailer, it spoils the film dreadfully. And this is one film which you don't want spoilt.This is a long film, in places utterly absorbing, in others quite shocking, in many places extremely funny, but alas rather predictable and a little repetitive too. On the whole quite a work of art. And oh so Czech too, which is nothing but a complement, in particular for the brilliantly executed and highly amusing animation of Otesánek.There are almost no weak roles, or weakly acted roles, and no matter how crazy people's actions or decisions might be, they all seem to be quite in character. In particular look for excellent performances from Veronika Zilková as the "mother" Bozena, struck with a terminal case of wannabe-breeder rabies. The change in the interplay between the young girl Alzbetka and the very old Mr. Zlabek is superbly done - both having their time as the creepy one, and both as the innocent one.This was going to get an extremely high score (and I tend to vote low on the whole), until the ending appeared, and went. I thought it cheapened the film slightly, but I still gave it a pretty good score nonetheless.

bonepilot My wife and I missed the beginning of the movie, and truthfully, the only reason she called me in to see it was so I could determine the language the characters were speaking. I figured it to be Czech, Yugoslavian, or some Eastern European country. I only knew it was NOT Russian.However, three minutes into the movie, I was hooked by the bizarre visuals, camera close-ups and acting ALONG with the language. It suddenly dawned on me that this was a strange, Czech Republic "black comedy", and since I was unfamiliar with Jan Svankmajer's works, I became absorbed by the story of a young couple who yearn to have a baby. In an attempt to lessen his wife's severe maternal needs, the husband provides her with a tree root that is shaped roughly like an infant. From there, I thought this was going to be a psychological treatise on the barren woman syndrome. How surprised I was to find out that she actually treats her "baby" as if it were human!At that point onward, I kept chuckling, laughing and cringing much the same way I did in "Little Shop of Horrors". I was kept on the edge of suspense, as the couple try to hide the "baby" from their apartment building neighbors. This becomes a complete disaster when it is discovered what a HUGE appetite the "baby" has, and leads to comic misunderstandings,and macabre ideas alike.The ending, which in my opinion was too long in coming,was fairly well anticipated... but a weird relief just the same.These actors were solid and likable, and the culture and living conditions of the "typical" Eastern European middle class were very interesting. With a little bit of horror, and a lot of laughs, "Little Otik" kept itself remarkably buoyant!