Under a Spell

In the frenetic landscape of early 1920s silent comedy, 'Under a Spell' emerges as a hallucinatory exploration of atavistic regression. The narrative centers on Neely, a man whose psyche is unceremoniously hijacked by a hypnotic suggestion, convincing him that he has transitioned across the evolutionary divide into a monkey. This psychological fracture serves as the catalyst for a breathless, vertical odyssey. Neely abandons the constraints of bipedal decorum to navigate the urban environment with simian agility, scaling structures that defy his natural constitution and engaging in a ballistic barrage of projectiles. The film is less a traditional story and more a kinetic study of a man liberated from the social contract, performing a frantic ballet of chaos across the rooftops and rafters of a world he no longer recognizes as human.