I was teaching a class on horror cinema in the fall of 2020. A student asked me if I thought there would be a wave of pandemic/disease films. I responded that such a thing would be too on the nose. Instead, I projected films about isolation, being trapped, and especially being trapped with people from whom you could not escape. Horror would tell tales of not being able to leave your home, and the terror of seclusion and aloneness.  Lo and behold, I am proven right again, this time by writer/director Shem Bitterman who has crafted a portmanteau film harkening back to the early days of covid with Distant Tales. Four tales, all conducted over zoom, displaying the desire to connect, and how badly we can screw things up when we do.

The opening credit sequence is evocative, reminding one of the beginning of the covid lockdown – empty streets, houses silent, a suburb or city seemingly devoid of people but otherwise carrying on as normal. The absence of people from the shots was most effective. Credits done, the film cuts to its first narrative, “Touch.” Ben (Samuel Martin Lewis), who married to Julia (Alaska Jackson), carries on an emotional affair in the wee hours on zoom with Seraphina (Tiffany Wolff), whose girlfriend is Jo. The lovers practice mutual masturbation that ends when Jo walks in on Seraphina, who shuts down the camera as Ben (and the audience) hear Seraphina being beaten. When the camera comes back on, she is bruised and bloody. Julia also learns of the affair and attempts to contact Seraphina for the information Ben won’t provide. Their collective zoom meeting reveals the horror, beyond domestic violence, of what isolation has done to Serafina. The segment also offers an exploration of the once-common occurrence of what happens when the camera is off, but we don’t mute – less voyeurism than overhearing a private space within your space.  Like much of Distant Tales, the ideas are interesting, and the performers are game, but the piece never quite coalesces into something substantial or sublime. Was there a larger story here or a point to be made?

The same challenges are present in the second piece, “Please log on,” which narrates an ostensive job interview by Beth (Liz Fenning) and the mostly-unseen Mr. Manfred (writer/director Shem Bitterman) with Rohit, who goes by “Roy” (Rupak Ginn). A bit of grim absurdism at first, as Beth is aggressive and accusatory, but then confesses her loneliness.  Yet most of her conversation seems to be manipulative, perhaps she is gaslighting Roy, perhaps not. The piece is certainly evocative of the economic uncertainty, challenges of employment, and odd experience of work and home being the same place from the pandemic, but again,, never quite reaches the point. One standout moment occurs when Roy confesses he is in the bathroom of his family’s six-hundred square foot apartment where he is quarantining with his family. A reminder that for months privacy and work/life balance were impossible things.

The third segment, “Placebo” offers medical experiment supervisor Celine (Carolyn Michelle Smith) checking in with Ese (Amen Igbinosun), who is at turns flirtatious and guarded, clearly not all is what it seems, but both carry on in their roles in this experiment.

The final piece of Distant Tales, “R. Nought” tells the story of “Bunker Bob” (Christopher Curry) an extreme rightwing internet/podcast personality who believes America is being destroyed by enemies within and meets online with Cameron (Ben Bowen), a Navy vet whose wife killed herself and who has gone AWOL, attempting to persuade the grieving man to purchase an AR-15 and start a right wing revolution. The sequence title refers to the rate of infection, appropriate to both covid and extreme right wing activism.  As with the other pieces, it doesn’t quite stick the landing. The story seems like it wants to say something about how isolation makes it easier to recruit homegrown terrorists and “lone wolf” shooters, but it doesn’t quite work, or how grief opens us up to our worst possible selves, but again something seems missing and the twist/payoff at the end is anticlimactic at best. The performers are up to the task, although Cameron’s almost-radicalization seems both unmotivated and unearned (kudos to Curry for being so worthy of our anger and contempt – well done in the villain role).

Despite all that, Distant Tales is enjoyable. While it can be challenging to watch an entire film of people talking on zoom, especially since we have just lived through it, the individual stories are interesting enough.  It struck me that at this point, one might watch this for weird nostalgia purposes – “Hey, remember when we lived like this? Three years ago?” I don’t know if it’s too soon for that, but when you want it, Distant Tales is here.

6.5 out of 10