Upstream Color

Just one glance and you know something is very wrong. A man is breeding maggots in compost. He forces a young woman to eat them. In a trice, the woman, Kris, falls into an apathetic state, as if drugged. Her torturer disappears, and a pig breeder arrives on the scene. The man, who is also a composer, undertakes a bizarre surgical transfer between Kris and a pig. Kris, who no longer knows who she is, succumbs to a crisis which comes to a head. By chance she meets Jeff. He has had the same experience. The life of this couple spins completely out of control until they track down the man responsible for their misery and Kris shoots him dead. It transpires that there are other victims of these disturbing experiments.
Cult director Shane Carruth’s long-awaited second outing is a brilliantly executed, dizzyingly fast-paced zombie-horror-thriller with borrowings from the drama and mystery genres. His surreal approach and thrilling cascades of images follow a narrative trajectory that is neither linear nor chronological but relies instead on a complex, intense atmosphere.